Paolo Banchero is 1 of 5 players averaging 30+ ppg (min. 5 games played) in March. After earning the No. 5 seed in last season’s playoffs and pushing the Cavs to the seven games in the first round, the Orlando Magic were expected to take a leap forward. Instead, a season plagued by injuries early fell upon them. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner suffered oblique injuries in late October and November, respectively, that forced multi-week stints on the sidelines. Then Moritz Wagner tore his ACL in December, and in January, Jalen Suggs suffered a season-ending knee injury. Despite the wounds suffered by top stars early in the campaign, the Magic was able to forge through for some time, sitting as high as No. 3 in the East with a 17-10 record on Dec. 14. However, the weight of the injuries and getting returning players reacclimated appeared to take it’s toll on the Magic, as the season wore on. By the end of January, after a 7-15 stretch of play, they had fallen below the .500 mark and to No. 8 in the East. Banchero returned on Jan. 10 and took some time to recapture his early-season form. After averaging 29 points on 49.5% shooting, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.6 assists in his first five games of the 2024-25 campaign, Banchero averaged 22.5 points on 41% shooting, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in his 22 games played between January and February. With Wagner still sidelined for part of this stretch and the loss of Suggs, it was not enough to carry Orlando consistently. During a seven-game homestand that started at the end of February and continued into March, where Orlando won just a single game, a shift in production began for Banchero. Two 41-point performances, one against the Warriors, and then again against the Raptors, signaled the Duke product was possibly rounding back into his early season form. Ever since, Banchero has been red-hot, averaging 30.2 points on 50.2% shooting, including 39.5% from three in March, and looking like the player we saw in October who appeared on the verge of Kia MVP-level stardom. In the process, the Magic have gone 6-3 in their last nine games, including wins in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and the Lakers. Now, in the final stretch of the season with just nine games to go, Orlando is looking like the team we expected to see this year. Although they still sit at No. 8 in the East, they’re just 0.5 games back of the Hawks for No. 7 and could be hosting a SoFi Play-In Tournament. At the level Banchero and the Magic are currently playing, if they can secure a spot in the playoffs, they’re capable of posing a threat to any team they may come across in the postseason. See Paolo Banchero and the surging Magic in action tonight against the Mavericks ( 7 ET on NBA TV ) .
CONTINUE READING
