Milwaukee Bucks overwhelm defenseless Orlando Magic 122-93, Clinch Season Series

On By Littum

MILWAUKEE – Before Wednesday night’s game with the Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said the two teams were “evenly matched.”

Milwaukee had won the previous two meetings by a combined eight points. But in the third round, the gap between these Eastern Conference rivals was huge.

The Bucks, playing the second night of a back-to-back, overwhelmed an Orlando team coming in on two days’ rest. Milwaukee led by as many as 32 points in a stress-free 122-93 victory.

The Bucks made 62.5% of their field goal attempts, outscored the Magic 64-41 and scored 54 points in the paint.

The lopsided numbers can be attributed in part to the absence of Goga Bitadze, the Magic’s starting center, who entered the concussion protocol Wednesday morning. Orlando has insisted that even with their mounting injury list, they “have enough” to compete on any given night. Still, it was clear early on that the Magic couldn’t match their hosts’ energy.

In a 4-minute, 35-second stretch of the first quarter, the Bucks went on a 19-0 run to turn a one-point game into a tiebreaker.

The loss dropped the Magic to 23-19. The Bucks jumped ahead of them in the East standings. Milwaukee also won the season series – the first tiebreaker in deciding playoff seeds.

The two teams will meet again in March in Milwaukee. Including tonight, the Magic haven’t beaten the Bucks on the road since February 2019.

Milwaukee’s All-NBA duo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo combined for 56 points.

For Orlando, Paolo Banchero’s 22 points in his third game back from a torn right oblique, but he also accounted for seven of the Magic’s 13 turnovers. As a team, the Magic shot just 34.7 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from three.

Orlando heads to Boston on Friday for the second game of this two-city road trip. Tipoff is 7:00 PM ET on ESPN.

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