{"id":639507,"date":"2026-03-04T20:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/639507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:07:15","slug":"orlando-magic-rally-past-wizards-host-mavericks-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/639507\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic rally past Wizards, host Mavericks next"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first half of Tuesday\u2019s game between the Magic<\/a> and Wizards<\/a> had disaster written all over it for Orlando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Facing a 16-win Washington<\/a> team that was playing on the second night of a back-to-back and didn\u2019t get to its hotel until after 3 a.m., Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad trailed early in the second quarter, only led by three points at the break and made a single 3-pointer by the end of the first half.<\/p>\n

Was Orlando<\/a> really about to repeat the outcome from its Jan. 6 loss to the then nine-win Wizards, on the heels of dropping two straight at home?<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Magic, Paolo Banchero<\/a> (37 points) and Desmond Bane<\/a> (25) had other plans when they scored nearly half of the team\u2019s points (62) in a 126-109 victory at Kia Center<\/a> behind a big third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we locked in on defense,\u201d Banchero said when asked about what changed in the second half. \u201cWe got out and ran, got some easy buckets, and just focused on getting stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Bane: \u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019ve talked about, how we came out these last couple third quarters. And I was happy with the way we came out, both sides of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that third quarter, Orlando shot 5-for-5 from 3-point range, held Washington to 2-for-6 from distance on the other end and scored 18 points in the paint on 9-for-12 shooting near the basket.<\/p>\n

Bane and Tristan da Silva both made a pair of triples while Banchero penetrated the paint, scoring eight of his 13 points during the quarter in the restricted area.<\/p>\n

By the end of the night, Banchero finished 13-for-14 in the restricted area, 6-for-7 at the free-throw line and only turned the ball over twice, which was seven fewer times than he did against the Pistons two nights earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst Detroit in the first half, we touched the paint a ton and in the second half, we didn\u2019t,\u201d Bane said. \u201cSo, that was something that we stressed and kind of like, I told the guys, it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve got to be better about talking about during the game. If we feel like we haven\u2019t gotten to the paint a couple of times, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s make sure we touch the paint before we let one go.\u2019 You know, make sure we\u2019re getting a good look.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I thought we were really intentional getting there tonight and that\u2019s got to be our M.O.,\u201d he added. \u201cI mean we scored 126 points, that\u2019s good basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

That good basketball, however, came against a bad team.<\/p>\n

Washington recorded its 45th loss of the season in its 61st contest while falling to 2-23 when not cracking at least 110 points.<\/p>\n

And at times, Orlando appeared to play down to the level of the Wizards, who turned the ball over 14 times for 23 Magic points.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when things come too easily in games like this, you tend to take it for granted,\u201d Mosley said after the 17-point win. \u201cWe got a little loose and it was that last four minutes of the second quarter, that\u2019s when we saw the lull. So, we talked about (it) at halftime, just don\u2019t get bored with the simple things. And that\u2019s what this game was about. Can you keep doing the simple things over and over again and not get bored with it?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were beating us on the glass, the hustle stats and the hustle areas, and the guys took it personally in that second half to be able to come out the right way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Orlando will face a similar challenge Thursday when it wraps up a four-game homestand against the 21-win Mavericks.<\/p>\n

No. 1\u00a0 pick Cooper Flagg, who ended his high school career at Montverde Academy, has missed the past eight games with a left midfoot sprain, but Dallas coach Jason Kidd said this week the rookie is \u201cramping up\u201d toward a return on the team\u2019s six-game road trip, according to Mavs.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Magic are dealing with their own key injuries as well. Anthony Black<\/a> (right quad bruise) missed his second game in row Tuesday while Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> (left ankle soreness) was a late scratch.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to mention Franz Wagner<\/a>, who continues to manage an extended rehab of a left high ankle sprain. Wednesday marked two weeks since Orlando said he\u2019d be out indefinitely<\/a>, and he\u2019s still a week away from being re-evaluated on March 11.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who\u2019s available, the Magic don\u2019t have much room for error with only 22 games remaining on their regular-season schedule.<\/p>\n

Entering Wednesday\u2019s slate of games, Orlando (32-28) sat half-a-game back of No. 6 Philadelphia (33-28) but in a virtual tie with No. 8 Miami (33-29) and only two games ahead of both No. 9 Charlotte and No. 10 Atlanta, the latter of whom were both 31-31.<\/p>\n

Certainly a second-quarter lull similar to the one against Washington is something the Magic want to avoid in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball\u2019s a game of runs, but you don\u2019t want to give teams life early in the game because sometimes that can carry over,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cI thought we did a good job of just withstanding that and then coming out in the third quarter guarding better.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe against Dallas or another team, you don\u2019t want that same thing to happen because guys can get hot and get confident if you let them,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, it\u2019s something that we can watch and just get better at, and be ready for the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Mavericks<\/p>\n

When:\u00a07 p.m., Thursday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first half of Tuesday\u2019s game between the Magic and Wizards had disaster written all over it for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,165,6,76,1412,80939,66,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-639507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-orlando-magic","12":"tag-social","13":"tag-social-sports","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-washington","16":"tag-washington-wizards","17":"tag-washingtonwizards","18":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639507","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=639507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}