When the Orlando Magic put it altogether at the offensive end, they are one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view of center Wendell Carter Jr. ahead of the Magic\u2019s road clash with the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Carter scored a season-best 28 points and Desmond Bane had 27 as Orlando (41-36) absorbed a 51-point haul from Cooper Flagg to defeat the host Dallas Mavericks 138-127 on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Magic shot 56% from the field and 53.8% from 3-point range \u2014 both just off the team\u2019s season highs \u2014 while dishing out 35 assists in a clinical master class in offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of this team,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI think from top to bottom, we\u2019ve got guys who can go get it any night. When we play free, we play open, we play as one unit, I think we\u2019re one of the most dangerous teams in the league. If we can continue to do that for these last couple of games, being in a good spot going into the playoffs, it will give us a really good chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley was similarly impressed with the spark and selflessness he saw when his team had the ball in its hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a great job of communicating with each other,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir talk, their ability to share the basketball \u2014 you talk about 35 assists \u2014 moving it, sharing it, trusting the pass, playing with the right style of pace of basketball and really just trusting each other. That was great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley also singled Carter out for special praise after the big man produced his best performance of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s big time,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cHis presence at the rim is great for us. \u2026 He\u2019s one of the most selfless guys we have, because he\u2019s trying to do the right thing by this team. When he does that, the guys celebrate him to make sure he\u2019s getting touches on the back end as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Magic, who entered Saturday a half-game behind the eighth-place Charlotte Hornets, are safely in the play-in tournament and still with a slim shot at a top-six berth and automatic entry into the Eastern Conference playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Pelicans (25-53), long out of postseason contention, have a more immediate, short-term goal \u2014 win their next two at home, starting with Orlando.<\/p>\n
New Orleans crashed to its seventh straight defeat when it frittered away a 55-38 second-quarter lead to succumb 117-113 to the lowly Sacramento Kings. Jeremiah Fears poured in 28 points off the bench and Saddiq Bey added 20 for Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Pelicans interim coach James Borrego was critical of his side\u2019s defense, which deteriorated after a promising start.<\/p>\n
\u201cBottom line, we gave up three 30-point quarters defensively,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought that was the game. \u2026 Bottom line, we just didn\u2019t guard. Second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, 34, 30, 32, that\u2019s just not going to be good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Borrego wants to see more urgency as his team embarks on its last two home games of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep competing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the bottom line \u2014 just compete, sprint through the finish line, don\u2019t give in. We\u2019ll go home in front of our crowd for two games and compete. The goal at home is to win two games right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando has won the past eight meetings, including five by double figures. The Pelicans\u2019 last victory over the Magic was on Dec. 23, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Orlando Magic put it altogether at the offensive end, they are one of the most dangerous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-698512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116348674711263973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698512","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=698512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}