{"id":614379,"date":"2026-02-20T20:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T20:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614379\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T20:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T20:34:13","slug":"orlando-magic-leaned-on-3s-defense-to-cruise-past-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614379\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic leaned on 3s, defense to cruise past Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the first quarter of Thursday\u2019s game between the Magic<\/a> and Kings<\/a> at Golden 1 Center<\/a> was an example of Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad at its worst, then the final three frames showed what the team looks like at its best.<\/p>\n

Across the opening 12 minutes, Orlando<\/a> totaled just 18 points on 20.8% shooting from the floor, recorded five assists with five turnovers and trailed by 10 points at Sacramento<\/a>, an opponent that entered with the worst record in the league.<\/p>\n

And although the Magic made four 3-pointers in the first 12 minutes, they still shot 30.8% from outside the perimeter and an even worse 1-for-11 inside of it to start the game.<\/p>\n

But by the end of the night, the Orlando hit a franchise-record 27 3-pointers, notched 130-plus points for the sixth time this season and won by 37 points, 131-94, over the Kings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great start,\u201d Mosley said about the win that opened a four-game trip on the West Coast. \u201cIt\u2019s something we can learn from. There are some things that we can clean up obviously, and we\u2019ve got a tough Phoenix team coming up that we\u2019ll have to be ready for.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I love how our guys started this trip and the energy that they provided, knowing that we\u2019re going to have to continue to work and take it one game at a time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trailing by 12 points early in the second quarter, the Magic went on a 24-9 run in the second quarter to take a 50-47 lead with four minutes left in the frame. Behind by nine points at the break, Sacramento used an 8-0 run in the third quarter to cut its deficit to one point.<\/p>\n

Orlando responded with a 28-9 run that spanned from the end of the third and to the start of the fourth, and saw its lead only grow from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was our defense,\u201d veteran guard Jevon Carter<\/a> said when asked what clicked to turn the tide of the contest. \u201cPlaying off our defense, just picking up the pace, playing faster, playing together \u2026 That\u2019s really what changed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a woeful first quarter, the Magic outscored the Kings 113-66 across the final three frames by scoring 22 points off 13 Sacramento turnovers, hitting 62.2% of their 3-pointers (23 for 37) and scoring 28 points in the paint in that stretch.<\/p>\n

And Paolo Banchero<\/a> was a big help in those efforts.<\/p>\n

After scoring five points on 1 for 7 shooting in the first quarter (including 1 for 3 from 3), the 6-foot-10 forward shot 9 for 14 (64.3%) from the floor the rest of the night and knocked down all four of his remaining 3-point attempts to lead all scorers with 30 points alongside five rebounds, six assists, one steal and one block in 32 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I was) just trying to come out, impose my will (and) be aggressive,\u201d Banchero said about his sixth 30-plus point performance of the season. \u201c(There are) a lot of important games coming up so I think everybody on the team understands that, just coming out doing whatever we\u2019ve got to do to win these games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps just as important as Banchero stepping up after Orlando fell down early was the fact that he didn\u2019t do it alone.<\/p>\n

Third-year pro Anthony Black<\/a> hit four of his own 3-pointers for 20 points while Desmond Bane<\/a> knocked down a trio of triples for 17.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention Orlando\u2019s bench \u2014 which was powered by Carter\u2019s 14 points, Jett Howard\u2019s 16, Tristan da Silva\u2019s 12 and Moe Wagner\u2019s 11 \u2014 produced 53 points, the fourth-most scored by the team\u2019s reserves this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always a good sign when the bench is going,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cGuys coming off the bench coming into the game just being aggressive, looking for their shots \u2014 That\u2019s what we want those guys doing. And then also keeping the standard up on the defensive side of the ball as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys did a good job of subbing in and just bringing great energy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Of course, the performance was far from perfect, and the Magic know that.<\/p>\n

Orlando was still outrebounded 48-41, turned the ball over 10 times for 14 Sacramento points and was outscored 44-30 in the paint.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also aware that the win came against a team that lost a franchise-record 15th straight game, only had 12 wins on its regular season resume and was without two of its top scorers in Zach LaVine (right hand surgery) and Domantas Sabonis (left knee surgery).<\/p>\n

But for a Magic squad that learned less than 48 hours earlier it would be without rising star forward Franz Wagner<\/a> for an indefinite amount of time as he manages a left high ankle sprain, they\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n

With the win, Orlando (29-25) moved within half-a-game of No. 6 Philadelphia (30-25), which lost its third straight on Thursday night. Tougher competition, however, awaits the No. 7 Magic when it travels to Phoenix<\/a> (32-24) on Saturday to face a Suns<\/a> squad that sits in the same spot as them in the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all understood that coming out of the break, we\u2019re in a tight race in the standings,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cNot trying to be in the Play-In, we\u2019re in the seventh (spot) right now, so we\u2019re just trying to take it one game at a time. We know that this is a big road trip as well, facing some good Western Conference teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it was good to start it off with a win and we just have to go to Phoenix and replicate the same effort and be even more locked in,\u201d he added. \u201c(The Suns) are a good team so we\u2019ve just got to be ready for that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Suns<\/p>\n

When:\u00a05 p.m., Saturday, Mortgage Matchup Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida, NBA TV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the first quarter of Thursday\u2019s game between the Magic and Kings at Golden 1 Center was an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,4056,165,6,76,986,477,4055,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-614379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kings","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-sacramento","14":"tag-sacramento-kings","15":"tag-sacramentokings","16":"tag-social","17":"tag-social-sports","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116104873041584971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614379","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=614379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}