The Orlando Magic are playing some really good ball lately. However, the Magic won\u2019t likely have two starters for their game in Milwaukee on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Orlando (34-28) cruised past Minnesota 119-92 to pick up its third straight victory and 11th in its last 17 games, despite losing starting point guard Anthony Black<\/a> early in the contest. According to NBA Insider Marc J. Spears,<\/a> reported that\u00a0Black suffered a lower back strain two minutes into the game and didn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n \u201c[The] Magic say guard Anthony Black suffered a low back strain during the first quarter today at Minnesota,\u201d Spears tweeted.<\/p>\n Magic\u2019s Breakout Star Expected To Join Two Others On Injury Report Against The Bucks. When Will Players Return?<\/p>\n Trailing 48-41 midway through the second quarter, Orlando cranked up its defensive intensity and held Minnesota to just one field goal the rest of the half. The Magic led 60-50 at halftime and outscored the Timberwolves 59-42 in the second half as they limited the Wolves to 14 points over the final 12 minutes.<\/p>\n Orlando, which ranks 12th in the NBA defensively, has been much better on that end recently. The 92 points the Magic held the Timberwolves to were a season-low for the Magic defense. The Magic held the Wolves to 36% from the field, including 9 three-pointers at 26%, and outrebounded them 58-47. It is the fourth time the Magic have held their opponents under the century mark since February 4.<\/p>\n Offensively, Orlando was highly efficient against the Timberwolves, connecting on 46% of their field goal attempts and making 26 of 31 free throws.\u00a0 Desmond Bane<\/a> led the way with 30 points, on 10 of 17 shooting, including 10 of 10 from the free throw line, while Paolo Banchero<\/a> recorded his 21st double-double with 25 points and 15 boards. The Magic average the fifth most points during their current three-game stretch at 120 points per game.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Matt Blewett, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic are playing some really good ball lately. However, the Magic won\u2019t likely have two starters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[1130,7,497,403,2821,307,152,3954,6,15113,20289,308],"class_list":["post-647426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-anthony-black","tag-basketball","tag-desmond-bane","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jonathan-isaac","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-minnesotatimberwolves","tag-nba","tag-nba-injuries","tag-paola-branchero","tag-timberwolves"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116194667572482192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647426","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=647426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}