STEAL: Orlando Magic SHOCK Mavericks—Wendell Carter, Jalen Suggs DELIVER Must-Win Comeback

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Down by four with less than 40 seconds to play.

Desmond Bane told Palo Bencaro, we are going to win this game.

How the magic played a full 48 minutes and needed every single one to beat the Mavericks

today on Lockdown Magic.

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network, your team every day.

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It's the 2012 season coming to you today from the Kia Center on today's episode of Lockdown

Magic, how the Orlando Magic stole a must win game from the Dallas Mavericks.

And why the win says a lot about what the magic had been missing and who they really are.

We're going to get to that.

Plus the bench gets its moment coming up here in just a moment before we want to thank

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Play your game.

Things look bleak like undoubtedly things looked bleak.

It's kind of a a thargic slow game for the magic we're going to get to all that.

But the knitting gritty, the nuts and bolts, it's the magic we're down by four with 37 seconds

to play.

Palo van Carrot took, I would say a poor three point shot, a poor three point decision taking

a pull up three.

Cooper flag got the ball or the magic I think got the rebound.

What a car got the rebound had the ball knocked away from him.

Cooper flag went to the other end of the floor, drove on Carter, got the foul and the

basket to put the Mavericks up by four after trailing by ten in the fourth quarter.

After giving away the wrongly, trailing by as much as 11, the magic found themselves

on the wrong end of a loss they could not have.

And I think everyone in that locker room or everyone in that huddle knew that.

Everybody knew the magic could not lose this game.

Palo told us that after the fact, you know, when we talked to him in locker room, just

five minutes ago or so, ten minutes ago or so, as I'm recording this, of course, he

said, yeah, I'm looking at the standings every day.

Like he knows how close they are to six, how close they might be to fifth now.

And he knows a loss like this would have been like losing a Toronto last year when the

magic lost the Raptors twice at home last year.

This is not a loss that you can have.

And what is undeniable to is the confidence the magic have.

The belief that this team still has to everything this team has gone through.

They didn't quit on this game and say what you want about that, that is a good treat

to have.

Orlando is not quitting on anything or clearly frustrations.

There's clearly a lot that's been left on the table, but there's no quit.

Running this team.

And so they made the plays they had to win the game.

Jalen Suggs, after thinking about it for a little too long, hit a humongous tree to cut

the lead to one with roughly 30 seconds to play enough time to get a stop and get down

the court.

Sizing up Cooper Flag, they forced him into a tough mid-range shot that he missed.

Orlando Carter grabs the rebound, funnels it over to Suggs, looks to the bench, they

say go, don't call time out, catch him off guard.

They get down the court, Suggs gets to the paint, finds Wendell Carter, you know, trailing

behind him or sitting in the dunker spot behind him, gets the defense to commit to him,

dumps it off the Carter for humongous dunk with 1.4 seconds to play.

And then finally the magic get the last stop they need.

Chris Middleton to throw his inbound pass wide of Cooper Flag, keeping him from getting

to the basket and letting the ball trick a lot of bounds for a 115-114 win.

It does not matter how you win, yes, we would love a prettier game, we will talk about

how ugly this game was here in a minute.

It does not matter how you win.

All that matters and all the standings care about and all they're going to care about

the end of the season is did you win.

At one point, 20 point, they all count the same, now 20 point win might give you a little

more confidence, but they all count the same.

And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

Now, could this be a turning point win, we're going to find out Minneapolis on Saturday,

we're going to find out in Milwaukee on Sunday, certainly just on its face, winning this

game, which you are supposed to win.

And look, Dallas has got a lot of talents and players, Clay Thompson turned the clock

back, made seven threes, got fouled another threes, we made eight threes, Chris Middleton

hit some humongous shots in the fourth quarter.

This a veteran team with a really good player in Cooper Flag.

If you let them hang around, they can beat you.

And they got their pieces back tonight, their players back tonight that they hadn't had

for a little while.

