Magic ready for regular season after Pelicans preseason finale

The Orlando Magic are going into the regular season with an undefeated preseason after beating the New Orleans Pelicans 132-125 at the Kia Center on Thursday night.

Magic forward Paolo Banchero was pleased with his team's performance in the dress rehearsal before the games begin to count.

“I thought we played together. I thought it was probably our best team effort of the preseason. There are things we can clean up, but it was a good effort. A good building block going into opening night,” Banchero said.

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero shoots a three point basket during the first quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans. | Mike Watters-Imagn Images

Magic finish preseason on right foot

All the starters played at least 24 minutes, including Banchero, who played 30. Banchero spoke after the game about how he felt things were strong, but there was still room for improvement.

“I thought we played well. Like I said, we can clean some things up, but I just thought we shared the ball well. I thought we were talking to each other [and] communicating well. Definitely can do some things better but it felt good out there," Banchero said.

Every team has to navigate how to play the preseason, but head coach Jamahl Mosley wanted his rotation players, especially the starters, to see a good chunk of minutes on the floor. Mosley explained the reasoning for that in his postgame press conference.

“I think we’ve got to, you know, manage the right amount of recovery with the right amount of work. Those guys played extended minutes tonight to try to just do that," Mosley said.

"That last four-minute stint was to have them just burn it out a little bit to get their conditioning where we need it to be. And I think that’s going to be the focus of these next four or five days, [to] get the recovery that we need, but also to be able to push the limits a little bit.”

The Magic got a chance to see how they respond in as normal of a game as possible without it being the real thing. Overall, Mosley liked what he saw from his team.

“I think there were a couple things. One, I love the way we shared the basketball, I think 33 assists is a great number for us, we played very unselfish," Mosley said.

"The other thing that we’re obviously going to have to clean up – the tendencies of guys and them having 72 points in the paint. You know, understanding the way in which they play, being able to create a wall a little earlier. But our ability to get back in transition, if we’re going to push the pace and share the basketball the way we are, we got to make sure we’re doing it on the other end as well.”

The Magic are going into the regular season with a lot to like, but also, a lot to work on as a team. Those lessons will have to come with the possibility that the team might end up losing, so they need to make sure they clean up these mistakes, because consequences for not being up to par will continue to grow throughout the season.

Luckily for the Magic, they know what they are signing up for and are prepared for the road ahead.

Magic finish preseason on right foot

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