The undefeated Orlando Magic bring their act to La La Land to test their mettle against the Los Angeles Lakers, who are looking to prevent their fans from completely losing it for the second day in a row.

Catch this game live on Tuesday, October 30, 2023 at 10:30 AM, Manila time

Away: Orlando Magic (2-0/1-0 Away)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Markelle Fultz
  • Jalen Suggs
  • Franz Wagner
  • Paolo Banchero
  • Wendell Carter Jr.

The Magic have pulled a rabbit out of the hat two games in a row to start their schedule in the 2023-24 NBA season. They will look to make it three victories in a row when they take on a potentially fatigued Los Angeles unit. Orlando kicked off their campaign with a 116-86 home win against the Houston Rockets last Thursday before bringing down the Portland Trail Blazers on the road over the weekend, 102-97.  

Orlando’s defense is seemingly doing the trick for the team, as the Magic are allowing only 91.5 points per game, albeit on a small sample size that came against teams likely to hit the draft lottery again next year.  The Magic have also managed to stay undefeated thus far despite shooting just 47.0 percent from the field but could fare better offensively versus the tired Lakers, who played just a night before on the road. Franz Wagner is leading the Magic with 21.0 points per game but is only burying 39.3 percent of his field-goal attempts, while Cole Anthony is putting up 19.0 PPG on 51.9 FG%.

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Home: Los Angeles Lakers (1-2/1-0 Home)

Projected Starting Five:

  • D’Angelo Russell
  • Austin Reaves
  • LeBron James
  • Taurean Prince
  • Anthony Davis

The Lakers are making their fans lose their hair with a slow start to the season.  Los Angeles followed up a thrilling 100-95 win over the Phoenix Suns at home last Friday with a 132-127 overtime road loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday. The Lakers don’t have much time to sulk over their defeat to Sacramento, as they will have to make short travel back to Hollywood for the meeting with Orlando, which has two full days of rest before Tuesday’s appearance in LA. 

Speaking of which, there’s the possibility that the Lakers will rest both Anthony Davis and LeBron James for the Orlando game given that it’s the second leg of a back-to-back. If that turns out to be the case, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Christian Wood will all get increased run on the floor. That is still a pretty solid core against a still largely unproven Magic squad that has also lost in all of the last three times it visited the Lakers, dating back to 2021. Reaves shot horribly (1-12 FGA/M) against the Kings, but that also means it likely can’t get any worse for him when the Lakers welcome Orlando.

PREDICTIONS:

Spread: The Lakers (-3.) cover the spread.

Over/Under: The total (221.0) hit the Over.

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