{"id":218297,"date":"2026-04-04T03:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218297\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:45:07","slug":"orlando-magic-escape-dallas-with-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218297\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic escape Dallas with win"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Magic<\/a> took down the Mavericks<\/a> by one point inside Kia Center<\/a> on March 5, Orlando<\/a> needed a last-second dunk from Wendell Carter Jr. to escape at home.<\/p>\n

The second and final meeting of the regular season between the cross-conference foes at American Airlines Center went a bit differently Friday night.<\/p>\n

Behind a season-high 28 points from Carter and a combined 92 from himself, Desmond Bane (27), Jalen Suggs (19) and Franz Wagner (18), Jamahl Mosley\u2019s squad secured a much-needed 138-127 win on the road.<\/p>\n

While those four led the way for the Magic, it was Dallas rookie and Montverde Academy grad Cooper Flagg who shined bright with a game-high 51 points in the 11-point loss. Flagg, 19, became the first teenage in league history to post a 50-plus point game.<\/p>\n

Dallas coach Jason Kidd was ejected from the game less than two minutes into the fourth quarter after he continued to argue with the officials.<\/p>\n

With the win, Orlando captured its first victory at Dallas (24-53) since Jan. 8, 2011 and swept the Mavs in the regular season for the first time since 1997-98.<\/p>\n

Matching their win-total from a year ago with five contests still remaining, the Magic (41-36) wrap up their quick two-game trip Sunday at New Orleans in the first game of a back-to-back. Orlando hosts Detroit the following night.<\/p>\n

Wendell\u2019s way<\/p>\n

The Magic center scored 13 of his 17 first-half points by remaining aggressive around the rim, getting to the free throw line and taking advantage of his matchup vs. Dallas big man Daniel Gafford.<\/p>\n

Carter added nine points in the third quarter by knocking down his second 3-pointer of the night from the top of the key.<\/p>\n

Knocking down all 10 of free throw attempts, he scored 20-plus points for just the fifth time this season. He totaled six rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n

Da Silva dynamic<\/p>\n

Hitting his first 3-pointer of the night, Tristan da Silva notched seven points in the opening quarter and ended as the lone member of the Magic bench to score in double figures.<\/p>\n

Ending 6 for 11 from the floor with three triples, the second-year pro finished with 19 points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.<\/p>\n

Behind 23 points from Brandon Williams and 18 by Klay Thompson, the Dallas bench, however, outscored Orlando\u2019s 44-36.<\/p>\n

Free points<\/p>\n

The last time these sides met in March, Orlando only took 16 total free throws.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Magic shot 21 free throws in the first half alone, of which they made 17 before the break.<\/p>\n

Led by Carter and Bane (who shot 8 for 9), Orlando as a whole ended 30 for 37 at the charity stripe while Dallas shot 25 for 31.<\/p>\n

Rookie watch<\/p>\n

Flagg played well beyond his years when he knocked down a career-high five 3-ponters against the Magic. The showing marked his third time this season scoring 40-plus points.<\/p>\n

And he did more than just score at a high rate. The No. 1 pick who spent a year at Duke added six rebounds, three assists and three steals in 34 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

Neither Magic rookie Jase Richardson nor Noah Penda saw the floor until the final two minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Magic took down the Mavericks by one point inside Kia Center on March 5, Orlando needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-218297","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-social-sports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218297","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=218297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}