But ultimately, this is the less than the magic need to take.

It's going to take all 48 minutes to win any game.

And as long as there is time left on that clock, if you play with energy, if you play with

effort, if you play with confidence, you have a chance to win.

Because this magic team for all its flaws, for all the things it has struggled with all

season, this magic team is super duper talented.

Like this team is everything we thought it could be unrealized.

And in a little moments, in these little pockets, we see the team we all thought we were

going to see at the beginning of the season.

And again, the magic are a half game back of the Philadelphia 76 or 26.

They are, I believe, a game and a half or two and a half games back of fifth for the Toronto

Raptors.

And they still got a game with the Raptors.

That is for the tiebreaker as well, magic you got on the tiebreaker with Philadelphia.

There's still a quarter of a season left, 20 games left, that is a lot, it's not a lot

of time.

These games now ramp up in intensity, but there is still a lot of time for the magic to

make a push, for the magic to climb these standings.

The magic to be that team and see what happens in the playoffs.

It's going to come down to the last game.

We will see you in Boston in mid April, an early April, to see where the chips fall at

the end of the year.

But the one thing that this magic team has shown is their ability.

But this team has struggled with all year is directing that ability in the right direction,

directing that ability toward success, toward the best version of themselves.

Look, there's been a lot of talk among national media.

We've addressed it in multiple ways from multiple angles on this show.

The comments from Sunday, which all mostly said that the second half of the piss has just

played harder, and then Palo came back and said, we failed to make adjustments, we failed

to adjust.

For the record, Palo did say after today's game, and the magic do need to play harder.

And again, that's on him as much as everybody else, but that effort and this game was

lethargic.

That's the only way I could describe it.

They just looked slow, and whether it's Dallas giving size, giving him an issue, they're

not fouling, some early block shots.

The magic never really found an offensive rhythm, except in the second half, except in the

third quarter, when their defense led with the energy.

The magic, for lack of a better way to praise it, have struggled to put together a full

48 minutes all game.

And yet, this game is proof that if the magic played to the last second, they can win,

even when they don't play well, even when they struggle, they can win if they play with

effort, if they play with intensity, if they play with focus.

This game was not perfect, it was a bad game.

Offense was sluggish, defense was rough, especially in the first half.

They're struggling to keep guys in front of them.

They were given up loads of threes who team that does not take a lot of threes.

And again, Clay was out, he's back in this game, take a ton of threes.

The magic had to fight and scratch and claw just to stay in this one, to give themselves

a chance to assert themselves heading into the fourth quarter.

And then giving that lead away because the magic do this, they can't shoot, they don't

make shots, giving the lead away, trailing by four, to scratch and claw to ensure they

won the game.

You can take it negatively and say the magic need to play better and they do.

But you can also take it positively and say, for whatever struggles, whatever difficulties

this team has had, the fight is still there.

The desire to win is still there, the talent to win is still there.

And as has been the case throughout the entire season, it's just about bringing that out

more consistently.

I say this a billion times, especially after losses, momentum is the next day's picture.

Whether this win is a turning point is a conference boost, we're not going to find out until Saturday

afternoon in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Tumbles.

This game could be meaningless, Minnesota's playing really well, could run the magic out

of the gym.

And the magic could be better, steal the win on the road, compete hard, split this road

trip coming up with Milwaukee, one of these games is the game in hand on the Sixers, I believe.

So no more advantage there, no more half game on the Sixers.

This is about playing a full 48 minutes.

The magic weren't perfect, they did that to win this game.

The magic do not get there though, without the support of one of their biggest weaknesses

of the year.

Let's talk about the bench coming up here in just a moment.

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The last few years, or certainly 2024, one of the magic's biggest strengths was their

bench.

They would throw so much depth that you, they would have scoring, Movinder was a walking

bucket, Coanty could get hot, Joe Ingalls, you know, Gogeba Todd say like, this is a,

this is a deep and talented team.

