The Orlando Magic took a step forward in their first of four consecutive home games against opponents with losing records.
After cruising to a wire-to-wire win Thursday, Orlando will look to author another dominating performance against a sub-.500 team Saturday when the struggling Utah Jazz pay a visit.
Desmond Bane scored 23 points, Paolo Banchero had 22 and Jalen Suggs recorded his first career triple-double in the Magic’s convincing 118-98 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Suggs finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists to go along with a career-high four blocks and three steals.
“To be honest, I don’t even get into individual accomplishments and stuff like that,” Suggs said, per the Orlando Sentinel.
Said Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley of Suggs: “He was great tonight. His energy, his poise, his focus on the defensive end … It was beautiful basketball.”
So beautiful, in fact, that Suggs played a significant role in Orlando amassing a comfortable 23-point lead in the third quarter. The team put it on cruise control from there and snapped its minor two-game losing streak.
“I thought they did a great job of starting the game off holding them to 19 points in the first quarter, knowing that we set the tone with our defense and that’s what these guys did,” Mosley said. “There was a seriousness to them, a level of focus knowing what we needed to do because we’ve been with this team before and we’ve had big leads and we’ve given them away.”
The Magic, who will also host the underachieving Milwaukee Bucks on both Monday and Wednesday, shot 53.7% from the floor and enjoyed a 64-40 edge in points in the paint.
Bane capped a 32-point performance by making a layup with 0.9 seconds remaining in overtime to lift Orlando to a 128-127 victory the last time the Magic played Utah on Dec. 20.
Banchero collected 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in that game, and Anthony Black added 20, six and five, respectively.
Keyonte George, who recorded 27 points in that game for the Jazz, sat out his third consecutive contest Thursday with a left ankle sprain. He’s listed as questionable for the Orlando game.
Utah also played without recent trade acquisition Jaren Jackson Jr., who has yet to arrive from the Memphis Grizzlies.
The end result for the undermanned Jazz was their 17th loss in 21 games, courtesy of a 121-119 decision to the Atlanta Hawks.
Isaiah Collier followed up his 17-point, career-best 22-assist performance in Tuesday’s 131-122 win over the Indiana Pacers with a career-high 25 points and 11 assists versus the Hawks. He logged 48 minutes in both games.
“I’ve talked a lot about him playing off two feet, I think it’s allowed his decision making to be a lot cleaner,” Will Hardy said of Collier, per the Salt Lake Tribune. “Getting all the way to the rim in the half court in the NBA is hard to do. His decision-making has really improved since he started playing off two feet in the paint more. I also think that his general understanding of our team, our offense, where his moments are to be aggressive has improved as well.”
Hardy said he’s hopeful Jackson and the other players acquired in the deal will make their team debuts in Saturday’s game.
