The Orlando Magic will go for their third win in a row when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
Orlando is coming off a 117-110 overtime win against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday evening, which followed a road victory over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. The Magic are looking for their first three-game winning streak since stacking up nine wins in a row from Nov. 15-Dec. 1.
Paolo Banchero scored 35 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in Orlando’s most recent victory. Teammate Caleb Houstan scored 25 points, and Jalen Suggs finished with 16.
Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said Banchero was a leader on and off the court.
“He’s a winner,” Mosley said. “I’ll probably say the same exact thing every time: He’s a winner. He’s going to find a way to help the team win, whatever that looks like. Finding guys, finding mismatches, defensive assignments, whatever it looks like. This young man is growing more and more each and every single game.”
The next test for Banchero and the Magic will come against the Timberwolves, who hope to bounce back from a 115-108 loss on the road against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night. Minnesota was led by Anthony Edwards, who scored 36 points on 14-for-27 shooting.
Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points on 8-for-16 shooting for the Timberwolves. He finished with seven rebounds, while Rudy Gobert had a game-high 17.
“We could’ve helped ourselves in a lot of different ways throughout the game,” Towns said. “It’s tough to say at the end that’s what hurt us.
“Coach gave us good looks. We got good looks, all of us. Just one of (those) days, it didn’t go down for us when it needed to. We’re a tough group of guys in here. Tough game. We’ll be all right.”
Edwards leads Minnesota this season with 26.8 points per game on 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent shooting from 3-point range. Towns is next with 21.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
Banchero leads the Magic with 23.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Franz Wagner is averaging 20.9 points per contest, and Cole Anthony ranks third in scoring with 14.3 points per game.
This is the first of two meetings this season between Minnesota and Orlando. The teams also are scheduled to meet Feb. 2 at Minnesota.
Timberwolves veteran Mike Conley said he and his teammates sense a bright future for the rest of the season. Minnesota has won 25 of its first 35 games.
“I thought the last couple games we played were more like ourselves,” Conley said. “We played with a little bit more pop, more energy. I think guys, whether the schedule or whatever, we’ve been all over the country, flying all over the place. Lot of guys sick, doing all kinds of stuff, so we’re just in a weird part of the year where all that stuff just hit us at the right time, and I think we’re coming out of that.”
–Field Level Media