Magic Host the Wizards Tonight Still Looking for a First Home Win — Without Banchero, Suggs or Black
Orlando is 0-3 at the Kia Center, on the second night of a back-to-back, and missing three rotation players as the 3-3 Washington Wizards visit for a 7:30 p.m. tip — the Magic's last home game before a five-game West Coast trip.
The Orlando Magic get one more chance to win a home game before the road takes them: the Washington Wizards visit the Kia Center on Monday night for a 7:30 p.m. Eastern tip, and Orlando goes in 0-3 on its own floor. The latest home loss came Sunday afternoon, a 108-97 defeat to Boston in which Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva scored 23 points apiece, Franz Wagner shot 5-for-20, and Jayson Tatum's 32 points carried the Celtics. After Monday, the Magic leave for a five-game West Coast road trip and do not play at home again until Nov. 13 against Milwaukee.
The injury report is the story inside the story. Paolo Banchero is out with a right low-grade high ankle sprain, Jalen Suggs is out with a right knee contusion and bone bruise, and Black — Sunday's co-leading scorer — is also out for right ankle injury management, according to the preview injury reports read this run. That leaves Wagner, Desmond Bane and Wendell Carter Jr. carrying a team that has scored fewer than 100 points in three of its last five games, playing its second game in two days.
Washington arrives rested and, at 3-3, holding the Southeast Division's best record. The Wizards beat Charlotte 95-79 on Friday behind Anthony Davis's 25 points and 12 rebounds, with Trae Young healthy and running the offense, and they are 1-2 on the road. History leans hard the other way: Orlando has won 14 of the last 15 meetings and seven straight at home against Washington. Oddsmakers made the Magic a 2.5-point favorite despite the absences. The final from the Kia Center will be filed here within 45 minutes of the buzzer.
