Mavs Fall to Magic Despite Hot Shooting From Luka Doncic, Christian Wood
After coming off a close win against the Oklahoma City Thunder in their NBA preseason opener, the Dallas Mavericks entered Friday night's game against the Orlando Magic with an all-time 5-0 record in preseason play under coach Jason Kidd ... but that streak finally came to an end.
Jaden Hardy shined in his Mavericks debut ... so much that he got inserted into the starting lineup next to Luka Doncic. Despite big first-half performances from Doncic and Christian Wood, the Mavs' training camp invites couldn't keep up with Orlando in the second half, and the Magic pulled away with a 110-105 win at American Airlines Center.
Much was made of Doncic's conditioning last season, but there doesn't appear to be any issues in that department this time around as he spent all summer in the gym and playing for the Slovenian national team. "Luka Magic" was back in full effect on Friday as he finished with 16 points, three rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block in just 18 minutes of action. He shot 6-8 from the field, including 3-5 from deep.
“(Luka) was the MVP tonight. He looked great. Going the full quarter there in the first, being able to control the game and get to the basket, shoot the three. I thought he did great on both ends of the floor,” said Kidd.
After an impressive debut performance on Wednesday, Wood took it up another notch while finally getting to play some minutes with Doncic. He put up 23 points on 8-12 shooting overall, including 3-6 from deep in 19 minutes. Coming into the preseason, the Doncic-Wood pick-and-roll figured to be effective. The duo proved that theory to be correct at AAC.
Doncic was +14 in his 18 minutes, and Wood was +10 in his 19 minutes. After Kidd decided to call it a night for those two and play the end-of-the-bench guys for most of the second half, Orlando was able to pull away with the win.
No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 19 points on 6-13 shooting in 21 minutes. Terrence Ross wasn't too far behind Banchero with 16 points of his own on 6-8 shooting.
After looking like a potential Rookie of the Year candidate on Wednesday, Hardy looked more like a raw rookie on Friday as he finished with just six points, three rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes as a starter. He shot just 2-10 from the field, including 1-5 from deep.
Next up, the Mavs will take on the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City next Friday night. It will be the final preseason game for Dallas. Until then, the team will continue to put in hard work during training camp. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for preseason content over the weekend.
