Teams meet again Sunday at 3 p.m.
Opening night of Year 2 for the Osceola Magic may have been more fun for the 2,000 or so fans who attended the Silver Spurs Arena Friday night for Opening Night than it was for the team.
The Magic, the top seed in the NBA G League Eastern Conferenced a year ago, couldn't overcome the offensive onslaught of the visiting Austin Spurs. The San Antonio affiliate took a 128-117 victory.
While Osceola shot well from the field at 55.8%, including 41.7% from the 3-point arc (15-for-36), the Magic committed 26 turnovers and gave up 20 rebounds in their first time on the court together against an outside opponent.
"We had one scrimmage before (Friday) so we're just trying to find our rhythm, and our guys never stopped playing hared," Head Coach Dylan Murphy said. "We'll look at the tape to see what we can do differently and come back at it Sunday."
After cool shooting by Osceola and hot shooting early on, the Magic found themselves down 34-28 after one quarter and 69-59 at the half. The gap formed around the 3-point line, where Austin was 10-for-25 and Osceola was just 5-for-16. That shooting kept the Spurs firmly in the lead each time Osceola would go on a run to to bite into it. The Magic got no closer than within five points in the second half.
"We shot four threes in the first 15 minutes (and made none) so it took time to get going," Murphy said. "Then every time we look up we're down 8, down 10, and with the turnovers and offensive rebounds, it's hard to come back like that."
In the loss, Magic two-way player Trevelin Queen scored a game-high 38 points on 13-of-17 shooting and 6-of-7 from beyond the arc. Newcomers Jarrett Culver (who scored the first basket of the season) and Ethan Thompson added 13 and 12.
But Austin counted with 35 from Malachi Flynn, 25 from Riley Minix and 21 from Harrison Ingram.
