The Orlando Magic will look to strengthen their grip on the Japanese Convention’s seventh playoff seed on Thursday evening after they go to the Washington Wizards.
The Magic have received all three conferences this season in opposition to the Wizards.
Orlando (37-40) has improved its playoff place over the past month by successful eight of its final 13 video 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 factors in 43 video games. He is also tied with Wendell Carter Jr. for the group lead in rebounds with 7.3 per recreation.
Wagner averages 24.2 factors per recreation on 46.2 taking pictures from the sector to associate 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 factors apiece, whereas Kentavious Caldwell-Pope chipped in 23.
“(Banchero and Wagner) can play off of one another, play with one another,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley mentioned. “(They) belief one another and talk with each other. It is a phenomenal factor to observe when these two can play and bounce off one another after which assist proceed to get the opposite guys on the group concerned with sharing the basketball, shifting the basketball and trusting the ball motion.”
Orlando outscored San Antonio 37-21 within the fourth quarter.
“It was nice,” Mosley mentioned of the ultimate interval. “Our potential to maintain our effort, step up in large moments. … Our toughness and focus-level was large time.”
Washington (17-59) enters Thursday’s contest having received simply two of its final 10 video games. The silver lining? A kind of wins got here on Wednesday evening, 116-111 over a Sacramento Kings group preventing for a spot within the Western Convention play-in event.
Jordan Poole led the Wizards with 23 factors on 8-of-14 taking pictures from the ground. Rookies Bub Carrington and AJ Johnson every tallied 19 factors, whereas Tristan Vukcevic added 17 factors off the bench.
Washington has the second-worst document within 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 factors and 4.5 assists in his second season in Washington.
“There’s a number of work that Jordan does in his craft on this recreation,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe mentioned. “It is actually spectacular to observe him methodically work on these things day after day after day. Rain, snow, sleet, sunshine. Good recreation, unhealthy recreation. He is in there on daily basis. These things does not occur accidentally.”
The Wizards even have acquired a giant enhance from the No. 2 general choose within the 2024 draft, Alex Sarr, who’s averaging 13.0 factors and 6.6 rebounds per recreation in 60 appearances this season.
Sarr has double-digit scoring performances in 10 of his final 12 video games.
Johnson completed with 19 factors on Wednesday. He has at the least 15 factors in three of his final six video games.
–Area Stage Media
