{"id":434335,"date":"2026-10-22T03:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434335\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T03:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T03:34:15","slug":"orlando-magic-fall-to-atlanta-hawks-in-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434335\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic fall to Atlanta Hawks in season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 The Orlando Magic<\/a> opened the season at home with a loss against the Atlanta Hawks, 132-125.<\/p>\n

The Magic got off to a quick start, led by their two stars, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who finished the first quarter with a combined 15 points.<\/p>\n

Banchero kept it going in the second quarter with 14 points in the period, including two three-pointers, finishing the half three-for-three from beyond the arc for a total of 22 points. <\/p>\n

The Magic held a lead as large as 10 points in the first half; however, 13 turnovers helped the Hawks take a 72-62 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n

The Magic stormed back into the game in the third, finishing the quarter on a 21-8 run, including 11 points from Wagner. Magic led after the third, 100-99.<\/p>\n

The fourth quarter went back and forth, with 11 lead changes between the two teams. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 11 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Hawks close out the game.<\/p>\n

Banchero finished the game with 35 points, 7 rebounds, and 10 assists. His 35 points are the second most in a season opener behind Nick Anderson\u2019s 42 points against the Heat in 1992 and Shaquille O\u2019Neal\u2019s 42 against the Heat in 1993. Wagner finished with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.<\/p>\n

The Magic\u2019s next game is Friday at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves; tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm.<\/p>\n

Watch the game live on MagicTV 27. <\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 The Orlando Magic opened the season at home with a loss against the Atlanta Hawks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3108,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-434335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-basketball","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434335","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=434335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}