{"id":610660,"date":"2026-02-19T00:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610660\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:48:15","slug":"can-magic-kings-reach-playoffs-amid-post-all-star-break-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/610660\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Magic, Kings Reach Playoffs Amid Post-All-Star Break Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEDNESDAY wasn\u2019t a great one for two NBA teams looking to position themselves for a playoff run. After a rough first half of the season, both the Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings saw a wall placed in front off those ambitions. Though he\u2019ll be re-evaluated in three weeks, Magic building block Franz Wagner<\/a> is out indefinitely as he focuses on rehabbing a high ankle sprain<\/a> (h\/t ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania). Having sustained a torn meniscus earlier in the season, Kings big man Domantas Sabonis<\/a> is now set to undergo season-ending surgery<\/a>\u00a0(h\/t Charania).<\/p>\n

Can Magic, Kings Reach Playoffs Amid Post-All-Star Break Injuries
\nOrlando Magic<\/p>\n

At 28-25, the Magic aren\u2019t actually struggling. All the hubbub about Orlando\u2019s underwhelming offense? They\u2019re scoring more points (115.1 per game) than they have at any point in their franchise history.<\/p>\n

However, the Magic\u2019s usually dominant defense has taken a significant step back this season. As a result, their ordinary offense looks even more run-of-the-mill than usual.<\/p>\n

ORL Inferior Without Franz Wagner<\/p>\n

Wagner\u2019s repeated absences have been conspicuous and not just because of persistent questions about whether the team runs better through him or Paolo Banchero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-10 and 220 pounds, Wagner\u2019s a fluid multi-positional defender with a knack for guarding without fouling. Orlando\u2019s been without him for essentially half of 2025-26. Going 12-13 those games, they\u2019ve averaged 112.7 and allowed 117.2 points per game<\/a>, getting worse on both ends. For reference, those marks would rank 24th and 20th (tied with the Miami Heat) in points per game<\/a> and opponent\u2019s points per game<\/a> respectively, if they were the Magic\u2019s numbers for the entire season.<\/p>\n

The key to staying afloat without such a key player could be as simple as getting more out of 2024-25 standout Tristan da Silva<\/a>. In the middle of a breakout season, Anthony Black<\/a> is already going above and beyond with 16.1 points per game. Despite the criticism, Banchero is still averaging 21.3 points per game on 45.4 percent shooting from the field. Noah Penda<\/a> and Jonathan Isaac<\/a> can invigorate the defense but they\u2019re not known for their offense.<\/p>\n

Someone else has to help pick up the slack at that end.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, da Silva\u2019s a respected team defender whose production has seen modest increases from his rookie year. His scoring average (8.6 points per game) pales in comparison to Wagner\u2019s (21.3 points per game). Yet, he\u2019s making 36.5 percent of his 3s in 2025-26 after shooting 38.6 percent of his 3s in college. If the Magic give him the green light, it could go a long way.<\/p>\n

Sacramento Kings<\/p>\n

Unlike Orlando, Sacramento\u2019s problems have not been overblown. They\u2019re in a similar place to where the Detroit Pistons were a couple of seasons ago, when they turned in the worst win-loss record<\/a> in franchise history. In fact, the 12-44 Kings have the second-worst win percentage (.214) in their own franchise history.<\/p>\n

Crazy enough, they\u2019re far closer to the 2008-09 team led by Kevin Martin<\/a> and John Salmons<\/a> than they are to the trainwreck they were in 2024-25. It wasn\u2019t supposed to get any worse than them firing their head coach<\/a> and trading their franchise player<\/a> in the same season. But if there\u2019s any organization that can win a game of limbo, it\u2019s the Kings.<\/p>\n

Has Domantas Sabonis Played His Last Game In Sactown?<\/p>\n

The problem with the 2025-26 Kings is that they should be too good to be this bad. To that point, neither Martin nor Salmons were All-Stars. Yet, the quartet of Sabonis (3), Zach LaVine<\/a> (2), DeMar DeRozan<\/a> (6), and Russell Westbrook<\/a> (9) has 20 All-Star selections between them.<\/p>\n

That being said, there\u2019s undoubtedly a correlation between talent and wins. All the same, the importance of fit is downplayed too often. In Sabonis, LaVine, DeRozan and Westbrook, the Kings stacked four of the worst defenders in the NBA. Should it be surprising, then, that their defense ranks 28th in opponent\u2019s points per game (120.6)?<\/p>\n

With that being said, Sabonis\u2019s absence could lead to Sacramento making strides defensively. If he\u2019s not in the rotation, that means there will be more minutes for Dylan Cardwell<\/a>. A rugged center with exceptional shot-blocking instincts, Cardwell signed a four-year contract<\/a> with the Kings two weeks ago. Notably, Sacramento\u2019s opponents have a 114.3 offensive rating with Cardwell on the court versus a 123.7 offensive rating when he\u2019s off it. Their own offensive rating is virtually unaffected (111.4 on versus 110.8 off<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Like LaVine\u2019s decision to sit out for the remainder of the season<\/a>, Sabonis\u2019s surgery potentially has ramifications beyond Sacramento\u2019s ability to make a miraculous turnaround. With the Kings scrambling, his name was often in trade rumors<\/a> leading up to the deadline. It\u2019s already possible that LaVine\u2019s played his last game for the Beam Team. However, might Sabonis be on his way out too?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEDNESDAY wasn\u2019t a great one for two NBA teams looking to position themselves for a playoff run. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,4672,18347,403,48,6,15113,11,47,76,3883,402,1253,3212],"class_list":{"0":"post-610660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-domantas-sabonis","10":"tag-dylan-cardwell","11":"tag-franz-wagner","12":"tag-magic","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-injuries","15":"tag-nba-playoffs","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-orlando-magic","18":"tag-orlandomagic","19":"tag-paolo-banchero","20":"tag-tristan-da-silva","21":"tag-zach-lavine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}