{"id":427357,"date":"2026-10-14T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T06:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427357\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T06:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T06:30:08","slug":"beedes-breakdown-orlando-magic-bounce-back-against-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/427357\/","title":{"rendered":"Beede’s Breakdown: Orlando Magic bounce back against Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jalen Suggs<\/a> made his preseason debut and the Magic<\/a> rolled over the Cavaliers<\/a> in their first home exhibition under new coach Sean Sweeney<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Paolo Banchero<\/a> (24 points) and Franz Wagner<\/a> (20) combined for 44 points in a 132-116 victory that saw Orlando<\/a> lead wire-to-wire and by as many as 31 points in front of a national TV audience on NBC\u2019s Peacock.<\/p>\n

The Magic fell on the road by 14 points at Cleveland on Sunday night in their second preseason game, but Orlando moved the ball better and played with more pace throughout the night Tuesday. The Magic were more balanced on offense, scoring 64 points in the paint and shooting 36% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the way the ball moved,\u201d Sweeney said after the 16-point victory. \u201cI thought we did a really good job of playing extremely aggressively and making every option live on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando also did a stronger job defending against Cleveland\u2019s James Harden, who scored 24 points in 26 minutes Sunday. The eight-time All-NBA guard was limited to just 13 points in 27 minutes when he shot 3 for 12 from the floor with three turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, I thought we did a really good job of understanding what we were trying to get accomplished from a scheme standpoint,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cAnd then the carryover on things that we wanted to improve upon last game, I thought we did a really good job with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With three exhibitions under their belt, the Magic wrap up the preseason Friday night against the Heat at Kia Center (7 p.m., MagicTV 27\/DAZN).<\/p>\n

Starting 5<\/p>\n

With Suggs back in the fold and Desmond Bane back from a scheduled off night, the Magic opened with their regular starting lineup for the first time this preseason: Suggs, Bane, Wagner, Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. against Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Wagner (10 points) and Banchero (7) got going early on offense by attacking the basket and scoring all of Orlando\u2019s first 17 points. Banchero totaled 15 points in 18 first-half minutes and Wagner added 11 while converting crafty finishes around the rim.<\/p>\n

Bane, Banchero and Wagner all played into the second half for the first time this preseason. The German forward kept it rolling in the third quarter by scoring Orlando\u2019s first five points out of the break.<\/p>\n

Banchero bounced back from a 1 for 10 shooting performance Sunday with a 10 for 13 showing on Tuesday. He added eight rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought their aggressiveness was great,\u201d Sweeney said about Banchero and Wagner. \u201cBoth those guys have the ability to make plays in different areas and I love how they\u2019re playing together. The way they started the game, I thought they did a really nice job on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bane knocked two triples but missed seven other attempts when he recorded eight points in 26 minutes. Carter neared a double-double with seven points and seven rebounds alongside one block in 22 minutes.<\/p>\n

Welcome back, Suggs<\/p>\n

After missing Orlando\u2019s first two games due to an illness, Suggs beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.<\/p>\n

He added two more triples in the second quarter to help power Orlando\u2019s offense that outscored Cleveland 37-24 in the 12-minute period.<\/p>\n

Playing mostly 3-5 minute stints, Suggs ended 3 for 4 from 3-point range for nine points with five rebounds and two assists in 13 first-half minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty eager to get back on the court,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a really good buildup to those first two games so it was a bit hard on the mental, sitting out those two. So, I was just excited to get back on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second unit<\/p>\n

While Suggs returned, the Magic were still without Anthony Black (right ankle sprain) and Jonathan Isaac against the Cavs. In addition, veteran center Nikola Vucevic had the night off for rest.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s first five players off its bench were, in order, Jase Richardson, Tristan da Silva, Jamal Cain, Goga Bitadze and Noah Penda, the latter of whom started the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Bitadze (14 points) posted nine first-half points and slammed down three separate alley-oops, two of which came off assists from Richardson. Meanwhile, the second-year guard notched 10 points, four rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes.<\/p>\n

Da Silva continued to let it fly from beyond the arc and shot the ball quickly after he\u2019d catch it on the perimeter. The third-year forward ended with 18 points in 20 minutes while shooting 4 for 11 from 3-point range, marking his third consecutive preseason game with at least 10 long-range attempts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal shooter,\u201d Sweeney said about da Silva. \u201cHe works at it. He does a great job of finding the right shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Suggs made his preseason debut and the Magic rolled over the Cavaliers in their first home exhibition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427358,"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-427357","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\/427357","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=427357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}