By Anthony Slater, Will Guillory, Josh Robbins, John Hollinger and Alex Andrejev
The Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic are through to the first round of the NBA playoffs, while the Memphis Grizzlies and Atlanta Hawks have one more shot at advancing after Tuesday’s Play-In Tournament games.
In a close nightcap, Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry and the Warriors held off the Memphis Grizzlies 121-116, securing the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first-round game against the No. 2 Houston Rockets. The Grizzlies — who were briefly without star guard Ja Morant due to an apparent ankle injury — play the winner of Wednesday’s Dallas Mavericks-Sacramento Kings contest on Friday. The winner of that game earns the West’s No. 8 seed and a first-round meeting with the No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder.
Earlier Tuesday, the Magic took down the Hawks 120-95, locking up the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and a first-round date with the No. 2 Boston Celtics. Atlanta will face the winner of Wednesday’s Play-In game between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls on Friday, with the winner clinching the No. 8 seed in the East and facing the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.
Warriors 121, Grizzlies 116
Golden State needed Play-In Jimmy
A few weeks ago, after another low-usage offensive night, Jimmy Butler reminded those calling for more aggression: “When it’s my time, you’ll know it’s my time.”
Butler’s message was a simple one for those who have followed his career. When the stakes rise, so does his scoring force. In a two-night pre-playoff sample, he has delivered on his word.
In Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers for the sixth seed, Butler put up his first 30-point game as a Warrior. In Tuesday night’s playoff-clinching win over the Grizzlies for the seventh seed, he followed it up with 38 points on this shooting line: 12-of-20 shooting, 12-of-18 from the line.
If the Warriors lost, they would’ve been pushed to the brink of elimination Friday night with a first-round matchup with the Thunder awaiting even if they’d survived. They’ll instead get four days of rest and a more appealing first-round matchup against the Rockets, thanks in large part to Butler.
BAY AREA… MEET PLAY-IN JIMMY.
🔥 38 points🔥 7 rebounds🔥 6 assists
🔥 3 steals@JimmyButler‘s highest-scoring game as a Warrior powers his team in the #SoFiPlayIn! pic.twitter.com/sAM0anEHjG
— NBA (@NBA) April 16, 2025
When the Warriors swung the trade for Butler in February, this was what they envisioned. Curry had been drowning offensively without a second scorer next to him. Butler arrived, turned around their season and delivered them to this moment, where he and Curry co-authored the two-man scoring night they needed to edge past the Grizzlies.
Butler scored 38 on an array of power drives to the rim against a Memphis defense that let him have space in hopes of containing Curry, who was relatively quiet for a while before exploding down the stretch. Curry finished with 37 points, making six 3s and all 13 of his free throws, including four to ice the game in the final 10 seconds.
Now it’s onto Houston and a young, long, physical, chirpy Rockets team. Game 1 is on Sunday. — Anthony Slater, Warriors senior writer
Memphis fights back, then falls short
So much went wrong for the Grizzlies in Tuesday night’s Play-In Tournament game. Morant’s ankle injury in the second half. Butler’s 38-point explosion. Curry’s massive back-to-back 3-pointers with a minute left in the fourth quarter.
Yet, the Grizzlies, with all their flaws and a hellacious late-season slump hanging over their heads, still had a chance to tie the game with 5.4 seconds remaining. However, Memphis was called for a 5-second violation on the biggest possession of the evening. They didn’t even get a chance to take a potential tying shot in the final moments.
The Grizzlies showed tremendous fight and some ingenuity despite matchup problems that gave them nightmares all night. But it wasn’t enough. Curry and Butler combined for 75 points in perhaps their greatest performance to date as a tandem. Morant came back in the second half while fighting through an obvious limp. His absence in the biggest moments of the game snatched the Grizzlies’ chances of pulling off a 20-point comeback.
