The Orlando Magic took a step forward in their first of four consecutive home games against opponents with losing records.

After cruising to a wire-to-wire win Thursday, Orlando will look to author another dominating performance against a sub-.500 team Saturday when the struggling Utah Jazz pay a visit.

Desmond Bane scored 23 points, Paolo Banchero had 22 and Jalen Suggs recorded his first career triple-double in the Magic’s convincing 118-98 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. Suggs finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists to go along with a career-high four blocks and three steals.

“To be honest, I don’t even get into individual accomplishments and stuff like that,” Suggs said, per the Orlando Sentinel.

Said Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley of Suggs: “He was great tonight. His energy, his poise, his focus on the defensive end … It was beautiful basketball.”

So beautiful, in fact, that Suggs played a significant role in Orlando amassing a comfortable 23-point lead in the third quarter. The team put it on cruise control from there and snapped its minor two-game losing streak.

“I thought they did a great job of starting the game off holding them to 19 points in the first quarter, knowing that we set the tone with our defense and that’s what these guys did,” Mosley said. “There was a seriousness to them, a level of focus knowing what we needed to do because we’ve been with this team before and we’ve had big leads and we’ve given them away.”

The Magic, who will also host the underachieving Milwaukee Bucks on both Monday and Wednesday, shot 53.7% from the floor and enjoyed a 64-40 edge in points in the paint.

Bane capped a 32-point performance by making a layup with 0.9 seconds remaining in overtime to lift Orlando to a 128-127 victory the last time the Magic played Utah on Dec. 20.

Banchero collected 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in that game, and Anthony Black added 20, six and five, respectively.

Keyonte George, who recorded 27 points in that game for the Jazz, sat out his third consecutive contest Thursday with a left ankle sprain. He’s listed as questionable for the Orlando game.

Utah also played without recent trade acquisition Jaren Jackson Jr., who has yet to arrive from the Memphis Grizzlies.

The end result for the undermanned Jazz was their 17th loss in 21 games, courtesy of a 121-119 decision to the Atlanta Hawks.

Isaiah Collier followed up his 17-point, career-best 22-assist performance in Tuesday’s 131-122 win over the Indiana Pacers with a career-high 25 points and 11 assists versus the Hawks. He logged 48 minutes in both games.

“I’ve talked a lot about him playing off two feet, I think it’s allowed his decision making to be a lot cleaner,” Will Hardy said of Collier, per the Salt Lake Tribune. “Getting all the way to the rim in the half court in the NBA is hard to do. His decision-making has really improved since he started playing off two feet in the paint more. I also think that his general understanding of our team, our offense, where his moments are to be aggressive has improved as well.”

Hardy said he’s hopeful Jackson and the other players acquired in the deal will make their team debuts in Saturday’s game.

–Field Level Media

Both Georgia and LSU have a lot of catching up to do as they begin the second half of the Southeastern Conference season against each other Saturday in Baton Rouge, La.

The Bulldogs (16-6, 4-5 SEC) have fallen to 11th in the conference after losing three straight games. The Tigers (14-8, 2-7) are in 14th place, but they got a win in their last game, beating South Carolina 92-87 in overtime on Jan. 31.

Georgia hopes to end its losing streak just as LSU ended a three-game skid when it beat the Gamecocks.

“Our guys are resilient,” Bulldogs head coach Mike White said. “We’ve got to clean up details, but this team really works. We’ll accept messages, we’ll learn from the film, we’ll have good practices.”

White is looking for his team to start better than they did in the last game. Georgia fell behind by as many as 20 points in the first half and lost to visiting Texas A&M 92-77. White called it “the worst start we’ve gotten off to in a long, long time.”

The Bulldogs shot 7 of 28 on 3-pointers, but guard Blue Cain didn’t dwell on just the outside shooting.

“We have a bunch of issues we have to address besides that,” he said.

LSU got off to a much better start than Georgia did in its last game, leading for all but 26 seconds in the first half, eventually prevailing in the extra period.

“We were ready to go from the opening jump,” head coach Matt McMahon said, adding that the Tigers “responded the right way” to “the poor performance” in an 80-66 home loss to Mississippi State three days earlier.

LSU managed without starting point guard Dedan Thomas Jr., who has been in and out of the lineup due to a lower leg injury. The week off between games could give him time to return against Georgia, though his replacement, Rashad King, played well against South Carolina, and the Tigers finished with 23 assists on 31 baskets.

“I loved our unselfishness,” McMahon said. “I thought the ball moved. That’s how we need to play moving forward.”

–Field Level Media

Alabama split back-to-back games against Southeastern Conference co-leaders Florida and Texas A&M.

The Crimson Tide (15-7, 5-4 SEC) bounced back from a 100-77 thrashing at the hands of the host Gators to defeat the visiting Aggies 100-97 on Wednesday. That left them just two games behind the conference leaders as they visit Auburn on Saturday.

Head coach Nate Oats gave the players the credit for their response after their most lopsided loss of the season.

“I think some guys admitted their effort wasn’t where it needed to be (against Florida),” Oats said. “Their mind wasn’t where it needed to be, and we’ve got to turn this thing around. So I think it was more of an internal thing. We’ve got to get internal leadership from players.”

The Crimson Tide had six double-figure scorers and turned the ball over just six times after giving it away 18 times against Florida. They had 19 assists on 31 field goals and made 16 3-pointers in their third straight game with at least 14.

Oats said he wasn’t emphasizing scoring even though Alabama finished with its highest point total against an SEC opponent this season, reaching triple figures for the sixth time overall.

“We weren’t going to talk about scoring this game,” Oats said. “We were going to talk about our effort, our toughness and our playing for each other.”

As of Friday night, Charles Bediako remains eligible. On Friday, the NCAA requested that a court overturn Bediako’s temporary injunction that’s allowed him to return from professional to college basketball. The judge said he anticipates making a ruling “soon.”

Auburn (14-8, 5-4) has had a full week of preparation since a 77-69 loss at Tennessee on Jan. 31. Head coach Steven Pearl said the absence of a mid-week game came “at a great time” for a couple of “banged-up” Tigers.

Leading scorer Keyshawn Hall (20.9 points per game) played against Tennessee with three stitches in a finger on his shooting hand and scored 21.

“He’s one who is never going to complain about a little injury,” forward Sebastian Williams-Adams said of Hall. “Getting stitches is no joke, but he treated it like it was like a paper cut. He’s a warrior. We aren’t obviously in that game without Key.”

Auburn looks to get back on track after the loss to the Volunteers ended a four-game winning streak.

–Field Level Media