Magic set to begin trip at Cleveland without guard Markelle Fultz
The Magic will be down a starter Thursday in Cleveland when Orlando battles the Cavaliers in its first game following the week-long NBA All-Star break.
Point guard Markelle Fultz (left knee injury maintenance) won’t be available for Jamahl Mosley‘s squad when it faces the No. 2 team in the East and opens a three-game trip at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (Bally Sports Florida, 7).
The left knee, which is the same one that Fultz had surgery on to repair a torn ACL eight games into the 2020-21 season, has been bothering him all season.
He missed two games due to swelling in early November, then sat out 27 in a row because of tendinitis. Since his return to the court in early January, he’s missed four games that fell on the second night of a back-to-back for injury maintenance.
While this latest absence is also described as “left knee injury maintenance,” it’s different from the most recent four games Fultz missed because it falls after the league break and not a back-to-back.
The Magic (30-25) held practice Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning before traveling to Cleveland. Mosley was asked Tuesday whether he felt confident about Fultz’s availability in the final 27 games of the regular season.
“That’s one of the things we’ll continue to look at,” Mosley said. “It’s always going to be the nature of how these guys pull up after games. We’re going to be smart about how we continue to do it.
“You want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing for our team as well as the young men that are out there every single night.”
With Fultz out, Magic rookie Anthony Black will likely be moved to Orlando’s starting lineup in order to keep the team’s second unit — Cole Anthony, Gary Harris, Joe Ingles, Jonathan Isaac and Moe Wagner — together as was done earlier in the season.
Black has started 30 of his 50 games played and has offered Orlando more than reliable defense for a rookie. He’s recorded at least one steal 18 times and two-or-more steals five times as well as at least one block 14 times and two-or-more blocks three times.
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For Cleveland (36-17), All-NBA guard Donovan Mitchell (illness) is listed as questionable.
Mitchell torched the Magic with 25 points and 13 assists the last time the sides met in Orlando on Jan. 22, a game that Cleveland won by 27 when Fultz also sat due to left knee injury maintenance.
A win would allow Orlando to split the season series with the Cavaliers, who hold a 2-1 advantage entering the last scheduled meeting.
The Magic don’t mind that they’re starting the final quarter of the season on the road coming out of the league break. In fact, it’s a challenge the team embraces.
After Cleveland, Orlando heads to Detroit (8-46) on Saturday and Atlanta (24-31) the next night.
“I see it as a blessing honestly that we’ve got to lock in a lot quicker,” Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. said after practice Tuesday. “Before and after breaks, teams play a lot differently depending on where they are in the standings.
“[Cleveland], I’m sure, is trying to get higher in the standings and they’re going to come out and give us their best punch. We’re trying to climb up the standings as well.”
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The Magic know the final stretch of the regular season will feel like a sprint compared to the first 55 contests already played but Mosley doesn’t want his team looking too far ahead.
“For our group, it’s more important that we focus on one game at a time,” he said. “Don’t try to look at the 27 games but just look at Game No. 1, which is going to be Cleveland.”
Email Jason Beede at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on X, known as Twitter, at @therealBeede.
