{"id":106597,"date":"2026-01-05T19:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/106597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:20:07","slug":"orlando-magic-search-for-consecutive-wins-at-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/106597\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic search for consecutive wins at Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third time this season, the Magic<\/a> scored 130-plus points during Sunday\u2019s game at Kia Center<\/a> against the Pacers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a scoring mark Orlando<\/a> only accomplished twice in 82 regular-season games last year.<\/p>\n

Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad improved to 9-1 when scoring 125-or-more points (something it did just three times last season) and 7-2 when recording 30-plus assists (also matching last year\u2019s total).<\/p>\n

The offensive output was needed, however, from Orlando when, on the other end of the court, the Magic allowed 120-plus points for the 15th time, gave up a season-high 38 assists and let Indiana<\/a> shoot 44.1% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Although the Magic found a way to win 135-127, Sunday\u2019s defensive showing was far from the type of performance typical of a Mosley-coached team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense was not what it needed to be,\u201d he said after the eight-point win. \u201cAnd there\u2019s games like that in the league. But our ability to sit down and get stops is what we\u2019ve got to continue to hang our hat on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cWhat broke down is us being in a stance and not being able to keep anybody in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic were previously 2-5 in game this season when allowing 29-or-more assists to opponents and 1-5 when giving up 127-or-more points.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game was the 21st time Orlando allowed 110-plus points when the team improved to 8-13 in that scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played really well tonight offensively,\u201d rookie Jase Richardson said. \u201cEverybody was sharing the ball. But defensively, pretty sloppy from us. That\u2019s not a characteristic of how we play defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was kind of frustrating in a lot of the huddles, just letting up easy buckets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

There was one quarter of play Sunday when the Magic looked more like themselves.<\/p>\n

That came in the second frame, when Orlando outscored Indiana 41-22 while it shot 72.2% from the floor, held the Pacers to 30.4% and scored five points off four takeaways.<\/p>\n

Mosley was blunt in his assessment of what changed from the first quarter to the second after the Pacers led 36-28 after the opening 12 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stopped BSing and stopped trying to make it a rat-race game,\u201d the Magic coach said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t guarding, we were letting guys go by us, we were a step slow in a lot of ways. And then guys got a little pissed off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe changed a little bit of the rotation, guys stepped in and decided to guard,\u201d he added. \u201cThen our defense started to create our offense, which is what we\u2019ve talked about doing all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those changes included Mosley putting Richardson on the court alongside veteran guard Tyus Jones.<\/p>\n

Although neither are the tallest guards (Richardson is listed at 6-foot-1, Jones one inch shorter), the pair provided an offensive spark and allowed Orlando to match the speed of Indiana\u2019s up-tempo offense.<\/p>\n

Before Sunday, the pair had only played 21 total minutes together across two games and were only a plus-four in plus-minus rating, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But after Sunday? Those totals increased to 35 minutes and plus-17 on the floor together, according to league-tracking data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good,\u201d Jones said in the locker room. \u201cJust trying to change the tempo of the game, just give us a little life and energy off the bench. (The Pacers) were playing fast, so just trying to match that a little bit, and we did a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lineup of Jones, Richards, Desmond Bane, Jonathan Isaac and Wendell Carter Jr. scored 27 points in just nine minutes together, finishing with a plus-minus rating of plus-eight which was a team-best among the 12 five-man lineups used against Indiana, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like playing small,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou\u2019re able to play fast, kind of move the ball, touch the paint (and) spread the floor with shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley will continue to have to get creative with his lineups until Franz Wagner (left high ankle sprain), Jalen Suggs (right knee Grade 1 MCL bruise) and Moe Wagner (left knee injury recovery) return to the court.<\/p>\n

Orlando, which has alternated wins and losses the past 10 games, is still searching for consecutive victories for the first time in more than a month (last done Nov. 28-Dec. 1).<\/p>\n

The Magic head to Washington, which is 5-5 in its past 10 games, on Tuesday and then travel to Brooklyn the next night looking to end that streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going in there and playing a good team,\u201d Bane said about the Wizards, who\u2019ve won four of their last six. \u201cThey\u2019re playing good basketball playing with a lot of confidence, especially as of late. So, it\u2019s not going to be easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do it together (and) continue to share the ball,\u201d he added. \u201cWe had 34 assists (Sunday), seven turnovers \u2014 that\u2019s got to travel. Then, be better on the defensive end and it\u2019ll give us a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Wizards<\/p>\n

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Capital One Arena<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time this season, the Magic scored 130-plus points during Sunday\u2019s game at Kia Center against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-106597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-social","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}