The Orlando Magic entered the regular season with high expectations after making aggressive moves in the offseason, dealing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and four first round picks for Desmond Bane. It was a move of a team indicative of going all-in, but it hasn’t panned out so far, as the team finished just eighth in the East during the regular season.
Orlando will now have to go on the road and beat the Philadelphia 76ers at 7:40 p.m. ET tonight just for the right to play the Boston Celtics in the first round. If the Magic want to beat the 76ers and confirm their place in the bracket, they’ll need a big performance from All-Star forward Paolo Banchero.
Orlando is a 1.5-point underdog for tonight’s clash at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set to 224.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite Banchero prop bet for those looking to get in on the action.
Best Paolo Banchero Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Paolo Banchero 6+ Assists (+113)
Banchero displayed more playmaking chops towards the end of the season after focusing on his scoring for most of it. Between the start of January and the end of March, he enjoyed one of his longest sustained stretches of solid scoring, averaging 23.9 points per game and nailing a respectable 34.7% of his three-pointers across that span, scoring fewer than 15 points just four times in 41 games. However, since Franz Wagner returned at the start of April, Banchero has leaned into more of a facilitating role, dishing out at least six dimes in four of his final five games of the regular season and scoring fewer than 15 points three times in seven games.
He has a pretty favorable matchup tonight against Philadelphia, which finished the season just 22nd in opponent assists per game. Plus, the 76ers received a huge blow right before their third-to-last game of the regular season, when Joel Embiid was diagnosed with appendicitis and underwent surgery that will rule him out for at least this Play-In game. While Embiid has been a less impactful defender in 2025-26 than in seasons past, he still ranks in the 76th percentile in points saved per 100 possessions, well ahead of backup Andre Drummond (35th percentile). Without the 2022-23 MVP on the floor, opponents’ effective field goal percentage has been 1.2 percentage points higher and their assist percentage 4.6 percentage points higher. Banchero had seven assists in one of his two games against Philadelphia this season, though it was the game in which Embiid played.
