With key games against the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks looming, the Orlando Magic hope to gain some momentum at the expense of the visiting Sacramento Kings on Thursday night.
The Magic (38-34) find themselves in the thick of a six-team battle for the final two guaranteed playoff positions in the Eastern Conference despite having lost six in a row.
The last three defeats have come by a total of just eight points, giving Orlando coaches and players belief a turnaround could be on the horizon.
“We played well and played together,” Jamal Cain noted to reporters after a season-best 17-point effort in a 136-131 loss at Cleveland on Tuesday. “If we keep competing like that, we’ll eventually turn it over and win some games.
“We know the situation we’re in. We know what type of basketball we’re playing. Ultimately, it’s winning basketball. Eventually, it’s going to turn, and we’re going to win games. We have to keep level-minded. We just know that it’s going to turn over.”
The Magic have allowed 124 or more points four times during their losing streak. Giving up 128 and 136 in their last two contests was too much to overcome despite putting up 126 and 131, respectively.
Orlando will be seeing a Sacramento team that’s had similar issues. The Kings won 126-122 over the Brooklyn Nets last Sunday, but have lost three other times in their last four outings in games in which they served up 132, 139 and 134 points.
Even as his team (19-54) duels Indiana, Washington and Brooklyn for the fewest wins in the league, Kings coach Doug Christie walked away from a 134-90 drubbing at Charlotte on Tuesday disappointed in the effort.
“You have to have some resistance,” he expressed to the media after watching the Hornets scorch his defense for 26 3-pointers in 55 attempts. “We have to have game-plan discipline when it comes to playing. We’ve got to make sure (to focus on) the little tiny things we know – got to be physical, got to have hands on and control them in the screens.”
The Magic enjoyed similar long-range success – making a franchise record 27 (of 50 attempts) – in a 131-94 romp at Sacramento last month. Paolo Banchero cashed in five 3-pointers to account for half his 30-point total.
The impressive output came on a night when the Magic didn’t get any scoring contribution from Cain, who played only five minutes and missed all three of his shots.
The fourth-year forward, who hadn’t scored more than 12 points in a game previously this season, has come on strong in Orlando’s last four contests, reaching double figures three times. After 15- and 10-point efforts last week, he was rewarded with a start Tuesday in Cleveland and aided his own cause with five offensive rebounds.
The Kings have a similarly fast-finishing player in Devin Carter, who has scored 24, 16 and 18 points in his last three games. He had 11 points, but shot just 3-for-12, in the earlier loss to the Magic.
