Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic entered their Wednesday night clash against the Los Angeles Clippers losers of nine of their past 10 games. In fact, their last win, a 108-107 triumph over the Chicago Bulls, came off a Jalen Suggs game-winner, making that an improbably exhilarating win. And with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back in action, the Clippers appeared primed to hand the Magic yet another expected defeat.
But Banchero said, not so fast.
Paolo Banchero, the first overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, seemed to flip a switch after the game went to overtime. The 20-year old forward scored 10 of his 23 points in the extra period, including two go-ahead free-throws with seven seconds left, and four more freebies to ice the game. After the game, Banchero told reporters that he drew inspiration from a raucous Amway Center crowd, which he thought was well overdue to witness a Magic victory.
“It was time to give them a win,” Banchero said, per Dan Savage.
The Clippers may have shot themselves in the foot plenty of times with costly blunders, but the Magic deserve credit for pouncing on those mistakes. Paolo Banchero, in particular, turned in the best performance of his young career from the charity stripe.
He entered the night shooting only 73 percent from the line of high volume, but Banchero made 13 of his 14 attempts from the foul line. This gave Orlando an incredible advantage from the foul line, especially after the Clippers just shot 18-26 as a team (69.2%) compared to 28-31 for the Magic.
This impressive victory gave the Magic only their fifth home win of the season in 14 tries. However, the more Paolo Banchero gets better, the more wins will come, both at home and on the road.
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