{"id":620363,"date":"2026-02-23T18:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620363\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T18:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T18:42:12","slug":"desmond-bane-continues-to-prove-himself-for-orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620363\/","title":{"rendered":"Desmond Bane continues to prove himself for Orlando Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last season with the Grizzlies, new Magic<\/a> guard Desmond Bane<\/a> witnessed firsthand just how heavy dramatic losses can feel for an NBA<\/a> team deep in a regular season.<\/p>\n

From Feb. 28-March 3 almost a year ago, Memphis loss three games in a row \u2014 each by fewer than two points and by a combined five at home.<\/p>\n

Although Bane\u2019s former team, which later traded him to Orlando<\/a> over the summer, was able to finish 48-34 and reach the playoffs (where it made a first-round exit to the eventual champion Oklahoma City), he referred to that stretch as a crucial turning point for the squad roughly 60 games into the season.<\/p>\n

Now with the Magic, Bane wasn\u2019t going to allow something similar happen to his new team in Game No. 56 of this season.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad fell by three points in double overtime at Phoenix, Bane posted 36 points and made the go-ahead layup to help lift Orlando past the Clippers<\/a>, 111-109, inside Intuit Dome<\/a> on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s huge,\u201d said Bane when asked about the team\u2019s ability to bounce back on the second night of a road back-to-back. \u201c(Saturday) night was emotional. Double overtime game, lose at the buzzer. I was telling some of the guys, I remember last year in Memphis we lost three games in a row like that and it kind of felt like that was the back-breaker of our season, just because it was so emotional and you\u2019re right there but you come out with a loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m really proud of our group,\u201d he added. \u201cI thought we did it the way we wanted to do it, too, imposing our will, sitting down and guarding. So, it was good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game was Bane\u2019s second consecutive contest with 30-plus points, his third in the past four and ninth of the season.<\/p>\n

Orlando improved to 7-2 in those instances when he became just the 10th player in franchise history to score at least 30 points in at least nine games in a single season.<\/p>\n

And he did it in more ways than one by shooting 4-for-6 from 3-point range, 7-for-10 in the paint, 2-for-3 in the mid-range and 6-for-10 at the free-throw line, while adding five rebounds, two steals and an assists in 32 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe reminds me of a lot of older guys in this league,\u201d Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (15 points, 14 rebounds) said about Bane. \u201cGuys who have established themselves and have a mindset of, he\u2019s going to play his game no matter what. His process is going to remain the same. Early on (in the season), he was struggling a little bit but one thing about it, he stuck to what he knows he\u2019s good at.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we\u2019re seeing the benefits of what trading for a guy like that does,\u201d Carter added. \u201cHis continued elevation just shows he\u2019s one of the best in this league in terms of his position, shooting the 3-ball, getting downhill, facilitating, playmaking \u2026 He\u2019s exactly what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Magic needed each and every point from Bane to escape a Clippers team that nearly won the game at the buzzer.<\/p>\n

Unlike Saturday\u2019s game at Phoenix when Jalen Green sunk a buzzer-beating game-winning 3-pointer against Orlando, however, Los Angeles guard Bennedict Mathurin missed a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired.<\/p>\n

The Magic improved to 9-3 in games decided by three points or less. Entering Monday\u2019s slate of games, the nine wins in such contests were tied for most in the NBA.<\/p>\n

After falling to 1-7 playing in the first game of back-to-backs, Orlando moved to 6-2 playing in the second game of back-to-backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot to learn,\u201d Mosley said about his team. \u201cYou talk about giving up 22 offensive rebounds (Saturday) night, (Sunday night) they had nine. (Our) ability to finish the possessions out, that\u2019s the difference in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Mathurin had a shot at the end similar to (Sunday) night, so our ability to continue to grow and learn from that is going to be key,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ll sit down and watch these end-of-game scenarios because we\u2019re going to be in a lot of these, and our guys, we\u2019ve got to keep learning how we continue to improve in these scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic (30-26) played their second game in a row without Jalen Suggs (back spasms) and Franz Wagner (left high ankle sprain injury management), but still found a way to win a game that kept them half-a-game back of No. 6 Philadelphia (31-26) and just ahead of No. 8 Miami (31-27) entering Monday.<\/p>\n

Orlando wraps up its four-game trip out west against the Lakers (34-22) on Tuesday night. Los Angeles, which fell to Boston by 22 points at home on Sunday, is 2-3 in its past five games but 16-11 inside Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

Both Bane and Mosley hold a positive outlook of where the Magic are heading with 26 games remaining in the regular season after splitting a challenging back-to-back on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trending in the right direction, we\u2019re playing better basketball, playing together (and) playing physical, getting back to a little bit of our defensive identity,\u201d Bane said. \u201cSoon, J-Suggs will be back in the fold, (and) we\u2019ll be able to get (Franz) back in the fold. So, I like the way that we\u2019re trending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Mosley: \u201cThis is a building block for our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Lakers<\/p>\n

When: 10:30 p.m., Tuesday, Crypto.com Arena<\/p>\n

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last season with the Grizzlies, new Magic guard Desmond Bane witnessed firsthand just how heavy dramatic losses can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,165,6,76,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-620363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-orlando-magic","12":"tag-social","13":"tag-social-sports","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116121419428301833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620363","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=620363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}