When Desmond Bane hit a 3-point basket to deliver a knockout punch and help the Magic capture a 115-112 victory over the Trail Blazers on Monday night at Kia Center, the newly acquired Orlando guard handed Paolo Banchero perhaps the best birthday present he’ll receive this week.

The moments leading up to the shot, Banchero missed not one, not two, but three free throws over the course of two trips to the line in a contest that otherwise likely wouldn’t have required late-game heroics from Bane had they fallen.

Of course, Bane’s shot wouldn’t have happened at all if Banchero didn’t strip the ball away from Portland guard Jrue Holiday and then have the awareness to call timeout with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game.

But that’s the beauty of basketball.

“Probably the best game-winner I’ve seen here in the Kia Center,” said Banchero, who turns 23 on Wednesday when the Magic make their way to Madison Square Garden for a meeting with the Knicks.

Added Bane: “I just want to be a part of winning. Moments like [Monday night] are the ones that really help you settle in.”

Bane had opened 0-for-5 from 3-point rage on a night that seemed destined for catastrophe until his game-winner. Portland, who actually outscored Orlando 36-28 in the final quarter, trailed by 8 points with 2:54 remaining and then just 5 a minute later.

The Trail Blazers pieced together a 10-0 run to take a 112-110 lead with 10.6 seconds left before Banchero tied it up with a layup through contact. After missing a free throw that would have put Orlando ahead by 1, he delivered on defense and snatched the ball from Holiday to give the Magic one last chance in regulation.

“It’s just trusting the work,” Bane said. “I’ve put in the time and the work. Shots are going to go in … Some go in, some don’t. But I trust them all.”

If the game went into overtime? The Magic, who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after falling to Boston on Sunday, didn’t want to find out what might happen in OT.

The Magic (5-6) travel to the Big Apple for their first appearance on ESPN against New York on Wednesday.

But for a single moment Monday night, there was pure elation for the Magic after a 4-6 start, for Bane after a 29.3% showing from 3-point range to open the season on a new team and for fans in attendance at Kia Center, who erupted when the buzzer sounded.

It’s the type of moment that could change not only Orlando’s immediate future but also its long-term outlook inside a crowded Eastern Conference.

“There’s some momentum to it, but more than anything, it was the process of everything we talked about,” coach Jamahl Mosley said. “You take care of the basketball, you continue to crash the glass and you gave yourself chances throughout the game.

“You may not have shot it well, but we did the right things at the right times, and we stuck with the process to get this one done,” he added.

Bane’s triple wasn’t the only game-winning buzzer-beater of the evening either. Down south, the Heat outlasted Cleveland 140-138 thanks to a lob from Nikola Jovic to Andrew Wiggins with less than half a second left in overtime.

It marked the first time in league history that multiple teams from the same state won via game-winning buzzer-beaters on the same night, according to ESPN Insights.

While Wiggins’ winner was at the basket, Bane’s 3-pointer (27 feet) marked the longest game-winner in Magic history, according to basketball-reference.com. It was also just fourth buzzer-beating, 3-pointer in franchise history (and the 18th buzzer-beating shot overall), the team said.

The Magic are hoping to pack the momentum of Monday in their suitcases when they travel to New York for an important conference matchup.

They’ll likely get Jalen Suggs back after he sat out the second game of the back-to-back Monday. The Knicks will be on short rest Wednesday after hosting Memphis on Tuesday.

After a 1-4 start, Orlando is 4-2 in its past six games.

“It didn’t seem real being out there,” Wendell Carter Jr. said of Bane’s shot. “To see it go down, it was amazing. It was all kind of a blur.

“I’m just happy for him, happy for this group. It’s something that we can build off of, for sure.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

Up next …

Magic at Knicks

When: 7, Wednesday, Madison Square Garden

TV: ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network Florida