Magic Vs Lakers: Bane’s Corner 3 and Banchero’s 36 Lift Orlando to 110-109 Comeback in Los Angeles
In a late-game exchange that decided the night, the Orlando Magic edged the Los Angeles Lakers 110-109 in a comeback that hinged on Desmond Bane’s go-ahead 3-pointer and Paolo Banchero’s late rebound and playmaking. The result, part of a string of tight finishes for the Magic, mattered for a team trying to preserve the trust it has built across the roster.
Desmond Bane’s 3 with 35. 4 seconds changed the game
Bane’s 3 off a pass from Paolo Banchero with 35. 4 seconds left produced the decisive lead, a shot that forced a Lakers timeout with 34. 6 seconds remaining. Bane, a 39 percent career 3-point shooter who had missed six of his first seven attempts that night, sank the attempt after Banchero drove into the paint and kicked out. The team celebrated the moment publicly with a post that read "BIG TIME BANE. " Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images captured the sequence.
Paolo Banchero’s rebound at 42. 3 seconds set the possession in motion
Banchero, the top pick in the 2022 draft, finished with 36 points — his highest single-game total in four weeks and the second-most of his season. He grabbed a rebound of a missed LeBron James free throw with 42. 3 seconds left while Orlando trailed by two, then used a Wendell Carter Jr. screen to get two feet in the paint. Rather than force a shot through contact, Banchero hesitated, read the defense and found Bane for the game-changing 3.
Turnovers on the glass and a Dončić–James connection pushed the margin
The Lakers briefly reclaimed the lead after Luka Dončić set up Rui Hachimura for a corner 3 that missed; the Magic failed to secure the defensive rebound. On the ensuing baseline out-of-bounds play, Dončić found a cutting LeBron James for a go-ahead dunk — a sequence that unfolded as Anthony Black failed to fight off a screen set by Austin Reaves that freed Jonathan Isaac from help responsibilities. Those plays left Orlando with little margin for error in the final half-minute.
Magic Vs Lakers: Mosley’s late timeout choice and lineup decisions
With 26. 3 seconds left, coach Jamahl Mosley chose not to call a timeout, preferring to let the situation play out with the personnel on the floor. Mosley cited a desire to avoid giving the opposition time to draw a play, and he trusted the lineup he had in place — which that night included the on-court combination of Dončić, James and Reaves for the Lakers and Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura for Orlando. Hachimura was in the rotation in place of starter Marcus Smart for that sequence.
Trust cultivated over weeks influenced late decisions
The victory followed a run of razor-thin outcomes for Orlando: a double-overtime buzzer loss to the Phoenix Suns when Jalen Green hit at the buzzer, and a subsequent game in which Bennedict Mathurin of the LA Clippers had a final-shot chance and failed to convert. Those recent finishes framed the Magic’s approach to the closing moments against the Lakers — a context that Banchero and Bane said helped them act with confidence. Banchero described the play as a split-second read; Bane said he stepped into the shot with conviction, reflecting the team’s growing willingness to rely on each other.
What makes this notable is how a single rebound and a short sequence of reads — Banchero’s offensive rebound at 42. 3 seconds, the screen from Carter Jr., and Bane’s return to form from beyond the arc — combined to flip possession, force a timeout at 34. 6 seconds and ultimately leave the Lakers with an unsuccessful final attempt. LeBron James later missed a desperation turnaround 3 after a belated pass from Luka Dončić, and the combination of those late events sealed Orlando’s 110-109 comeback in Los Angeles.
