The Orlando Magic capped a four-game road swing with their third straight win, leading wire-to-wire with a dominant first half en route to a 128-116 defeat of the Indiana Pacers on Sunday in Indianapolis.
Orlando scored the game’s first 11 points and never looked back, building a lead of as many as 40 points in Sunday’s win.
The Magic shot a blistering 16-of-25 in the first quarter while holding the Pacers to just 7-of-20 shooting from the floor in the opening 12 minutes. Orlando doubled up Indiana through the first period, 42-21, then piled on more with a 14-of-26 shooting second quarter.
The Magic scored 78 first-half points and held a 34-point lead at intermission.
Indiana came into Sunday’s contest averaging a league-best 126.5 points per game and 47.5 made field goals a contest. Orlando limited the Pacers to 42-of-95 shooting from the floor, including 8-of-31 from beyond the 3-point arc, and forced 16 turnovers.
Paolo Banchero led six Magic scorers in double-figures with 24 points. Franz Wagner scored 19 points and snared seven rebounds, and Jalen Suggs added 18 points.
Goga Bitadze, who played the previous four seasons in Indiana, finished with eight points and a game-high eight rebounds for Orlando.
Moritz Wagner and Cole Anthony came off the bench to score 16 and 15 points, while Gary Harris added another 13 points in reserve duty.
No Pacers starter scored more than Bennedict Mathurin’s 14 points. The NBA’s leader in assists, Tyrese Haliburton, dished just three in the loss.
The Indiana bench breathed some life into the team in the fourth quarter, however.
Jordan Nwora scored a team-high 19 points, helping key a 16-2 fourth-quarter run. Indiana cut the deficit down to 11 points late, outscoring Orlando 38-21 in the fourth quarter and 72-50 in the second half.
T.J. McConnell added 11 points from the Pacers bench and Jalen Smith went for 10 points.
–Field Level Media
