The Atlanta Falcons, led by their star Trae Jovem, will debut in a regular season match in Mexico when they face Orlando Magic of Italian Paolo Banchero, last season’s Rookie of the Year.
Both teams arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday evening for next Thursday’s game at 8:30 PM, central Mexican time, at the CDMX Arena.
The Hawks stars enjoyed national sweets before their flight.
Your browser does not support iframes
In addition, they were welcomed with mariachis upon arrival at the hotel.
Your browser does not support iframes
NBA Mexico, in turn, shared some images of the Orlando players’ injuries.
Atlanta will visit Mexico for the first time, while Orlando will play on domestic soil for the fourth time, three times before the qualifier in San Antonio, encouraging the Dallas Mavericks to be the ones who have played the most in the country.
How do teams get to the “Mexico City Game”?
Both teams will compete for one of six direct spots in the Eastern Conference postseason. With four wins and three losses, the Hawks are in fourth place in the East, ahead of the Magic, in sixth place with the same record but a worse point differential.
It will be the first meeting between the two quintets in the current campaign. The Hawks are in a better moment than their rival, with four wins and one loss in their last five games, while Orlando has two wins and three losses in the same period.
A starter Trae Young, he was selected to the All-Star Game twice and is his team’s scoring leader with dual averages of 21.7 points and 10.4 assists per game. The assist value is the second best in the championship.
While Paulo Banchero’s 20-year-old’s 18.1 points per game is below the level that took him to Rookie of the Year honors last season, although he has made more triples than in 2022, from 29.9 percent to 31, 3.
The game between Magic and Atlanta will be the 32nd the NBA has played in Mexico, the largest for a country that does not have a team in the championship.
Source: La Neta Neta
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