Like there are NBA players, like, you know, we'll talk about Noah Peddi here in a minute.

You know, Jason Richardson is a really promising rookie.

There are NBA level players who are not playing right now for the alignment.

This team has some depth.

But certainly because of injuries, that depth has been hurt.

That depth isn't so deep anymore.

And so that is one of the big questions for the Orlando Magic is can the magic get enough

scoring from the bench because that was one of their superpowers back in 2024.

Before they had I think the fifth highest scoring bench in the league in 2024 in 2025 before

Movinder's injury, they were top 10 in the league in bench score.

And again, remember, a lot of injuries is going to hurt your bench depth and that's not

the case anymore.

The Orlando Magic this year are 27th in the league in bench scoring at 31.3 points per

game.

A lot of that is yes, Movinder has been out and he's a big time bench score and look, all

the teams below the magic are in the playoffs.

Philadelphia Los Angeles Houston, the nicks are 26, the Raptors are 25th, the wolves are 24th,

the calves are 23rd, bench scoring may not be the most important thing.

However, because this team has been so injured and because this team does have offensive

problems, having a high scoring bench is a benefit for this team and it has been one

of the big struggles because a, your main star in Palo Bancaro, it hasn't quite been

a main star.

Franz Wagner has been out of the lineup for more than half the season now.

Jalen Suggs is at much of a primary creator.

Desmond Bain is improved but not a great primary creator.

This team needs a quality bench and that has been one of the struggles.

Tonight's game though, tonight's game was about the bench.

With the magic starters looking lethargic and struggling to fight cohesion and we'll

talk about all of them in a minute, the magic bench gave this team the lift and energy

that it needed.

Whether there's Moviger coming in doing Moviger things with his post work, taking a charge

he now has a team high five charges drawn this year, according to the, he had four

entering the game according to NBA.com's also stats, you took a charge in this game, we'll

see if they count that, but he's got a team high five charges.

That's what he does.

He lifts this team, especially at home.

Justin De Silva came in, shot a perfect seven for seven, including four for four from

three for a team high 19 points, hit several big baskets in the fourth quarter.

When the magic were struggling score, they started six for twenty two from the floor

in the fourth quarter.

That's how you give away a ten point lead in addition to fouling a lot.

A huge lift from Justin De Silva, a guy you just fills in and is playing a lot better

right now.

Whatever wall you get earlier, whatever shoulder issue is dealing with earlier, seems

like it's all good.

He's playing really, really well right now.

Devon Carter has been a huge lift as a signing eight points in this game, three for nine

shooting two for seven.

Like again, not the greatest shooting night for him.

I think he sometimes thinks he's the hero and the main character in the story, but been

a huge difference maker defensively, huge lift and a confident shooter like the magic

need that.

Goga Patata, who's been out of the rotation, started on Tuesday, had a great game, came

in and had another solid game, eight points, four rebounds, two assists, finishing around

the basket, making things happen, not afraid to use his fouls.

Magic foul too much, but sometimes you got to use it.

And then you have Noah Penda, who's been out of the rotation, coming in to fill in

for Jonathan Isaac's numbers for minutes, making these energy in a hustle place, defending

Cooper flag and defending and well, giving him a big body to put in front of him.

I'm going to see if the matchup data is up yet.

That would be awesome if it is because I would imagine, I would imagine Noah Penda was

one of the better matchups on on Cooper flag all night.

I really love Noah Penda's defense, due to his fearless.

And well, yeah, he's out of control on offense and not a great score, made a lot of big

offensive rebounds.

He had a lot of open shots that if those go down, the magic are in business.

The bench has been a struggle all year, like they're just not scoring, like I would continue

to argue, they need more offensive mind players, there's just too many guys who are not good

enough on offense.

And again, that's kind of the magic issue right now, they just, they don't have playmakers

and decision makers.

And that's a big part of what this offense is supposed to be.

