NBA Notes: Magic, Paolo Banchero, Nuggets, Nikola Jokic, Grizzlies

Magic

So close to 2-0. Then one quarter changed everything for the Magic.

A 30-3 run by the Pistons flipped Game 2, turning control into a missed opportunity. Orlando dropped the game and now heads home tied 1-1. No brushing that off.

“You can’t just flush it and act like nothing happened,” Paolo Banchero said, via Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. “You’ve got to go back and watch it… learn from it. We know what type of series it’s going to be. It’s going to be an ugly, gritty series.”

That’s the tone. There’s still confidence.

Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane both pointed to home court as a boost. Orlando went 25-15 there this season. Execution is the focus.

“We had good opportunities… and some nights you just don’t make shots,” Bane said. “I anticipate us making more shots.”

Nuggets

Not often you see a quiet night from Nikola Jokic. Game 3 was one of them.

The Nuggets star finished with 27 and 15, but needed 26 shots to get there as Denver fell behind 2-1 to the Timberwolves.

“I’ve never seen him shoot what he shot today,” Jamal Murray said, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater. “That’s an outlier type of game.”

Denver hopes so. Injuries haven’t helped. Aaron Gordon missed Game 3, and Peyton Watson hasn’t played yet this series.

That’s made preparation tricky.

“I do think out of fairness to the team we do want to know who is going to play,” coach David Adelman said. “Guys know the expectation… as opposed to today when we were scrambling.”

Grizzlies

Adam Silver pushed back on the idea that the Grizzlies could relocate, following some recent comments from LeBron James.

“Players I talk to all the time like playing in Memphis,” Silver said. “I have never heard that issue.”

He also shut down relocation talk entirely. Owner Robert Pera “has no interest” in moving the team, Silver said.

That said, Nashville did come up.

“If it were up to me, I would like to see them play a few games a year in Nashville and sort of be Tennessee’s team to the extent that they can,” Silver said. “Memphis has been a great market historically for the NBA, and there is amazing history in that city and amazing culture.”

So Memphis stays, but maybe with a little Tennessee road trip mixed in.