San Antonio @ Orlando preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 5, 2019 ) Orlando 125, San Antonio 89

The San Antonio Spurs have hit a rough patch since a strong start to the season and they'll attempt to salvage the finale of a two-game trip at the Orlando Magic on Friday. A 129-114 loss at Minnesota was the third straight defeat and the fifth in six games for the Spurs, who opened 4-1.

They are giving up an average of 125.7 points during the losing streak and saw the Timberwolves scored 40 points in two different quarters Wednesday. "They had a lot of guys that played well, and they were aggressive," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich told reporters of Minnesota. "From our end, I think we were very challenged defensively, another poor outing." The Magic have been thriving on the defensive end but haven't always put up enough points to make the formula work. They did, however, on Wednesday against visiting Philadelphia, recording an impressive 112-97 victory to improve to 2-1 on the current five-game homestand.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (San Antonio), FS Florida (Orlando)

ABOUT THE SPURS (5-6): After Wednesday's result, San Antonio ranked 23rd in the league in scoring defense (114.2) and tied for 26th in opponents field-goal percentage (47.5). The team made only 3-of-17 3-pointers at Minnesota and DeMar DeRozan spoiled an otherwise solid effort (27 points on 12-of-18 shooting) with a technical foul that helped spark a key run by the Timberwolves late in the third quarter. "Nobody wants to lose, but I'd rather that we have these mistakes now. We have plenty of time to clean it up. I know for a fact that we definitely will," DeRozan told reporters.

ABOUT THE MAGIC (4-7): After being held to 99 points or fewer in each of their first seven games, the Magic scored at least 102 in four straight contests and they tied a season high with 27 assists in Wednesday's win. "It was good to see the offense finally click, especially in the fourth quarter when you need it the most," center Nikola Vucevic told the media after a 25-point effort. "Hopefully, we can play that way going forward and kick-start our offense a little bit." Forward Aaron Gordon made only four of his 12 shots but he stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Vucevic is averaging 19 points and 13.6 rebounds during a string of five straight double-doubles.

2. Spurs PF LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 25 points on 58.6 percent from the floor in his team's five wins, and 12 points on 43.9 percent in its six losses.

3. The teams split the two-game season series in 2018-19 and San Antonio shot 64.9 percent from the floor in the most recent encounter, the highest percentage ever by an opposing team at Orlando.

PREDICTION: Magic 109, Spurs 108