Orlando, FL— A tough pill for the Magic to swallow as they’ve now dropped their third game in a row tonight with a 100-97 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Orlando, who had dropped two previous games at home to quality opponents in the Kings and Warriors, was looking to bounce back against one of the best teams in the NBA tonight. A common and recurring theme these last few games has been untimely turnovers and late-game execution.
“I think my consistency has been good all year, and, you know, I think I’m just not in the best mood.” Paolo Banchero on how he can improve to close the season. “I gotta, even if I’m frustrated, gotta be able to control what I can control and just go out there and make shots and plays. I just gotta do the things that I could do to be the best version of myself.”
Despite a team-high 23 points this evening from Paolo Banchero, it was a rough game for him outside of the third quarter. Banchero in the first half of play had just four points, shot 1 of 6 from the field, and had four turnovers. Orlando as a team played well in that first half hanging in there with a gritty Clippers team and they went into the halftime locker room down 52-50.
Banchero and the Magic went on a scoring rampage in that third period of play and it helped ignite this team going into the final period of play. Paolo scored 15 of his 23 in that third quarter alone with highlight-level dunks all over the floor. Banchero had a huge euro step poster dunk in the lane over Ivica Zubac, Franz Wagner had a coast-to-coast slam off a tipped deflection, and Banchero had a big-time slam over Russell Westbrook on the baseline.
Orlando would trail the Clippers 85-77 going into the fourth quarter before a soul-snatching defeat at the end. Mo Wagner who led all bench scorers tonight with 12 points went berserk to open the quarter scoring ten straight points for the Magic. Both Paolo Bancheor and Franz Wagner put forth their best effort to keep the momentum on their side as they both knocked down tough buckets down the stretch. Orlando opened up the fourth quarter on a 17-4 run to regain the lead and they led the Clippers 94-89 with 4:39 remaining in the game.
Orlando found themselves down by one point 98-97 and Banchero had a late game and costly turnover that occurred with 26.1 seconds left in the game as James Harden got the steal. It was a questionable call by the officials where it wasn’t clear in real time if the correct call was made on the floor. Jamahl Mosley opted not to challenge the call despite being down, and when asked about it in the postgame press conference he stated,
“I did consider it challenging. And then I looked back and realized that we had one timeout left. And if I don’t win that challenge, then I don’t get my timeout, and we don’t have time to execute it in the gameplan.”
The superstars showed up when the lights were the brightest for the Clippers down the stretch. Right out of the timeout, Paul George went on a 5-0 run by himself hitting a layup and a three at the top of the key to tie the game. Kawhi Leonard hit a turnaround fadeaway shot from the midrange, and Paul George hit an eight-foot fadeaway shot over the outstretched arms of Jonathan Issac to put the Clippers up 100-97 with 5.2 seconds left.
Jamahl Mosley opted to use his timeout now and draw up a play out of the timeout. Franz Wagner took a fadeaway three-point attempt from the corner that missed, and that ultimately was the ball game for the Magic. The Clippers ended the game on a 12-3 run to close out the Magic.
Despite the Magic limiting a high-scoring offense to just 100 points and 15 points in the fourth quarter, missed free throws and turnovers came back to bite them in the end. Orlando made 11 of 15 free throws tonight but missed three in the fourth quarter.
“Played with poise, played with pace, did not get discouraged when they went up, got a lead, fought back, battled back.” Jamahl Molsey on what he saw from his team tonight. “They [Clippers] made some big-time, timely shots down the stretch. Tough shots— The guys battled hard. They competed the entire night and did not get discouraged.”
The Magic have now dropped to 42-31 with their overall record on the season. Orlando will have to quickly wash this game and get prepared to play host to the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow evening.
