The young Orlando Magic are shining with pride collectively as a group not only because they got the Wednesday dub over the contending Dallas Mavericks, but they also clamped off the sizzling Luka Doncic.
For the first time this season, Doncic was limited to 24 points, as the Magic put an end to his historic 30-point game stretch throughout the Dallas Mavericks’ nine games to start this season.
The Slovenian phenom caught a chilling hand all night, going 9-for-29 overall while only going 2-for-11 from the three-point line, as the Mavs were barred to 87 total points.
“Every NBA team can beat you and I played terrible, but I think as a group we didn’t play good,” Doncic said, via ESPN. “We have to approach the game better.”
Despite the leadership of Spencer Dinwiddie’s 29 points, the Mavs shot inconsistently on their road loss. They finished with a 37.6 field goal percentage (32-for-85) and were decimated in rebounding numbers, pulling down 29 against the dominating 49 of the Magic.
All without top pick wonder rookie Paolo Banchero who has been brilliant for them so far, Orlando hammered Dallas on a solid bounce-back victory to be back on the win board. Chuma Okeke, who took the starting gig with Banchero out, revealed that their defensive game plan was all about Doncic.
“Luka was our focus coming into the game. He’s one of the best in the league, scoring, passing, all of that,” said Okeke. “We had a specific game plan of what we wanted to do, which was pressure him, not make anything easy. That was the game plan for the whole game.”
“We have everything to prove as a group and also as individual players,” meanwhile said Franz Wagner, who commanded the Magic with 22 markers. “We weren’t satisfied with our performance the other day against Houston. … We want to be a resilient team. We have to get better at finishing games, playing through mistakes and stuff like that.”
With the win, Orlando added another winning post to their record at 3-9. On the other side, the Mavs dropped slightly with a 6-4 card.
