The Orlando Magic will look to strengthen their grip on the Eastern Conference’s seventh playoff seed on Thursday night when they visit the Washington Wizards.
The Magic have won all three meetings this season against the Wizards.
Orlando (37-40) has improved its playoff position over the last month by winning eight of its last 13 games.
The Magic have been led this season by the dynamic duo of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
Banchero, in his third NBA season, has averaged 25.8 points in 43 games. He also is tied with Wendell Carter Jr. for the team lead in rebounds with 7.3 per game.
Wagner averages 24.2 points per game on 46.2 shooting from the field to go along with a team-high 4.8 assists.
Orlando is coming off a 116-105 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. Banchero and Wagner scored 24 points apiece, while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope chipped in 23.
“(Banchero and Wagner) can play off of each other, play with each other,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “(They) trust each other and communicate with one another. It’s a beautiful thing to watch when those two can play and bounce off each other and then help continue to get the other guys on the team involved with sharing the basketball, moving the basketball and trusting the ball movement.”
Orlando outscored San Antonio 37-21 in the fourth quarter.
“It was great,” Mosley said of the final period. “Our ability to sustain our effort, step up in big moments. … Our toughness and focus-level was big time.”
Washington (17-59) enters Thursday’s contest having won just two of its last 10 games. The silver lining? One of those wins came on Wednesday night, 116-111 over a Sacramento Kings team fighting for a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament.
Jordan Poole led the Wizards with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor. Rookies Bub Carrington and AJ Johnson each tallied 19 points, while Tristan Vukcevic added 17 points off the bench.
Washington has the second-worst record in the NBA, behind the Utah Jazz (16-61).
Poole has been the Wizards’ engine this season. The 25-year-old guard is averaging a team-high 20.6 points and 4.5 assists in his second season in Washington.
“There’s a lot of work that Jordan does in his craft on this game,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. “It’s really impressive to watch him methodically work on this stuff day after day after day. Rain, snow, sleet, sunshine. Good game, bad game. He’s in there every day. This stuff doesn’t happen by accident.”
The Wizards also have received a big boost from the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft, Alex Sarr, who is averaging 13.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in 60 appearances this season.
Sarr has double-digit scoring performances in 10 of his last 12 games.
Johnson finished with 19 points on Wednesday. He has at least 15 points in three of his last six games.
–Field Level Media
