The Orlando Magic beat the New Orleans Pelicans 101-93 to get their 26th win of the season. It marks Orlando’s third-straight win over the Pelicans. It was an evenly matched game in the stat book. Yet, Orlando seemed very in-tune with one another out on the floor and were able to get the win in the Smoothie King Center.
Paolo Banchero has Phenomenal Game to End a Rough Month
Banchero hit a rough patch in the month of February. Despite a phenomenal rookie year thus far, his February has been not so great. The former Duke Blue Devil shot just 3% from beyond the arc up until Tuesday’s game.
Tuesday was a different story; he had 29 points 10-of-18 (55%) shooting from the field and snagged eight rebounds to boot. He was on a different level with an excellent mid range and had one of the best outings of his brief career thus far.
Banchero on his night: “I just wanted to be aggressive… we started getting a lot of stops and in those moments, you have to be able to go get a bucket. I used the mid-range to my advantage and be able to knock it down when we needed it.”
Other notable performances on the team came from Markelle Fultz (14 points), Franz Wagner (11 points), and Wendell Carter Jr. (11 points) who all started the game and ended up in double figures. Carter also had 11 rebounds earning a double-double, his 15th of the season.
Pelicans Lack Production Outside of Brandon Ingram and C.J. McCollum
Brandon Ingram and C.J McCollum both finished with 25 and 18 points respectively. However, there wasn’t an answer for New Orleans when it came to scoring from other players.
The next scorer behind Ingram and McCollum was Herb Jones who finished with 10 points and added six assists. The rest of the Pelicans active roster for the game finished in the single-digits in scoring.
The Pelicans also shot an abysmal 6-27 (22%) from three.
Up Next
The next game for Orlando pins them up against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night. Orlando is 26-36 and three games back for the final play-in spot that the Washington Wizards currently have. Tip-off between Orlando and Milwaukee is at 8:00 p.m. E.T.