After squandering a lead in a loss to Dallas, the Orlando Magic will continue a season-high five-game road trip against the host San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.
It’s the first of two meetings between the teams over a nine-day stretch, with the Spurs traveling to Orlando to complete the season series on Feb. 8.
The Magic head to the Alamo City after a 131-129 loss at the Mavericks on Monday. Orlando led by 16 points but coughed up the advantage by the end of the third quarter, setting the stage for a final period that featured seven lead changes over the final 7 1/2 minutes. The Magic ultimately missed a last-second 3-pointer after intentionally missing a free throw.
Orlando has played 25 games on the road this season and 13 of them have been decided by five points or fewer. Nine have come down to one possession — three points or fewer.
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 36 points and nine rebounds on Monday, marking the ninth time in Orlando’s past 10 games that he’s been the team’s leading scorer.
“It was just a back-and-forth game, especially in the fourth quarter,” Banchero said. “You’ve got to take a lesson with every loss. We’ve had a lot of close games this year — some that’s gone our way, some that hasn’t. We just have to take it, learn from it and when we do get in this situation again, just (be) ready to come out on top.”
Franz Wagner added 21 points, Anthony Black racked up 20 off the bench with a 7-of-9 showing from the floor, Moritz Wagner had 16 points and Cole Anthony hit for 11 points in the loss, the third in four games for Orlando.
The Magic, playing the second game of a home-road back-to-back, were without point guard Markelle Fultz, who was held out for left knee injury maintenance. Fultz is expected back in the lineup for Wednesday’s game.
San Antonio will try to rebound from a 118-113 loss at home to Washington on Monday. The Spurs, in search of their first three-game winning streak of the season, led by 14 points early in the second quarter and by six heading to the fourth, but could not seal the deal.
“That’s what I call a self-inflicted loss,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said afterward. “I thought Washington played harder than we did. They played smarter. They executed better. We didn’t have enough people playing well, or playing smart, and we did that to ourselves. … It’s a tough loss because, for the first time in a while, we looked young. We looked immature. We looked foolish and did not play with each other the way we have been.
“So that’s a disappointment but that’s the way it goes and you move on.”
Devin Vassell led San Antonio with 24 points. Victor Wembanyama added 22 points and 11 rebounds, Cedi Osman hit for a season-high 20 points off the bench, Keldon Johnson had 14 points and Tre Jones scored 11 in the loss.
“We played hard. We didn’t play smart,” Wembanyama said. “We’re always going to have some good and bad games during the season, but this was one of the bad ones. We got to get stronger mentally.”
Wednesday’s game is the fifth of a seven-game homestand for the Spurs.
–Field Level Media
