2:20 pm: An MRI confirmed that Banchero has a left groin strain, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN. According to Charania, the forward has been ruled out for Friday’s game vs. Brooklyn and will continue to be evaluated daily beyond that. The update suggests that Banchero avoided a major injury.
7:45 am: The Magic‘s 17-point win in New York on Wednesday was the team’s most impressive victory of the season, but it came at a cost. Star forward Paolo Banchero exited the game in the second quarter due to a left groin strain and didn’t return. He told Fred Katz of The Athletic that he sustained the injury after trying to accelerate up the floor following a defensive rebound.
“I just slowed up, and I felt it right away,” Banchero said. “And then, I did a couple more trips up and down, and then, it was still there. So I asked to come out because I didn’t wanna risk further injury.”
Banchero confirmed that he’ll undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, but he’s hopeful that it’s not significant. As he pointed out to Katz, he wasn’t in nearly as much discomfort on Wednesday as he was when he suffered an oblique tear last season that cost him over two months.
“I dealt with an oblique last year, and that was a tear,” Banchero said. “And feeling it, it was kinda really painful to where I couldn’t really do much. I couldn’t really move much. This (groin injury), I can still do movements. There just was a pain there. (Trainers) said if it was torn or anything, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. So, that’s encouraging.”
Banchero, who started each of Orlando’s first 12 games this season, entered Wednesday’s contest with averages of 23.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in 34.7 minutes per night.
Reserve forward Jonathan Isaac started the second half in Banchero’s place and is a prime candidate for an increased role if the former No. 1 overall pick has to miss time. Forward Tristan Da Silva could also earn a minutes bump in that scenario.
The Magic’s road victory over the Knicks pulled the team back to .500 (6-6) following a 1-4 start to the season.
Hope he is good. Get well Paolo ……
How do you lose to Magic with no Banchero. Bridges had a terrible game. But as a team Knicks didn’t show up. We are still waiting on Yabusele. Kinda starting to mess with me. Imo Knicks were overconfident playing at home. And a good team came to beat them. And did.
Brunson is only one with killer instinct. Brown has to get control of these bad gms sooner. Whole point of having depth. Is you play to win. Sit them down if they aren’t playing. I put this one on coach.
They owe the Heat so they better show up. I knew Magic wanted to make a statement lols. Bane had a big game. Wagner too, owned OG and Bridges.
I sure would like to see Issac on the Knicks. He is that big 4 I am looking for. ……. Disappointing loss man.
That Bane trade was horrible for both teams really. Memphis rebounded by drafting Coward but still
Too small of sample size on both fronts. Bane’s picking it up a smidge as of late as are the Magic. Memphis got a bunch of picks so we won’t know how it works out for them for a long time.
Memphis lost its homegrown guy
Orlando is a young team and was drafting well and traded out picks. Just don’t like it and Bane and Morant didn’t like it either
Bane woke up against Knicks. Had a good game
I told everyone KCP would only be in Orlando for one year haha