Orlando Magic looks to stop his current free fall when Victor Wembanyama, De’aaron Fox and the new appearance San Antonio Spurs come to town on Saturday.
Magin has dropped 10 of its last 12 games, including five out of six on their just collected Road Trip, which ended with a defeat of 112-90 against Denver Nuggets on Thursday.
The spurs has not done much better lately and lost eight of the last 11. They come from a road loss on 117-116 to Charlotte Hornets on Friday night, Fox’s second match with the team.
Fox, who arrived from Sacramento Kings through a three-team trading earlier this week, put Spurs forward 116-114 by sinking a stepback bracket with 7.9 seconds left. Miles Bridges responds with a game-winning 3-pointer for Hornets with 1.4 seconds to go.
Spur acting head coach Mitch Johnson lamented his team that allowed Charlotte to take 16 offensive returns that led to 27 other chance points.
“I put it under the umbrella for physics, and pretty, pretty disappointing,” Johnson said.
Fox got 22 points and pulled out six assists against Hornets after producing 24 and 13 respectively in his debut with Spurs on Wednesday, a 126-125 victory over values Atlanta Hawks.
“He makes tough shots, big shots. He’s not away from that moment. It’s definitely something we expect from him and it’s great time,” Johnson said. “When there are players who have been in these situations several times, there is a certain level of calm and trust they play with, and I think it exudes their teammates.”
Orlando, meanwhile, saw Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. Combine for 58 points on Thursday, and exceeded Magic’s starting lineup of 10. Orlando Center Wendell Carter Jr. Matched their season best with a team-high 19 points from the bench.
The magic begins a stretch of 10 home games in their next 11.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to steal a couple of games, get our Mojo back, our swagger back,” Carter said. “When we’re back in the Kia Center I know that our fans are waiting for us there, I think it will be good. Especially these next three to go into (all -star) break, I think it will be Set our tone for the rear half of the season.
Wembanyama leads Spurs in points (24.4 points per match) and rebounding (10.9), although his most impressive contribution has come to the defensive end. He is on average 3.88 blocks per match. If he maintains this rate, it would be the most of an NBA player as Alonzo’s mourning an average of 3.91 during the 1998-99 campaign.
Franz Wagner has been Orlandos Motor this season, on average team heights of 24.8 points and 5.1 assists per match, plus 5.4 returns. Paolo Banchero has been a heavy contributor in his 19 matches, an average of 22.3 points and 7.2 boards.
Georgian Center Goga Bitadze is in the middle of a breakout campaign and leads the team on 8.1 returns while adding 9.1 points per match. Both are career heights.
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