Los Angeles Lakers (45\u201325) vs. Orlando Magic (38\u201331) | Game 71 of 82<\/p>\n
WHERE TO WATCH AND WHAT TIME<\/p>\n
Date: Thursday, March 19\u00a0<\/p>\n
Location: Kia Center \u2014 Orlando, Florida<\/p>\n
TV: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet\u00a0<\/p>\n
Radio: ESPN LA 710 \/ 1330 KWKW<\/p>\n
GAME PREVIEW<\/p>\n
The Lakers (45\u201325) battle the Magic (38\u201331) in the fourth matchup of their six-game road trip.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles pushed their win streak to a season-high eight games on Thursday, beating the Heat on the second night of a back-to-back behind Luka Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s electric 60-point performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the most points Don\u010di\u0107 has scored in a Lakers uniform, breaking his previous high of 51 points just last week against the Bulls. He is the first Laker to score 60 since the late great Kobe Bryant\u2019s final game.<\/p>\n
LeBron James had a triple-double in the win in Miami, his 124th of his career. James finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds (season-high) and 10 assists while shooting 66.7% (eight for 12) from the floor. He has shot 80.7% (21 for 26) from the field in his last two games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lakers could be down a starter in Orlando. Austin Reaves is listed as questionable with right hip soreness and could be a game-time decision.<\/p>\n
The Lakers closed out the Heat after a strong second-half start, outscoring Miami 38-23 in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Orlando is coming off a three-game skid after losing to the Hornets by 19 points on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s matchup marks the second and final regular-season meeting between the teams this season.<\/p>\n
The Lakers are 22-13 on the road, while the Magic are 21-12 at home.<\/p>\n
WHY THIS GAME MATTERS<\/p>\n
The Lakers stand tall at No. 3 in the West, two games ahead of the Timberwolves, who are right behind them. A win will push their cushion, as they can\u2019t let their foot off the gas with 11 games left in the season.<\/p>\n
L.A. holds a season tiebreaker over the Timberwolves, Rockets and Nuggets. All three are right behind them, in that order, in the West.<\/p>\n
KEY MATCHUP<\/p>\n
Get your popcorn ready because the key cinema matchup will be Don\u010di\u0107 and Paolo Banchero going at it.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 lost the matchup battle in the first meeting between the two, as Banchero finished with a game-high 36 points while Don\u010di\u0107 had 22 points (15 assists) on eight for 24 (33%) shooting and two for 10 (20%) shooting from 3.<\/p>\n
Banchero leads Orlando in scoring and rebounding, averaging 22.3 points and 8.5 rebounds in 59 games this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orlando\u2019s second-leading scorer, Franz Wagner (21.3 ppg), will not be playing.<\/p>\n
WHAT TO AVOID<\/p>\n
Getting off to a slow start.<\/p>\n
The Lakers got off to another slow start in Miami, getting outscored 42-29 in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n
Another thing the Lakers need to avoid is their defense inside the paint against the Magic after allowing 70 total paint points against the Heat.<\/p>\n
NOTABLE OPPONENT RANKS AMONG THE NBA<\/p>\n
The Magic’s current ranking:<\/p>\n
16th (114.1) in offensive rating<\/p>\n
12th (113.2) in defensive rating<\/p>\n
PTS \u2014 17th (115.4)FTM \u2014 1st (21.5)FTA \u2014 1st (26.9)FG% \u2014 21st (46.3%)3P% \u2014 26th (34.5%)<\/p>\n
They also allow the fewest 3-pointers per game (11.9) and are tied for 1st in second-chance points allowed.<\/p>\n
STAT TO WATCH<\/p>\n
LeBron James (1611 games) is currently one game away from breaking Robert Parish’s (1611 games) record for the most games played in NBA history and three games from breaking it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
SEASON SERIES<\/p>\n
Game 1 \u2014 Lakers 110-109 loss vs. Orlando on Feb. 24<\/p>\n
INJURY REPORT<\/p>\n
Franz Wagner (ankle): Out<\/p>\n
Jonathan Isaac (knee): Out<\/p>\n
Anthony Black (abdomen): Out<\/p>\n
Wendell Carter Jr. (ribs): Questionable<\/p>\n
THREADS FOR THE GAME<\/p>\n
The Lakers will wear their purple Statement Edition uniform on the road, while the Magic will wear their white Association Edition uniform.<\/p>\n
NEXT MATCHUP<\/p>\n
The Lakers head to Detroit next on Monday to continue their six-game road trip, concluding the trip in Indiana on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers (45\u201325) vs. Orlando Magic (38\u201331) | Game 71 of 82 WHERE TO WATCH AND WHAT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92784,92785,8085,15357,78773,2295,115,139,141,140,92786],"class_list":["post-200851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-austin-reaves","tag-la-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-tst-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200851","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=200851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}