Jimmy Butler and the surging Golden State Warriors open a five-game road trip Thursday with a visit to Orlando.
The Warriors are 6-1 since acquiring Butler and have climbed to eighth in the Western Conference, just a half-game behind the sixth-place Los Angeles Clippers.
Butler had just six points in the Warriors 128-92 win over Charlotte on Tuesday night — well off his average of 18 since joining the team — but has lifted the Warriors with his defense and leadership.
“Obviously, we found something and it’s exciting,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said on Tuesday. “But we can’t get too excited because there’s a lot of work ahead, 24 games to go. We are trying to climb the ladder and we have to keep it going.”
While Golden State is climbing the ladder, the Magic have fallen off it. Once 17-9 and third in the East, Orlando has dropped to seventh, four games behind sixth-place Detroit. The Magic are coming off their worst loss of the season, a 40-point blowout against the Cavaliers on Tuesday.
“We got ran off the floor. Simple as that,” Magic star Paolo Banchero said after the defeat.
Banchero missed a big chunk of the season with an oblique injury, and the Magic also lost Moritz Wagner to a torn ACL just before Christmas. On top of that, they’re without guard Jalen Suggs, who has missed the last 13 games with a quad injury. The Magic are 9-16 this season without Suggs in the lineup.
“We’ll practice tomorrow, we’ll get after it, we’ll compete, and we’ll figure out how we get a game on Thursday,” said Magic coach Jamahl Mosley. “But tomorrow’s going to be a practice that we get after it, and we understand exactly what we need to do, getting back to the basics, back to the fundamentals, a simple, physical, aggressive style of Orlando Magic basketball that we need to play.”
Banchero is second on the Magic with 23 points per game, and the club still leads the NBA in team defense, giving up an average of 105.5 points per contest. Orlando, though, ranks last in scoring at just 103.9 points.
Adding to Orlando’s woes, guard Cole Anthony hyperextended his left knee against Cleveland and was slated to be re-evaluated on Wednesday. Anthony is listed as questionable for Thursday’s matchup with the Warriors. Mosley is searching for any good signs.
“We didn’t play our style of basketball. We’ll look at it, we’ll practice hard tomorrow and get back to work. That’s what we know and that’s what’s going to help us figure out some of these lulls and some of these situations and we’ll go from there.”
The Warriors were without forward Jonathan Kuminga in Tuesday’s win over Charlotte while he deals with an ankle injury. Golden State has eight players averaging double figures, led by Steph Curry at 23.3 points per game.
After starting 12-3 before leveling off, there is cautious optimism for Golden State, which has seemingly hit its stride since the Butler trade.
“I’m excited. We have a great opportunity here against some good teams,” Kerr said. “We finally have some momentum again since our early-season run. It’s a great chance for us to take this on the road and keep things going.”
Golden State downed the Magic 104-99 on Feb. 3 in San Francisco.
–Field Level Media
