The Inside the NBA crew provided another classic moment at halftime of the NBA Cup quarterfinal between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic. After a tightly-contested first half, Kenny Smith was heading to the video board in the back of the studio to give his analysis on the game.
As he sometimes does, Shaquille O’Neal beat Smith to the board and gave it a little tap to finish the race off. However, this time O’Neal hit the board a little too hard and broke it.
Shaq broke the video screen just as Kenny Smith was about to break down the first half of Bucks-Magic
Shaq broke the video screen just as Kenny Smith was about to break down the first half of Bucks-Magic 😂pic.twitter.com/srAOnWMuHJ
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 11, 2024
Segmenting into the highlights didn’t fix the board, and Smith was instead forced to do his analysis with the players in the top left corner cut off. He still made it through the segment, everyone laughed it off and Charles Barkley tossed in a Shrek joke to get a rise out of the crew.
It was a fun first half between the Magic and the Bucks that was very close at halftime. Despite playing without both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Magic were able to get in the paint and score at will against a porous Bucks defense, which Doc Rivers criticized after halftime on the TNT broadcast.
In the third quarter, the Bucks finally began to assert their dominance and the talent gap between the two teams due to the injuries started to show. After a poor start to the third quarter that resulted in a Rivers timeout less than two minutes after it started, the Bucks ripped off a 16-2 run to give them a comfortable lead.
The Magic are still battling, however. After the Bucks got the lead up to double figures, the Magic started to climb back into the game on the back of big man Goga Bitadze and Jalen Suggs. With a nice bonus and a spot in Las Vegas on Saturday night on the line, the Magic aren’t ready to give anything up for free.
As it stands, the Bucks still find themselves in a dogfight. The Magic have cut the Bucks’ lead to just one, 91-90, with just under seven minutes to play.
