Orlando, FL - The Magic rounded out the roadtrip with a blowout in Indiana with Orlando’s best 1st half performance of the season so far win a 128-116 victory over the Pacers

The 1st quarter was dominant from the Magic, starting off on an 11-0 run, showing off why they are the #1 team in defensive rating this season by locking down the Pacers. The whole quarter was proof of why good defense beats out good offense because although Indiana had the best offensive rating in the league, they could not get themselves into the game. The Magic forced seven turnovers from the Pacers, including two from Haliburton, who hadn't gotten one in the past two games combined. The Magic were cruising into the paint with ease, getting 11 shots to go in the first 12 minutes. The Magic’s transition offense was incredible, getting 18 points off of the opposing teams turnovers. Orlando was as efficient as they’ve been all season as well, shooting over 60% from three and from the field. The Magic capped of this amazing play with a turnaround and-1 from Cole Anthony on one end and a huge Jonathan Isaac block on the other end. This elite display of basketball lead to a whopping 42 point quarter and gave the team an early 21 point lead.

The dominance continued in the 2nd quarter, with a similar story. The Magic defense continued to make life difficult for Indiana by getting another five turnovers and forcing then to shoot just 34.8% from the field and 20% from three, some of the worst shooting that they've had all season long. Orlando looked more than comfortable on offense as well, getting themselves open looks, both with and without assisting. Our strong rebounding was lead by Goga Bitadze showing out against his former team and snagging boards away from Indiana throughout not just this quarter, but the whole half. The Magic had yet another huge quarter and finished the first half with 78 points and held the Pacers to just 44 going into the break. 

The Pacers were able to tighten up a little bit the next quarter offensively, but Orlando also kept their foot on the gas and continued their downhill basketball with another 11 attempts in the paint, but this time with a worse efficiency at 54.5% in the paint. The team's constant pressure down low did not go unnoticed by the referees and they drew nine fouls from Indiana, which resulted in 15 free throws for Orlando, of which the team hit all 15. Regardless of their efforts to keep the lead up, they simply didn't put up enough shots, with nine less attempts than Indiana this quarter, leading to the team loosing this quarter 34-29, but still maintaining a large lead going into the 4th.

The last quarter wasn't taken all too seriously by Orlando as they already had a 29 point lead and although they let up plenty of points to the other team, the result was all but decided at this point. The entire end-of-bench rotation was put into the game at the 5:05 mark in the quarter and allowed some players who haven't had much of a chance this season to get some shots up, including Caleb Houstan, Chuma Okeke, Admiral Schofield, and rookie Jett Howard. The team didn't have much to play for and it showed with bad defense and stale offense on display for the period, but in the end there was nothing Indiana could do to erase the monstrous lead the Magic had built themselves.

This game gave the Magic a respectable 3-1 run for their second road trip of the season and some high confidence going back to the Amway Center ahead of their In-Season Tournament matchup against the Raptors.