That's a big part of what successful teams have.

You look at the Pacers, you look at Thunder last year's last year's two finals teams.

Everybody on that team is a decision maker.

Everybody on that team is capable of taking you off the dribble.

They're smart.

They're not making bad decisions, but that's what the matchker misses.

Like Paulo and Franz and Des and Jalen have to do a lot, have to do too much.

And that's where a stronger bench can help.

But tonight, tonight the magic it, 27, 33, 37, 45 points off their bench, let's double

check that, 8, 14, 33, 37, 45, I could add, I was told there would be no map.

The magic is 45 points off their bench.

That is an unbelievable loosen, yeah, 19 of them come from Tristan Isle, who's played

really well.

This is the magic's best offense, you know, most of the best offense player off the bench,

but Tristan's pretty close.

Tristan's gaining in confidence.

This was, this game was about as much about the energy the bench brought as the hero plays

that the magic made at the end.

Because the starters didn't have it, and we'll get to those numbers here in a minute.

The starters didn't have it.

And without the bench, without the bench changing the energy of the game, we're sitting

you're talking about a devastating loss.

We're sitting you're talking about staring up at the heat and the standings.

We're sitting here frustrated that the magic led another opportunity squatted.

This is 18, like everybody on the team will tell you they are connected, that they still

fight for each other.

You know, again, there might be bigger issues that will solve in the off season.

There might be a disconnect that needs to be resolved or just to change it needs to be

made.

And certainly like personnel is part of it too.

The magic need better players.

Are they need players that do certain things better than what their current players do?

But this group wants to win, and they again prove that tonight.

Let's talk about the starters then.

We'll talk about how the magic looked slow and lethargic.

We'll get to that coming up here in just a moment.

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Let's run through the final box for the Orlando magic to keep Dallas fabrics 115 to 114.

I want to start with the guy who deserves the biggest shout out the game winner himself

Wendell Carter.

Window Carter finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, five for six shooting, one for one from

three.

I'll get to that number here in a minute, four for four from the foul line.

I thought this was an awesome game from Wendell Carter.

He had some foul trouble early in the game, but I generally thought that he was a huge presence

in the paint.

The job deterring the the the mavericks like Daniel Gaffer got away from him a little bit.

The magic were just very slow and sluggish attacking all offensive rebounds early in the

game.

I thought Carter did a great job boxing out and trying to use clear space for his teammates

to grab rebounds, but I thought he just owned the paint.

He never really settled for three.

He did take one three and I do want to get to that note in a minute.

He didn't take a three, but most of the time he just on the perimeter gave a good hard

pump fake and drove to the basket.

He was determined to get to the basket and play with energy off the dribble.

And again, like so much of the magic's identity is about their energy and about the way that

they play.

And so what stood out tonight is when the magic played with energy, how successful they

were.

Like the game turned in the third quarter because of Jalen sucks, because Jalen sucks

played with this with loads of energy and just, you know, imposed himself on the game.

It was again, just a, it was inconsistent at times, but the magic really made things happen

and really did a good job, you know, again, when they played with energy, like the players

who played with energy, Tristan De Silva, Movogger, Goga Batadze, Wendell Carter, Jalen

Suggs, those are the guys that ultimately made a difference in this game.

And again, it's not that other guys didn't play with energy, you know, all the time.

It's just like this general thargy throughout the game, like the offense moved slowly,

like going from one action to the next was a hassle, you know, the ball stuck, stayed

in Palo's hands, who was waiting for the next action to run to the next set to go, like

things just didn't flow.

And wasn't anything really Dallas was doing, they weren't disrupting any of these actions,

it just didn't flow.

And again, that's, that's a system problem.

Like again, like we could blame the whole system and I, again, I said this many times,

I do think there are some structural systemic problems that need to be resolved in the

half season.

And, you know, you can guess where that's going to come from.

But it's, that's on the players, that's on the players, like making the reads they're

supposed to make, that they're struggling to make and how struggle to make it at various

times this season.

