Once again, second-year sensation Paolo Banchero couldn’t stop.
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound man, who is sure to make the Eastern Conference All-Star team this season, had 35 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists as the understaffed Orlando Magic outscored the Atlanta Hawks 117-110 in overtime Sunday at Kia Center.
After the Hawks rallied in regulation to force overtime, Banchero stepped up when his team needed it to the fullest in the overtime, scoring 8 of Orlando’s 12 points in the additional five minutes.
“I think we are getting to the point where we are not fazed by close games,” he said. “For me last year, being a rookie — not saying I was afraid of the big moment – but it would get to that time and it would be like, okay, you are trying to feel that pressure or anxiousness. Plays have to be made, we can’t lose, we might have a lead, don’t want to lose it. And I think all that’s gone this year just throughout the team. Whenever we are in a close game or overtime, or whatever it may be, there’s a sense of calm throughout the coaches, throughout the players, throughout myself – and it’s showing.”
The Magic got a big lift from an unsung hero as well. Caleb Houstan, making his first start of the season and fifth of his career, tallied a career-best 25 points, with 21 of them coming from 3-point range.
“Caleb is a machine,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said of the 6-foot-8, 205-pounder, who has now logged 90 minutes in Orlando’s last three games combined. “I mean it. I laugh and joke with him every day that he’s in that gym that he’s a machine. He’s the first one in (and) he’s the last one out. He’s not taking days off. Even when you tell him to take a day off, he’s not taking a day off. He’s working his tail off night in and night out to do the right thing.”
Jalen Suggs scored 16 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter, while Goga Bitadze recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds and Moe Wagner had 15 points and seven rebounds.
Still out for the Magic were Franz Wagner (ankle), Wendell Carter Jr. (knee), Joe Ingles (ankle), Gary Harris (calf), and Jonathan Isaac (hamstring).
Markelle Fultz, however, returned and played 15 minutes in his first action since November 9. Although he didn’t score, the 6-foot-4 guard had two rebounds and 4 assists.
Atlanta closed out regulation on a 9-3 run, capped by a tying dunk through Saddiq Bey with 18. 1 seconds left. Houston missed a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded.
Trae Young led the Hawks with 31 points and nine assists, while Dejounte Murray posted 24 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 18.
It was Orlando’s third straight-to-play game to be played on a tightrope. They came up short in Sacramento in double overtime, eliminated the defending champion Nuggets in Denver in a close game and now, back at home, outplayed the Hawks in another thriller.
The Magic, hoping to regain healthy bodies, will have a big control ahead of them Tuesday when they host the West-leading Minnesota Timberwolves at 7 p. m.
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