Orlando, FL – The Magic came to Canada to face an injured Raptors squad and took full advantage of Toronto’s depleted roster by coming out with a 113-103 victory. Orlando was letting everyone eat this game and beat Toronto by association.
The Magic had seven players in double-digit scoring tonight, four of them being over 15 points. Toronto wasn’t far behind with six of their players also getting to double figures and Gary Trent Jr., a trade deadline candidate for Orlando, exploded with 31 points. The Magic started the game off hot, meanwhile, the Raptors couldn’t buy a bucket in the first quarter. Defensively, Toronto left the corner three open multiple times throughout the first half and Orlando tried to take advantage, but they were generally unsuccessful in converting the open shot, hitting just 33% from the corner.
Paolo Banchero wasn’t having his best game, committing some bad turnovers and missing shots that he typically makes. He realized this wasn’t his game early on and so did Coach Mosley. After a timeout, Banchero moved to a more off-ball role, with the All-Star giving up ball-handling duties more often to Franz Wagner, who was fearlessly attacking the Raptors down low and getting his shots off with some slithery moves under the rim.
Banchero was excelling in his off-ball role, helping the team in other ways with his screens and movement. At the beginning of the third quarter, he showed off that he wasn’t just a high-usage shot chucker with a big body box out to a huge putback slam after Franz Wagner’s miss and put an exclamation mark on the Raptor’s defense. Wendell Carter Jr. had a great game by doing what he does best; being at the right place at the right time. He had open shots from three multiple times after some sneaky screens and was under the rim for the perfect dump-off or long pass time and time again, which led to some easy buckets, fouls, or kick outs. His pressure on the defense created space for the rest of the team to operate in and took defenders out of the play multiple times.
Of course, in typical Magic fashion, another strong point in the game was the defense. Outside of Trent Jr., the Raptors struggled to get any good offense going. Immanuel Quickley, who has been on a tear recently, had a very inefficient game despite his double-double. Admittedly, a lot of times Toronto had good looks and simply missed their shots, but other times Orlando’s players put the locks on. Jalen Suggs and Jonathan Isaac in particular were playing amazingly, with three steals and two blocks, respectively. Jonathan Isaac stopped a fastbreak all on his own a handful of times in the game and Jalen Suggs was picking everyone’s pockets and racing downcourt to help the team score easy buckets.
This game showed that the Magic aren’t limited to just how far their star power takes them, but rather they can go toe-to-toe with any team regardless of who gets hot because Coach Mosley’s in-game adjustments allow for different schemes to get put into play until one works and gives the team the victory. The Magic will return to Orlando to rematch Toronto and kick off an eight-game homestand.