Once again, the Grizzlies put up a good fight against a playoff team, but their failures on defense held them back from getting the win they desperately needed. Now, Memphis looks ahead to a game at home against the winner of Dallas and Sacramento. A loss would officially bring the Grizzlies’ season to an end in one of the more epic late-season collapses we’ve seen in quite some time. — Will Guillory, NBA staff writer
Ja Morant on his status ahead of Friday’s do-or-die game:
“I’m playing. That’s basically the answer I’m giving. It ain’t nothing different.”
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) April 16, 2025
Magic 120, Hawks 95
Defense gives Orlando edge
This is what the Magic’s front office had in mind when it constructed its team: a defensive-oriented group stacked with tall, rangy players who wouldn’t need outstanding shooting to win most regular-season games.
After struggling with its shooting most of the game, Orlando finished the East’s opening Play-In matchup 11-of-39 from 3-point range — and still won.
Shooting 28 percent from deep won’t be good enough on most playoff nights, especially against a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, but it was good enough Tuesday, in the prelude to the playoffs.
At halftime, Orlando led 61-47 — a 14-point margin — even though its players had made only five of their 20 3-point attempts. If that isn’t a quintessential example of winning a rock fight, then I don’t know what is.
The Hawks weren’t sharp, no question, and they’re going to regret not converting some of their easy opportunities. But the Magic made some of their luck with tough defensive plays from the likes of Jonathan Isaac, Anthony Black and Wendell Carter Jr., who caused havoc with their height and long arms, contesting shots that, against many teams, would’ve gone in. — Josh Robbins, senior NBA writer
Jonathan Isaac with the putback 😤
fourth quarter otw pic.twitter.com/Wy4QIcMf8C
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) April 16, 2025
Magic need more 3s for a chance against Celtics
So now the Magic will prepare to face the defending champion Boston Celtics in the first round. Saying that it’ll be a difficult matchup for Orlando is stating the obvious. Against the Celtics, the formula of winning a rock fight won’t be good enough. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are much too skilled for Orlando to win more than one game in the series without shooting far better from deep than they did Tuesday.
The Celtics finished the regular season with the league’s second-ranked offense, propelled by a league-best 17.8 3-point makes per game.
The Magic? They finished last in 3-point shooting percentage, making a league-worst 11.2 treys per game.
Case-in-point: With Orlando ahead 70-62 midway through the third quarter but Atlanta making a steady run, Atlanta’s Zaccharie Risacher drove baseline where he was met by Franz Wagner, who made a textbook verticality challenge. Risacher missed from 5 feet, and Wagner collected the defensive rebound. Twelve seconds later, the Magic generated a wide-open 3 for Cory Joseph, who was all alone in the left corner. Joseph missed that shot, and after that misfire, the Magic were shooting 6-for-26 from 3.
That kind of anemic long-range shooting won’t cut it in a playoff series against the Celtics — no matter how elite the Magic’s defense is. — Robbins
Stale shooting night sinks Hawks
Well, it was closer than the final score. The Hawks fell behind by 22 points in the first half, pulled within three late in the third quarter, and then were blitzed again in the fourth by a 35-14 Magic run.
Nobody can claim this was a big surprise. The Hawks are what they are at this point, with a lack of secondary shot creators to help Trae Young, limited 3-point shooting (just 4-of-21 on the night), and an easily bullied frontcourt. Even with second-year pro Mo Gueye — who was wallowing in the G League at midseason — performing gamely as an emergency starter, injuries to Jalen Johnson, Larry Nance Jr. and Clint Capela have left the Hawks short-handed.
As usual, the Hawks leaned heavily on Young, who was on pace to play 44 minutes before his ejection late in the fourth quarter; he finished with 28 points on 8-of-21 shooting. However, he also finished with just six assists after leading the league in the regular season. In a related story, the Hawks failed to generate their usual surfeit of paint and transition points to offset their shooting woes.
On Friday, they need to be at least good enough to beat the Miami-Chicago winner or their season will be over; a win gets them a reunion with De’Andre Hunter in a first-round series against Cleveland. — John Hollinger, senior NBA writer
(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
