When the Magic lost to the Mavericks by 23 points in the seventh game of the season, it was just Orlando‘s second without Paolo Banchero, who went onto miss 34 due to a torn right abdominal muscle.
Thursday night at Kia Center, Banchero put on full display what Dallas missed in November when the Magic forward led all scorers with 35 points.
Despite Banchero’s best efforts, however, the Mavericks snapped Orlando’s 3-game winning streak, 101-92, at Kia Center thanks to 22 points from Jaden Hardy off the bench.
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Dallas (36-38) saw its reserves outscore Orlando’s 57-19 as the Magic fell to 3-23 when failing to crack 100 points.
The result is sigifnicant for both sides who entered with the same record while fighting for a Play-In spot in their respective conferences with less than 10 games remaining in the regula season.
The Magic (35-39) continue their homestand Saturday against the Kings.
The Magic, who have dealt with third quarter issues throughout the season, saw Dallas close out the crucial frame on a 20-2 run.
Orlando, which led 68-57 with 5:12 left in the quarter, called timeout after the Mavs cut the deficit to 3 points.
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But that stoppage didn’t slow the Mavs down when Orlando committed a shot clock violation, got called for offensive fouls and continued to turn the ball to fuel Dallas’ offense.
The Mavericks outscored the Magic 34-20 in the third frame to take a 7-point lead entering the fourth.
Banchero committed a team-high 6 turnovers on a night the Magic lost the ball 17 times for 22 Dallas points.
To make matters more difficult, Banchero, Wendell Carter Jr. and Cory Joseph all found themselves in foul trouble when they each had 3 fouls by the 11 minute mark of the third quarter. Carter picked up his fourth shortly out of halftime.
After a 1-point first quarter, Banchero posted 17 in the second frame when he played all 12 minutes, shot 6 of 7 from the field and converted 5 of 6 attempts at the free throw line.
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Despite picking up his third foul at the 2:45 mark of the second quarter, the Magic forward recorded his fifth straight game with 30-plus points.
Banchero’s big second quarter combined with 10 first-half points from counterpart Franz Wagner put Orlando ahead by 7 at the break.
And Banchero didn’t slow down in the third quarter when he quickly added 7 points in the first 5 minutes out of intermission. Scoring on all three levels, Banchero made up for two missed free throws when grabbed his own rebound and slammed it back down just over halfway through the third.
He joined Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in franchise history to have 30-plus in at least five consecutive outings.
Entering the night with the worst 3-point percentage in league (31.2%), Orlando lived up to its reputation when the group shot 5 of 30 (16.7%) from downtown.
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In comparison, Hardy on his own made 5 triples.
He powered a Dallas squad that shot 11 of 23 from beyond the arc (47.8%), which was well above their season average (36.7%).
Tristan da Silva returned to the rotation when he came off the bench late in the first quarter. He was a healthy scratch Tuesday at Charlotte when he missed his first game since late-October.
The rookie got to the free throw line once for 2 points but missed all 4 shots from the field, including a pair of triples.
He joined Black, Gary Harris, Caleb Houstan, Goga Bitadze and Jonathan Isaac as part of Orlando’s reserves.
Jason Beede can be reached at [email protected]
