Orlando, FL – A beat-up Magic team stormed into the Golden 1 Center to try turning their road trip around and ended up having a double overtime thriller against the Kings, but fell short in the dying seconds of the game for a 135-138 loss in Sacramento.
Orlando came into this game without their Sixth Man of the Year candidate, Cole Anthony, to add to their long list of injuries these past few games, and just five minutes into the game their star player Franz Wagner went down grabbing his right ankle. When the x-rays eventually came back, it turned out Franz sprained his right ankle, similar to his injury over the summer with Team Germany. To make matters worse, sharpshooter Gary Harris, who was getting himself going in the game got taken out after 12 minutes of play and did not return after he also suffered an injury during the game.
The injuries to the team forced Coah Mosley to dig deep into his bench with Osceola Magic superstar Travelin Queen getting his first real run with the Magic as a result. Orlando’s deep bench unit is filled with players who can shoot the ball at a high level, but struggle to do much else on the court, so Coach Mosley took it upon himself to game plan accordingly. The Magic kept their defensive intensity on high all game long, and the deep bench was surprisingly keeping up well. Sacramento’s star De’aaron Fox struggled this game, putting up some of his worst shooting nights of the season, and his running mate Domantas Sabonis started slow and got beat up down low several times by Orlando and had to leave the game early to tend to some small injuries he picked up.
Orlando’s game plan to engage their shooters was working magnificently, with Caleb Houstan warming up with some great shots from deep and Jalen Suggs not too far behind. Sacramento saw this and immediately began to shoot their own shots from deep, and in that second quarter, they erupted for 40 points, largely thanks to Malik Monk’s efficient shooting. Orlando was in a zone defense to try and use their length to cover ground and hide some of the player’s poor one-on-one defending and the Kings were able to expose it with some good ball movement and timely shots. Once Sabonis checked back in he played an excellent game, getting himself a 20-point and 20 rebound double double and being a huge part of Sacramento’s win with his amazing rebounding efforts, which ultimately was the killer for Orlando in the game.
Down the stretch, Orlando continued to hit shots from three-point range, and in the third quarter, they found themselves on a 12-0 from Suggs’ continued success from deep. Paolo Banchero, who was having a good game until this point checked out with an apparent injury, but after a quick check with the staff was able to check right back in, and similar to Sabonis, he flipped a switch once coming back into the game and helped the Magic cut a 16 point lead to just two by the end of the third.
To give Banchero a rest, Chuma Okeke played a big chunk of the fourth and proved his worth to the team and submitted his case for being in the rotation by hitting three after three and eventually giving Orlando their first lead since early in the first half with a wild fade away three from the corner. Rookie Anthony Black was the main ball handler in the lineup that Orlando sent out to start the fourth and he played with confidence, getting both himself and teammates some great looks. Queen proved that he belonged in Orlando with his amazing hustle and a huge block on Kevin Huerter.
As the quarter came to a close, Banchero went on a huge run by himself and was dueling Monk and Sabonis, going bucket for bucket and getting the game tied up. Monk had a season-high in points at this point in the game and could not stop scoring. The potential game-winner fell in Suggs’ lap and he was unable to convert, which thrusted Orlando into their first overtime game of the season.
Both teams were visibly tired, but Banchero did his best to play the superstar role and get Orlando the win, but the Kings always seemed to have an answer to his buckets on the other end. The defense was suffocating for both teams and they scored just nine points a piece in the first overtime, where Monk failed to hit the corner three to put Sacremento up after a Paolo layup on the other end after a controversial Orlando baseline inbound play.
Banchero continued this career game in the second overtime, this time with some help from Suggs. At this point in the game, after Jalen Suggs hit a leaning three-pointer from the wing the Magic set a new franchise record for threes scored in a game and were at an outstanding 56.8% from deep in the game, but the Kings spoiled the night with some clutch shots from Fox who hit the free throw that ended up winning the game after the Magic couldn’t get a good look at the final buzzer with Banchero missing what could’ve been the game-winning three.
Despite the loss, this Magic team hit an uber-efficient 25 three-point shots to cement themselves in history and Paolo now has a new career high of 43 points, showing that the Magic has what it takes to compete, even with a depleted roster because everyone can and will step up when their name is called. The Magic will get some much-needed on Thursday and finish up their four-game West Coast road trip by stopping by Denver to face the reigning champs on Friday night.
