The New York Knicks led by eight points with 8:40 left Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Then the defending NBA champions watched another one slip away.
The Orlando Magic closed on a 33-16 run to beat the Knicks, 111-102, dropping New York to 0-3. The Knicks are the first defending NBA champions to lose their first three games since the 2011-12 Dallas Mavericks.
Those Mavericks lost their opener to the Miami Heat, the team they had beaten in the Finals six months earlier. Then they dropped games to Denver and Oklahoma City before beating Toronto.
Orlando did it without its best player. Paolo Banchero sat out with an ankle injury, and Jonathan Isaac was also out.
The Magic made 18 3-pointers. The Knicks made nine on 38 attempts.
Jalen Brunson
finished with 28 points on 12-of-28 shooting. OG Anunoby added 22. Orlando's bench outscored New York's 47-11.
Franz Wagner had 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists for the Magic. Tristan da Silva added 19.
The Magic also had been winless coming into the game.
The close losses keep piling up for the Knicks. They lost by six to Philadelphia and four at Boston, where Jayson Tatum scored 36 and hit the 3-pointer with 30.3 seconds left that ended it.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Knicks stumble again as defending champs start 0-3 after loss to Orlando Magic
