{"id":347394,"date":"2025-12-14T01:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T01:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/347394\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T01:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T01:27:09","slug":"orlando-magic-fall-to-knicks-in-cup-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/347394\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic fall to Knicks in Cup semis"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 When discussing his team\u2019s keys to success ahead of Saturday\u2019s NBA Cup<\/a> semifinal against the Knicks<\/a>, coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a> had one name top of list to try to slow down.<\/p>\n

New York All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson.<\/p>\n

The Magic<\/a> failed to accomplish their goal when Brunson posted 40 points in a 132-120 victory over Orlando<\/a> at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Prime Network.<\/p>\n

Although Jalen Suggs (26 points), Paolo Banchero (25) and Desmond Bane (18) combined for 69 points, New York had Karl-Anthony Towns (29 points) and OG Anunoby (24) total 53 in addition to Brunson.<\/p>\n

Neither side took care of the ball when the Magic scored 21 points off 12 takeaways and the Knicks 17 off 14 Orlando turnovers.<\/p>\n

The New York win ties the regular-season series at 2-2 with Orlando dropping a second game to the Knicks in less than a week (Magic fell by six last Sunday on the road).<\/p>\n

While the Knicks (18-7) advance to the Cup championship to face the winner of Spurs-Thunder on Tuesday, the Magic (15-11) will have multiple days off before they travel to Denver on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Super Suggs<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to imagine where the Magic would have been without a strong offensive showing from Suggs in the first two quarters.<\/p>\n

The Magic guard went mano a mano with New York\u2019s Brunson when the pair both notched 25 points in the first half alone. Suggs scored 10 in the opening frame and added 15 in the second when he only missed five shots from the floor before the break.<\/p>\n

Often putting his body on the line, Suggs provided a spark for Orlando early but only scored 1 point in the final two frames.<\/p>\n

He appeared to move slowly in the second half and went to the locker room with 7:35 left in the game. The Magic said he was questionable to return due to a sore left hip and he did not make his way back.<\/p>\n

Rest of starters<\/p>\n

While Suggs got going early, the same couldn\u2019t be said for Banchero, who missed his first four shots from beyond the arc and only had 8 points at the half.<\/p>\n

Banchero added 8 points in the third quarter alone and 9 more in the finale frame, but wasn\u2019t efficient from distance (0 for 7) when he added 5 turnovers.<\/p>\n

Besides Suggs, Bane was Orlando\u2019s only other double-digit scorer in the first half (11 points) when he hit his first 3 and drove regularly to the basket. But he picked up his third foul with about two minutes left in the second quarter and fouled with just over a minute remaining in the game.<\/p>\n

Wendell Carter Jr. hit a pair of 3-pointers when he scored 14 points in 35 minutes.<\/p>\n

Anthony Black, who started in place of Franz Wagner (left high ankle sprain) for a second game in a row, struggled when he shot 1 for 6 from 3 and turned the ball over 4 times.<\/p>\n

Rookie watch<\/p>\n

Jase Richardson checked into the game after Suggs exited midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The No. 25 pick made his first pair of buckets including a 3-pointer that brought Orlando within six points of New York with under five minutes to play.<\/p>\n

Richardson took advantage of his late action when he posted 9 points in 8 minutes with 2 assists and a rebound.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 When discussing his team\u2019s keys to success ahead of Saturday\u2019s NBA Cup semifinal against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2558,355,11950,5262,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-347394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-orlando-magic","11":"tag-social","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}