It was just, like, it just felt like there was gum in the gears and things were just

slow to turn.

And so, you know, when Wendell Carter plays with the center and she, it was clear, like

he was just playing kind of free and loose and moving into the spots that he was supposed

to be making the reads.

And Jalen Suggs, like I said, had some really good energy tonight to 17 points, seven

assists, which is huge, six for 14, shooting four for 11 from three.

Again, maybe took too many threes, not getting the pain enough.

I think that was a general problem throughout the game too, is that at times the magic settled

for threes in Orlando had six, had 56 points in the paint.

They were 28 or 52 in the paint.

They eventually did, did what they needed to do to get to the paint.

Fourth quarter, especially a lot of threes, a lot of them are open.

But there's a lot of this, like, I'm scared of the shocking blocked.

I'm driving to pass instead of driving to score.

There's just a lot of that throughout the game.

But Jalen, look, Jalen had that run in the third quarter.

That changed the game.

You know, got this weird shot to go down and you, like, actually lost the ball as a turnover.

And it deflected off a Maverick's player into the basket.

Very next play, he just gets into Chris Middleton.

He just, just gets into him forces the ball away, you know, knocks the ball away, goes

through the ball, gets a loose ball foul, Chris Middleton commits a technical foul.

That was a turning point again.

That's what, that's what fed the magic to take an 11 point lead in the third quarter.

That's what Jalen Suggs does.

That's how he flips games on his head and look, the shooting's not where it needs to be.

He's settling for too many threes, I think.

But he made big threes when he had to, he made the big three at the end of the game and

made some big shots throughout.

And again, just, it's all about energy.

This team for so long was about its energy, you know, again, that's, that's what define

this team is, they just played harder than anybody.

And so, you know, we could talk about what was said on Sunday, that's been a probable

year.

Like, honestly, like, that's not surprising that that is the thing because that's the

baseline of what the match do is their energy.

And when that energy's off and when the other team's playing harder than you, because

Wendell Carter said it on Monday, it should never be a question whether the other team's

playing harder than us.

And while, you know, like, I wouldn't say to Alessandro, he played harder than the

magic for structures of this game, but you can just tell it like the energy was off.

Like, there was just a lot of points in this game where Dallas played well, like, give Dallas

their credit.

They played well, play Tom Center throwback game, Chris Middleton had a throwback game,

Cooper flag played really well in the store, came back, they had a lot of guys play well.

They played a good game and the magic caught them on a good night for them.

But, but Dallas is not a team that's going to beat you.

Like, they're going to leave the door open for you, obviously.

They left the door open with 38 seconds left.

The magic wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't walk through it and close it behind them.

They're going to make mistakes and in every time Dallas seemed like he was making mistakes

that would let the magic race ahead, Orlando would just shoot itself in the foot, like,

they wouldn't make them pay for the mistakes.

And look, that switch Detroit ultimately did on Sunday is every time Orlando made a mistake

of turnover, a misshot, Detroit punished them.

And that's the difference between good teams and mediocre teams that look magic or five

games over 500, they're in the race for six, like they are a good team.

As frustrating as the season has been, as weird as their statistical profile looks,

they are a good team.

They're not a championship level team, they're not a maybe get out of the first round

level team, but they are a good team.

Not as good as we want them to be, but a good team.

But the difference between them and a championship level team is championship level teams punish

your mistakes.

And in the playoffs, you've got to punish teams for your mistakes.

And that's, that's what the magic are missing right now.

A big part of that is this was a weird game for both Palo and Desmond Bay.

Palo and Carol finished with 16 points, seven for 17 shooting, one for six from three,

one for two from the line, the two for three throw attempts, very early in the game,

very weird, 12 rebound, six assists, six turnovers.

I think we're even in his minutes, so take that plus by these people.

Palo was foul hunting and not getting fouls and that frustrated him, but just moving slow.

