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After 10 lead changes, 14 ties and one overtime, the Golden State Warriors picked up their 8th-straight win with a 124-119 win over the Orlando Magic inside Chase Center on Saturday night.
The Magic climbed back from multiple deficits, but could not outduel Stephen Curry and Co., dropping their fourth-straight game, falling to 2-7 on the season. Here were a few of our takeaways.
Without Desmond Bane, who missed his first game since arriving in Orlando due to illness, snapping his 90-game streak, shooting was completely absent to start the game.
The Magic missed 13 of their first 17 field goal attempts, including seven of their first nine from deep, while being a complete sieve defensively. They fell behind by as much as 15 in the first quarter and had a difficult time converting open looks.
That didn't last forever.
Orlando used its defense to kickstart its offense in the second half. Head coach Sean Sweeney looked as engaged as we've seen him in the second half, communicating coverages and assignments to his team in front of the Magic bench.
Once the Magic strung together stops, Anthony Black and Franz Wagner, among others, found their rhythm in the halfcourt. Jase Richardson struggled all night from the floor, but did a good job playing the role of conductor during their 17-2 third-quarter barrage.
The Magic shot 48.1 percent in the second half, including 39.1 (9-23) percent from 3-point range. Despite generating clean opportunities all night, the basketball gods were kinder them over the final 24 before a shaky overtime.
Unfortunately, that godforsaken ball isn't always going to go through the hoop. It didn't in overtime.
It's a make or miss league. That's the name of the game. But you still have to do the little things when you're struggling.
That's exactly what Orlando did despite its aforementioned first-half struggles. It forced 18 Warriors turnovers and finished a plus-20 on the offensive glass, grabbing 23. As a result, it finished a plus-31 in second-chance points and a plus-18 in points off turnovers.
The biggest one came at the end of regulation, when Cain cleaned up a Wendell Carter Jr. miss to force overtime.
MAGIC FORCE OT!!!pic.twitter.com/sWAvQIGcok
— Oh No He Didn't 🤯 (@ohnohedidnt24) November 8, 2026
Despite the unfortunate end result, that is how you keep yourself in basketball games when you shoot just 38.7 percent from the field.
We already touched over his clutch putback. But Jamal Cain deserves a raise after Saturday's performance.
He wasn't the best player on the floor, nor is it possible to give him more than his $2.6 million for this season. But while he had to deal with Stephen Curry all night -- the league's greatest shooter gave him a few lessons, even though Cain played great defense on him throughout -- he still finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds on 6-of-14 shooting in 36 minutes off the bench.
Cain scrapped and clawed all night, and so did Carter, despite missing three critical free throws down the stretch. Wendell Carter Jr. ended up tallying 19 points and 11 rebounds (six offensive) in 40 minutes.
Progress? An anamoly? I guess we'll see in due time.
While I have praised "Point" Franz's ability to consistently generate paint touches and locate open teammates, his shooting has been a detriment. He was shooting below 20.0 percent from 3-point range entering the night with a release that was still hitch-ey. And it didn't look like it was going to be any sort of short-term fix.
However, the shot was falling -- and per my untrained eye, it looked a little more fluid off the bounce. Wagner scored a team-high 30 points on 11-of-21 shooting and 3-of-7 from deep. His three triples marked a season high and were the most he's had in a single game since April of last season.
Obviously, I don't want him falling in love with pull-up threes, but it's important he takes the open spot-up threes to keep defenses honest.
Stephen Curry finished with 41 points in the win, and was having a lot of fun doing it. We talk a lot about LeBron James' production at age 41, but Curry is taking over games with a degenerative knee at 38-years-old.
He's not Luka Doncic, but Steph has scored 40 twice this season with at least five made threes in five-straight games.
Just wow, man.