ORLANDO — The Orlando Magic fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night, 113-108 to leave them without a win during their back-to-back. 

There were multiple reasons why the Magic lost, and the 40-point effort of Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was at the forefront of it. After the game, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley talked about what makes Gilgeous-Alexander such a difficult player to defend.  

“He had three shooting fouls, or two shooting fouls in the first half, and that's tough because you want to guard him a certain way,” Mosley said. “You're physical with him, but any time you get near him, they're looking to blow that whistle. And, again, he's a hard person to referee, and respect to them for being able to figure that out, but he does an unbelievable job of manipulating that.  

“So, there's times that you've got to get out of his hands, but he finds a way to get it back. It finds him at the end of the clock. You know, there's a couple of little mispossessions that we could have come up with when we did make them miss, but as well as, you know, trying to continue to turn them over.” 

By the end of the game, Gilgeous-Alexander had attempted 11 free throws and made nine of them. On Orlando’s side, Paolo Banchero led the group with 32 points and played a part in helping the Magic overcome an 18-point first half deficit.  

“It's big,” Mosley said of Banchero’s impact. “I mean, his ability to get downhill in that quarter, you know, stepped up, made some big shots, made the right plays, was attacking the basket, you know, trying to get himself to the free-throw line, which is amazing to me that his many downhill attacks that he has, he only had six free-throws.  

“But again, he's a guy that's going to continue to attack, and that's what we need him to do to create problems at the rim to be able to find our shooters.” 

As the regular season winds down and the Magic prepare for the playoffs, Mosley wants to see the Magic improve in certain areas. 

“I think, you know, coming down the stretch, our ability to, you know, continue to attack the basket, find the right play,” Mosley said. “We had some great looks, you know, down the stretch. They didn't go in, you know, and OKC capitalized on those. getting out in transition, and Shea made some big plays down the stretch.” 

The Magic will visit the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday for the final regular season meeting between the two teams. The last two games against Charlotte have resulted in double-digit losses for Orlando.  

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