The Orlando Magic will try to pull out of a four-game losing skid on Saturday in Indianapolis when they visit an Indiana Pacers team that has dropped five of the past six.
Indiana ended a four-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 144-113 rout of Charlotte but fell the next night, 116-103 at Memphis.
The 103 points marked the season low for the NBA-leading Pacers offense, which heads into Saturday’s matchup averaging 127.1 points per game behind Tyrese Haliburton’s 24.3 points and league-best 12 assists per game.
Indiana, however, also heads into Saturday allowing the second-most points per game on average, with 126.1 surrendered per contest.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’ve made some progress in the last three days,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Thursday of Indiana’s defense. “We’ve got to now look to sustain it. Orlando is a very physical team. They scored a lot of points on us last game, and we’re going to have to be ready.”
The Magic won a 128-116 contest when these teams met on Nov. 19. Paolo Banchero scored 24 points, Franz Wagner added 19 and Jalen Suggs notched 18 in a victory that was Orlando’s last away from home.
The Magic carry a road losing streak of five games into Saturday’s return contest. Orlando dropped its fifth straight away from home and its fourth in a row overall Thursday in Milwaukee, 118-114.
Despite Franz Wagner’s 29 leading three Magic scorers to post at least 21 points, Orlando never could bridge a gap that grew to 15 points in the third quarter.
On the heels of a 115-106 home loss to Miami on Wednesday, Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley praised the Magic for their late-game resolve on Thursday.
“They take on the challenge of what we didn’t do (Wednesday) night, and they took that to heart and carried it into tonight,” Mosley said in his postgame news conference.
“Now, the outcome is not what you want, but we have to keep looking at levels of growth and maturity for a group that is continuing to band together, because we’ve got a long season to go and these guys are showing growth every single step of the way.”
Banchero finished with 23 points on Thursday, Moritz Wagner came off the bench for 21 points, and Cole Anthony delivered his second big game in as many nights in reserve duty with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Anthony went for a team-high 20 points on Wednesday vs. Miami.
Orlando was without Suggs on Thursday due to a wrist injury, and Joe Ingles missed a third consecutive game with an ankle injury. The Magic did have Wendell Carter Jr. for the second straight game after he missed the previous 20 with a broken bone in his hand.
Indiana was without Jalen Smith for the 10th time in 11 games on Thursday. Smith, one of eight Pacers averaging in double figures scoring at 10 points per game, returned to score 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor in Wednesday’s win, but has been limited with a knee and heel injury.
–Field Level Media