{"id":668962,"date":"2026-03-20T15:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/668962\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:37:08","slug":"orlando-magic-handled-by-host-hornets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/668962\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic handled by host Hornets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic<\/a> coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a> stressed the importance of Orlando<\/a> slowing down the Hornets<\/a> from 3-point range and in transition when speaking with the media ahead of Thursday\u2019s game at Charlotte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Magic failed to accomplish both tasks, and Mosley was unavailable for more than half the contest inside Spectrum Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Orlando trailing by 15 points and roughly five minutes left in the second quarter, Mosley was ejected from the game after protesting a non-call against the Hornets.<\/p>\n

The Magic allowed 72 points in the first half, fell down by 19 at the break and never recovered in a 130-111 loss against the Southeast Division foe, who outrebounded them 41-31.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing a team like that, you give them an inch and they take a mile,\u201d Magic guard Desmond Bane (24 points) said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be extremely locked in, disciplined on defense \u2026 They scored the ball in a variety of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both sides entered 7-3 in their last 10 games, but for Orlando, the loss was its third in a row while Charlotte won its second straight.<\/p>\n

Notching 110 points in the first three quarters, the Hornets (36-34) also secured the four-game regular-season series against the Magic 3-1.<\/p>\n

The Magic (38-31) return home when the Lakers<\/a> make their lone trip of the regular season to Kia Center on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mosley ejected<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s picked up individual technical fouls in the past, Thursday\u2019s game marked the first time in Mosley\u2019s career that he had been ejected from a game.<\/p>\n

Mosley picked up his first technical foul for questioning why a foul wasn\u2019t called on the Hornets after Bane tried to put back up an offensive rebound. From there, Mosley continued to protest the non-call and eventually earned a second technical, resulting in the ejection from head official Scott Foster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to be better for our group in that situation,\u201d Mosley said about his ejection. \u201cBut listen, I thought we went to the basket a couple times, didn\u2019t get a couple calls that were very similar on the other end and just a level of consistency in that. So, that\u2019s what I was fighting for, for our guys to be able to see that if we\u2019re going to play a physical style of basketball, which we do, that I\u2019m OK with it being called on the other end, as long as we\u2019re getting the same call on our end.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, our guys wanted to continue to fight, keep fighting no matter what\u2019s going on in the game. And I\u2019ve got to be better in that situation to not put us up against the wall there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Magic assistant coaches Dale Osbourne and Joe Prunty attempted to bring Mosley back to the bench but their efforts in corralling the upset coach were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Prunty, who coached the second half of a Nov. 22 game for the Magic against the Knicks after Mosley dealt with an illness, served as the acting head coach the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

Magic guard Jalen Suggs (nine points in 22 minutes) also received a technical foul from Foster in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Second-quarter swing<\/p>\n

Mosley\u2019s ejection wasn\u2019t the only thing that went wrong for the Magic prior to halftime.<\/p>\n

The Hornets outscored Orlando 38-21 in the second quarter, sunk seven 3-pointers in the 12-minute stretch and limited the Magic to just four points in the paint (2-of-11 shooting in the paint).<\/p>\n

Orlando actually forced two more turnovers in the second quarter compared to Charlotte (six vs. four) but the Hornets scored more points off of them (six vs. two). Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel scored 12 of his 17 points in the second frame.<\/p>\n

Charlotte didn\u2019t slow down from there either, building their lead up to as many as 35 points in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Difference from distance<\/p>\n

Charlotte entered the contest with the third-best 3-point percentage in the NBA (37.8%) and averaged the most made 3s league-wide per night (16.1).<\/p>\n

On the other end, Orlando ranked 26th in 3-point percentage (34.5%) and 24th in made triples per night (11.8). The difference between the sides couldn\u2019t have been more glaring.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter alone, the Hornets shot 9 for 16 from beyond the arc while the Magic shot 1 for 11.<\/p>\n

Overall, Charlotte ended 22 for 46 (48%) and held Orlando to 33% from distance (14 for 42).<\/p>\n

Carter update<\/p>\n

Wendell Carter Jr. missed just his fourth game of the season due to a left rib mild contusion. He wasn\u2019t added to the team\u2019s injury report until 2 p.m., or roughly five hours before Thursday\u2019s tip-off.<\/p>\n

Mosley said before the game Carter will receive treatment, and the team will see how he responds to that over the next day or so.<\/p>\n

Orlando was also without Anthony Black (left lateral abdominal strain), Franz Wagner (left high ankle sprain injury management) and Jonathan Isaac (left knee sprain)<\/p>\n

Honoring Curry<\/p>\n

At halftime of Thursday\u2019s game, the Hornets honored franchise great Dell Curry by retiring his No. 30 jersey.<\/p>\n

Curry, the father of Stephen and Seth Curry, was the franchise\u2019s leader in games played (701), points scored (9,839), field goals\u00a0 made (3,951) and 3-pointers made (929) when he retired in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a centerpiece for this organization (and) for this city for so long,\u201d Mosley said before the game. \u201cYou\u2019re retiring his jersey because of the numbers he put up, but I think it\u2019s more about the human being he is \u2026 always carrying a smile on his race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic coach Jamahl Mosley stressed the importance of Orlando slowing down the Hornets from 3-point range and in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-668962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-social-sports","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668962","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=668962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}