Like again, I don't know if he was like sick, like kind of being in the locker room with

him, it kind of sounded like he was a little bit under the weather, just speculating on

that.

Which again, happens, it's, they're human beings, it happens.

Like I've been dealing with something all week, it happens.

Just looks slow.

And again, like this has been my point all year, you know, like the crux of my criticism

for Palo all year has been, the team gets its energy from its best player.

And when the best player slows down, the rest of the team is going to slow down.

And look, Palo was waiting for things to happen.

Like again, like most of your, Palo's not trying to do the wrong things.

Like he is, he is actively trying to do the right things, he's actively trying to help

make this team win.

And again, there may be something that he can't reach back into that we expect him to

have to take over games and win them or he didn't have it tonight.

The added on Tuesday didn't have it tonight.

He still did things that ensured the magic one.

I didn't like that three that he took at the end of the game that led to the Cooper flag

shot that made it a four point game.

I thought that was the worst shot he took all game.

But again, just the whole game just felt lethargic and like Desmond Bain was a great example

of this too.

Desmond Bain was five for 13 from the floor, one for three from three, three for three

from the challenge.

Again, like everyone else, did not get to the line enough.

Palo took only two free throws, Des only took three.

Those are guys, Palo averages seven per game, Des averages four or five per game.

Like you expect those guys to get to the line and they didn't, Des struggled to finish

around Washington and Dallas's length.

He did have eight rebounds, did have three assists.

So he did some good things.

And I thought he was really good defensively.

Like he fouled too much, especially in the fourth quarter, but really got into it defensively,

which which I really like about it in this game.

But again, just something felt off.

And so like the reason why this one point game is Dallas played really well, Orlando played

it, played it like me and even me Orlando was up by 10 in the fourth quarter, was running

away with this thing and then couldn't hit a shot.

And then like reached out and deep and got it out of victory.

Like Dallas deserved to win this game.

Like Dallas was probably the better team.

But the scoreboard's what matters.

And the magic simply found a way.

All you can ask for all that matters, a lot to clean up, got to be sharper, crisper against

better teams.

And they're going to play a really good team on Saturday in Minneapolis.

And you know, Milwaukee struggling right now, you know, but that's when you have to have

as well.

The magic, the magic just found a way.

And sometimes that's what you got to do, you got to pull games out of nowhere, you got

to pull games out of you know where snatch victory from the jaws of the feet and take the

win and move on.

They're letting them match to beat the Dallas Mavericks one 15 to one 14.

They will be back in action Saturday at the target center against Minnesota Timberls.

We will be there for that one.

So we'll see you in Minneapolis for that afternoon game on Amazon Prime.

But that's going to do for me today.

I want to thank you all again for listening to today's episode of Lockdown Magic.

Or find me on Twitter at Philip R underscore on D and on blue sky.

At Philip RRE.

You can subscribe to the podcast and Apple podcast search your tune in Himalguid Voice

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And I'll find you down the podcast to your podcast, enable listening device.

You can check us out on YouTube as well to search for Lockdown Magic for the latest on

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Be sure to check out Orlando Magic Daily.com.

You can find us on Twitter at oh magic daily in for even more Orlando Magic content.

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And be sure to check out our every day or club at lockdownmagic.supercast.com.

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Again, check it out at lockdownmagic.supercast.com.

As always, thank you for your support.

For those of you on video, we're going to send you the first ever 24 seven national NBA

YouTube channel on audio, make sure you make your second listen NBA game night on locked

on NBA where I'm sure they'll be talking about this one.

But that's good to do for me today.

I want to thank you all again for listening to today's episode of a locked on magic.

We back again Saturday night afternoon games.

We'll be out Saturday night.

We'll be back Saturday night to recap the magic scheme against some of the sort of terminals,

but until then for Orlando Magic Daily locked on magic.

This can build Ross tonight.

We'll see you all again next time for another episode of locked on magic.

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