Lakeland Magic win first NBA G League title in dominating fashion

Throughout the season, the Magic performed like one of the best in the G League and now, the team can call themselves champions.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Throughout the season, the Lakeland Magic performed like one of the best teams in the NBA G League and now, the group can call themselves champions.

Devin Cannady produced 22 points and six rebounds, Jon Teske had 12 points and three assists and Tahjere McCall scored 11 points to lead the Magic to a 97-78 win over the Delaware Blue Coats in the 2021 NBA G League Finals.

Cannady was named the 2021 NBA G League Finals MVP.

“The MVP trophy, I’ve said multiple times, is a team trophy,” Cannady said. “The past eight games someone different has stepped up every night. My goal has always been to be a team player on offense, be selfless on defense. I think that has been one thing that has attributed to our success. Winning the championship was the primary goal for us.”

Winning the championship may not have seemed realistic for the Magic coming into the season.

Unlike other teams, the Magic arrived without any star players on their roster, and few players on NBA assignment. The group was unsure how successful they could ultimately be, but each player on the roster bought into the plan and put in the work.

Lakeland entered the single-elimination eight-team playoffs as the No. 6 seed and opened up the competition with a resounding 139-110 win over the Erie BayHawks in the first round. Then, on Tuesday, the Magic beat the Santa Cruz Warriors to advance to the NBA G League Finals.

The group boasted the best defense in the league while placing inside of the top-five in several other statistical categories, including points per game, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. They got hot at the right time, and never let up on the competition.

“It was tremendous,” Cannady said. “We put a lot of time in, made some sacrifices. The G League did a tremendous job putting this single-site together. It means a lot to have success here in the bubble.”

With conditions uncertain, the NBA G League opted to hold a 135-game schedule with 18 teams. They each arrived at the end of January to begin preparations for the season and were held to strict health and safety guidelines throughout their stay.

Much like the conditions that NBA players went through when the league finished the 2019-20 season at the Wide World of Sports Complex, team personnel, players and others involved in the process went through a grueling six-week stay that may have gone unnoticed.

“I think, sometimes, you look at the game itself and the games we’re playing, and you see the physical part of it but there is a mental toll to this, too,” Magic head coach Stan Heath said. “You’ve gotta take your hats off to the players and everyone that has been in here. To be in here six weeks and literally not see your family, and it is a great setup don’t get me wrong, but you still don’t have that ability to do the things you’re used to doing. There is a mental toll and a grind that we all had to go through.”

With the G League season now complete, the Magic can celebrate knowing the sacrifice was well worth the trouble of the season and the team was able to do so just up the road from their home base, some 40 miles east of Lakeland.

The group was even able to celebrate with some supporters in attendance.

“We had so many people from the Orlando Magic that came to watch different games from the front office to ownership,” Heath said. “I don’t know if we have homecourt advantage but it sure felt like we had a little bit of an edge in terms of the support we were getting on a daily basis.”

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