Two teams that fought to the end in tough defeats Tuesday will try to avoid doubling their displeasure in the second game of a back-to-back when the Sacramento Kings host the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis logged 23 points and 19 rebounds and De’Aaron Fox put up 30 points, but the Kings saw a six-point lead slip away in the final four minutes of a 111-104 home loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.
At the same time, the Magic led the Golden State Warriors 93-92 with 8:33 remaining before watching Stephen Curry cap a 36-point night that sent the visitors to a 121-115 defeat in San Francisco.
The Wednesday meeting will be the first of the season for the Magic and Kings, who enter the contest with nearly identical records (Orlando 19-14, Sacramento 19-13).
The Tuesday losses had something in common for the Magic and Kings — an abundance of turnovers.
After cautioning his taller team that the Warriors would attempt to create mistakes, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley watched his players give away the ball 18 times, leading to 18 Warriors points in a tight game never separated by more than 11 points.
“We gotta make sure we’re making on-time, on-target passes,” Mosley said. “Our spacing has gotta be in the right direction. And then, we gotta just make sure we’re willing to take the open shot because a lot of times these turnovers are coming because we’re turning down open looks. We gotta be able to make sure we make the easy and open pass.”
Orlando didn’t shoot well in the loss but did a good job of retrieving its own misses. The Magic had 16 offensive rebounds, helping explain the relatively high point total despite shooting just 44.6 percent from the field.
Reigning Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero had four of Orlando’s offensive boards on a 27-point night. Franz Wagner had two offensive rebounds in a 25-point performance.
The Kings, meanwhile, saw the Hornets turn 21 turnovers into 17 points. Sabonis, on an otherwise productive night, was harassed into a career-high 11 turnovers.
Still, the hosts appeared to be in good shape when Sabonis tipped in a Fox miss for a 100-94 lead with 3:54 left.
However, Sacramento’s final nine possessions resulted in two Fox layups, four missed shots (including three 3-point attempts) and three turnovers.
The Kings now find themselves needing a win to salvage the two-day split. The bad news: They are 0-4 on the second night of back-to-back sets this season.
“I think for us, it’s just approaching each game,” Harrison Barnes said when asked what the Kings could do to resolve their second-night issues. “I don’t think we have the luxury to look at records, to look at streaks, to look at anything like that that’s going on. Let’s just take it game by game.”
The Kings swept the two-game series over the Magic in each of the previous two seasons, winning the home games 142-130 and 136-111. The teams’ past two matchups in Orlando both wound up as overtime Sacramento wins.
–Field Level Media
