Mavs at Magic GAMEDAY: Banchero OUT, Hardaway Jr. IN as Dallas Seeks 5th Straight Win

The Dallas Mavericks outlasted the Orlando Magic at American Airlines Center a little more than a week ago. Now, Luka Doncic and company will try to replicate that success on the road as they look to extend their winning streak to five games.

Dalton Trigg | Nov 9, 2022

Coming off a crazy down-to-the-wire win over Kevin Durant's Brooklyn Nets (4-7), the Dallas Mavericks (6-3) are set to take on the young Orlando Magic (2-9) for the second time this season. Tipoff at Amway Center has officially been moved to 4:30 p.m. CT due to Tropical Storm Nicole approaching Orlando.

Luka Doncic, who leads the league by averaging 36 points per game, will look to extend his 30+ point scoring streak to 10 games. Doncic is already second all-time with nine 30+ point games to start a season, and he's 14 more away from catching Wilt Chamberlain (23) for first all-time.

The Mavs will be without their Sixth Man of the Year candidate, Christian Wood, who suffered a knee sprain in Monday's win over the Nets. Wood didn't make the trip to Orlando, so there's a good chance he misses the Mavs' game against the Washington Wizards on Thursday as well. Perhaps he'll be ready to go again on Saturday when Dallas returns to American Airlines Center to take on Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. Wood scored just five points on 2-6 shooting in 24 minutes off the bench in the Mavs' first meeting with the Magic.

Paolo Banchero, who was the No. 1 overall pick for the Magic in the 2022 draft, is currently the Rookie of the Year frontrunner by averaging 23.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 46.1 percent from the field. With those type of numbers, Banchero might have his goals set even higher by being in the conversation for an Eastern Conference All-Star spot. Unfortunately, he has been listed as being out for tonight's game against Dallas with an ankle sprain.

Here’s everything else you need to know about tonight’s game:

FLASHBACK: The Mavs defeated the Magic 114-105 on Oct. 30 at American Airlines Center after falling down by double-digits on two different occasions in the first half. Doncic led all scorers with 44 points on 17-26 shooting to go with five assists. Tim Hardaway Jr., who is questionable for tonight's game with a hip strain, had his best game of the season in Dallas' first matchup with Orlando. He finished with 21 points and three assist off the bench.

INJURY REPORT (DALLAS): Dāvis Bertans (knee effusion) and Christian Wood (knee sprain) are OUT. Tim Hardaway Jr. (hip strain) is available.

INJURY REPORT (ORLANDO): Cole Anthony (oblique tear), Markelle Fultz (toe fracture), Gary Harris (knee injury recovery), Jonathan Isaac (knee injury recovery) and Mo Wagner (foot sprain) and Paolo Banchero (ankle sprain) are OUT.

GAMEDAY POD:

RECORDS: Dallas Mavericks (6-3), Orlando Magic (2-9)

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. CT

WHERE: Amway Center (Orlando, FL)

TV: Bally Sports Southwest (BSSW), NBA League Pass

RADIO: 97.1 The Freak, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)

ODDS: The Mavs are currently 7.0-point favorites vs. the Nets.

NEXT UP: Dallas will now fly to D.C. face former-Maverick Kristaps Porzingis and the Washington Wizards on Thursday's second night of a back-to-back.

FINAL WORD: “That's Luka trusting me ... that feels good when the best player on our team is telling me to go take the ball down," said Dorian Finney-Smith of Doncic in Monday's win. "Even though I tried to give the game away, with the turnover and foul on KD. He had made 62 in a row, but he missed when it counted, and we will take that win.”

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Published Nov 9, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.