{"id":423969,"date":"2026-10-10T04:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423969\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T04:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:42:18","slug":"orlando-magic-pleased-with-first-preseason-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423969\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic pleased with first preseason performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Magic<\/a> coach Sean Sweeney<\/a> reviewed the film from Wednesday\u2019s 122-118 preseason victory over the Grizzlies<\/a>, the first-time NBA head coach was relatively pleased with what he saw on the court.<\/p>\n

After weeks of voluntary practice and official team training camp, Orlando<\/a> jumped on the opportunity to show what it had been working on while learning Sweeney\u2019s offensive and defensive systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we played really stood out in a number of ways, but one of the things was how connected we were on both ends,\u201d the Magic coach said after Friday\u2019s practice at the AdventHealth Training Center. \u201cOffensively, the ball moved. And defensively, I thought we were doing a pretty good job of executing. We were a little slow in some spots, but I thought the connection was a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Sweeney\u2019s point, the Magic racked up 35 assists, shot 44% from 3-point range and outrebounded Memphis 52-40 during\u00a0 the four-point win. The majority of the team\u2019s starters only played in the first half.<\/p>\n

Still, the Grizzlies got sent to the free-throw line 28 times, recorded 48 points in the paint and notched 20 second-chance points.<\/p>\n

While the results of the preseason ultimately don\u2019t count, the Magic players themselves agreed with Sweeney\u2019s assessment of their first exhibition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took what we\u2019ve been working on and we applied it,\u201d Magic center Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> said. \u201cOffensively, the ball was moving. It was beautiful basketball. Defensively, we were locked in. We were communicating. For a first game after a month being together working on things together, for us to go out there and put on that type of showcase, I\u2019m pretty pleased with it, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Magic forward Paolo Banchero<\/a>: \u201cObviously, it\u2019s preseason so I\u2019m still waiting for the real thing, but the carryover is good to see us taking what we were doing in the practices and the training camp and applying it to a real game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it was just one preseason game \u2014 and Orlando\u2019s second preseason game is on Sunday at Cleveland (6:30 p.m., ESPN) \u2014the Magic came away feeling confident with the product on the court.<\/p>\n

That outcome could impact their mentality throughout the rest of the preseason as they move closer to opening night, Oct. 21 against the Atlanta Hawks at Kia Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence just in general is based on evidence,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cYou can\u2019t wave a magic wand and say, \u2018Abracadabra,\u2019 (and there\u2019s) confidence. You\u2019ve got to show it. We showed things that we can be confident in, and now we\u2019ve got to build on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the things that we need to improve upon, we\u2019ve got to make those corrections and get those things right so we can build on that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roster updates<\/p>\n

Sweeney said both Anthony Black<\/a> (right ankle sprain) and Noah Penda<\/a> (right hamstring strain) were both full participants in Friday\u2019s practice and are doing well after they missed the preseason opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought both of those guys showed some flashes of things that we want to see and did a good job,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019ll keep building on what they did today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jalen Suggs<\/a> (illness) is still under the weather but he\u2019s been getting some shots up in practice, Sweeney said. The team will be smart about how he returns to play.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Isaac, who missed Wednesday\u2019s preseason game at Memphis due to personal reasons, was not seen during the media-viewing session of Friday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Magic coach Sean Sweeney reviewed the film from Wednesday\u2019s 122-118 preseason victory over the Grizzlies, the first-time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423970,"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":["post-423969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423969","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=423969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}