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- Tickets: $26-$371+ on StubHub
- Season Series: Magic 130, Kings 111 in Sacramento on Feb. 5; Tonight in Orlando
Sacramento Kings vs. Orlando Magic: Stats and 3 Keys to Watch
Sacramento | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
99.3 | Pace | 96.6 |
115.8 | Off. Rtg. | 108.3 |
115.1 | Def. Rtg. | 109.5 |
54.8 | eFG% | 50.6 |
29.2 | O.Reb.% | 30.1 |
13.4 | TO% | 14.7 |
23.7 | FTR | 27.3 |
3. It's all about shooting
The story of the season for the Orlando Magic has been a clear one: Their struggles to shoot from three often derail everything they are trying to do. It crowds the paint and makes operating any kind of offense impossible. It decreases confidence and leads to everything stalling.
The Magic have had precious few strong shooting games. Orlando is 7-3 in games where the team shoots 40 percent or better from three and 17-7 in games where they shoot even just 35 percent or better. It does not take much for the Magic to be effective enough from three.
The team was on a good run, too—shooting better from three and hitting 35 percent from three in eight of the last 14 games. The bad still shows up, like in the Orlando Magic's 5-for-30 showing against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday—with every attempt coming with the closest defender four or more feet away, according to NBA.com's tracking data.
The Magic had their best shooting performance of the season against the Sacramento Kings in February. They hit 51.6 percent of their threes in the win.
Sacramento is 30th in the league giving up 38.5 percent shooting from three and 19th in attempts giving up 38.3 attempts per game. Orlando will need to make threes to take advantage of this weakness.
2. Bench battle
The Orlando Magic are searching for offense where they can find it. Throughout the season, they have lost one of their best superpowers—their bench scoring.
That is expected. They have been down multiple starters for much of the season. They lost their leading scorer off the bench in Moe Wagner in December, and Cole Anthony has been out of the lineup for much of the last two weeks.
It was always going to hurt the bench. And indeed, Orlando has gone from fifth in bench scoring at 40.0 points per game before Wagner's injury to 21st in scoring at 32.2 points per game off the bench since his injury.
Anthony Black has provided a nice spark in recent weeks, averaging 11.4 points per game and shooting 39.4 percent from three in his last 10 games. Orlando needed that boost and needs him to continue scoring consistently.
Those second-unit minutes will be critical. The Kings are 28th in the league in bench scoring with 26.2 points per game off the bench. The Magic must win the bench battle and keep the Kings down on this list.
1. Tightening rotation?
The Orlando Magic have largely gone with a 10-man rotation throughout the year. Coach Jamahl Mosley has been searching for reliability from his injury-depleted roster and has struggled to find it for too long.
But as the regular season starts to wind down, it does feel like the Magic's rotation is tightening and settling in on a nine-man group for most situations. Orlando has made some tough decisions and excluded some previously key players.
The key to all of this is that the Magic are trying to maximize their minutes with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. The duo is averaging 37.1 and 35.4 minutes per game respectively in March. They both average about 34 minutes per game for the season.
The duo shares the floor for roughly 24.7 minutes per game this season but are up to 26.7 minutes per game together in March. The Magic are leaning on their two stars a lot more.
The rotation decisions have largely left young players like Jett Howard and Tristan da Silva on the outside looking in and have left Jonathan Isaac completely out of the rotation. Mosley may still turn to them when matchups call for it, but the team has settled on its postseason rotation, it would appear.
Sacramento Kings vs. Orlando Magic: Injury Report & Projected Lineups
Sacramento Kings Injury Report
- Jake LaRavia - OUT (Left Thumb Bone Contusion)
- Mason Jones - OUT (G-League Two-Way)
Orlando Magic Injury Report
- Jalen Suggs - OUT (Left Knee Trochlea Cartilage Tear)
- Moe Wagner - OUT (Left Knee Torn ACL)
- Cole Anthony - DOUBTFUL (Left Big Toe Strain)
- Mac McClung - OUT (G-League Two-Way)
- Ethan Thompson - OUT (G-League Two-Way)
Projected Lineups
Sacramento | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
Keon Ellis | PG | Cory Joseph |
Zach LaVine | SG | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope |
DeMar DeRozan | SF | Franz Wagner |
Keegan Murray | PF | Paolo Banchero |
Domantas Sabonis | C | Wendell Carter |
Sacramento Kings vs. Orlando Magic: Prediction
Our Record: 39-35/36-38 ATS
Both the Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings are fighting to find their identities. They are both trying to regain some previous level of play and make good on potential that seems to be lost. And like Thursday's game against the Dallas Mavericks for the Orlando Magic, this is the kind of coin-flip game that could determine where each team lands in the Play-In seeding.
This is a must-win for both teams just like Thursday was for the Magic. That makes it a bigger game for Orlando because the team lost that game to Dallas.
The bet in this game is whether the Magic are truly playing better and whether the last 10 games are a sign of who the team is over the struggles they have had all year, or whether they are like they were in Thursday's loss and back to being anemic offensively and with their shooting.
That is a challenge to Orlando more than anything else. The team must show it will not let losses balloon and snowball.
The Kings are trying to do the same thing. They defeated the Portland Trail Blazers to snap a four-game losing streak but have lost 9 of their last 13 games, while dealing with their own set of injuries. Sacramento is healthy now.
This game is simply about who plays better in the end.