Knicks vs. Magic: The Rivalry You Forgot About

Quick answer: The Knicks and Magic have played 138 regular-season games since Orlando joined the NBA in 1989, and the Magic lead 70-68. They've never met in the playoffs. The Knicks have won the last two, including a 132-120 NBA Cup semifinal last December, and they host Orlando tonight at the Garden (6:00 PM CT) with both teams sitting at 0-2.

Key stats

• All-time regular season: Magic 70, Knicks 68 (138 games). Knicks are 37-32 at home, 31-38 on the road.
• Playoff meetings: none, ever.
• Longest Knicks streak: 8 straight wins, from March 28, 2012 to December 23, 2013.
• Biggest Knicks win: 121-83 at home on December 6, 2013, a 38-point margin.
• Last meeting: Knicks 132, Magic 120 on December 13, 2025, in the NBA Cup East semifinal in Las Vegas. Brunson had 40 on 16-of-27, Cat had 29 on 9-of-11, OG had 24.

Why it never felt like a rivalry

I'll be honest: after the last few playoff runs, when you say "rival," Orlando isn't the first name that comes out of my mouth. It's Indiana, Miami, Chicago, Boston. The reason is simple. Rivalries get built in May, and the Knicks and Magic have never once shared a playoff series. Not in the Ewing years, not in the Dwight years, not last spring.

But look at that ledger. 70-68. Two games apart after 37 seasons. That's not a footnote. That's two teams that keep landing in each other's way and never get the stage to settle it.

The crossovers: Ewing's last stop, Penny's late chapter

Here's the part I forget until I look it up. The two franchises are tangled together through some of the biggest names either one ever had.

Patrick Ewing, the No. 1 pick in 1985 and the face of the franchise for 15 seasons, was traded to Seattle in September 2000. In July 2001 he signed with Orlando as a free agent, played 65 games at 6.0 points a night in 2001-02, and retired as a member of the Magic in September 2002. The Knicks' all-time leading scorer finished his career in a Magic uniform. Still weird to type.

It went the other way too. Penny Hardaway, a two-time All-NBA First Teamer in Orlando in the mid-'90s, landed in New York on January 5, 2004, in the Stephon Marbury trade with Phoenix. Then on February 22, 2006, the Knicks sent Penny and a young Trevor Ariza back to Orlando for Steve Francis. Penny was waived two days later. That's the mid-2000s Knicks in one transaction log, and I'd rather not relive the rest.

The good stretch: 2012 to 2013

The best run the Knicks ever had against Orlando came in the Melo era. Eight straight wins, a 4-0 sweep in 2012-13, and that 121-83 blowout at the Garden in December 2013. On the flip side, the Magic swept the Knicks 3-0 in 2009-10. This series has always swung with whichever team was up at the time.

Last December: the closest thing to a playoff game

The Cup semifinal is the game I keep thinking about, because it was the closest these two have come to a real postseason fight. The AP recap said it had a playoff feel, with 11 lead changes and 10 ties before New York pulled away late in the third.

Here's what jumps out at me through my own lens. The Knicks shot 60.7% (51-of-84) and outscored Orlando 70-62 in the paint, but went just 7-of-20 from three. That's a paint win, not a balanced one, and they got away with it because Brunson and Cat were nearly perfect inside. Cat went 9-of-11 and still stepped out for two threes, which is exactly why I love the five-out look with him at the five. And the wings showed up: OG went 8-of-13 for 24 and Bridges went 7-of-13 for 16.

What it means tonight

Both teams are 0-2. Posting and Toasting notes the Knicks are the first defending champ to start 0-2 since the 2011-12 Mavericks, which stings. ESPN's injury report has Paolo Banchero (ankle) and Jonathan Isaac (knee) out for Orlando, Anthony Black questionable, and Jose Alvarado questionable for us.

Without Banchero, the Magic lose the 24.5 points a game he's averaging so far, plus a big piece of their size up front. That should open the paint again. But I don't want another lopsided win. I want Bridges, who's 2-of-16 so far, to find the stroke so this offense has both halves working: Cat stretching the floor, OG and Mikal on the wings, and Brunson living in the lane. If you missed how the first two games went, the Boston recap is at https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-celtics-recap-tatum-clutch-0-2-start and the rotation breakdown is at https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-rotation-watch-minutes-through-two-games.

For more on the Brunson-Cat pairing, read https://knicks365.com/blog/jalen-brunson-karl-anthony-towns-two-man-game-knicks-offense, and for the wings, https://knicks365.com/blog/mikal-bridges-og-anunoby-defensive-engine-knicks-title-defense.

70-68. Let's make it 70-69 tonight.

Cover photo: Jalen Brunson. Photo: Erik Drost / CC BY 2.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jalen_Brunson.jpg (license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)