KYLE HIGHTOWER
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks set out in the offseason to add depth in hopes of building a roster capable of competing with the upper tier of the Western Conference.
They ended the preseason looking like a team that may be ready for that challenge.
Chandler Parsons scored 24 points, and Dirk Nowitzki added 16 as the Mavericks ran away with a 117-92 win over the Magic on Friday.
“Everybody came in and did their job,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “You’re never going to be perfect, but we’ve got good depth and we’ve got guys that I think are going to be ready. Now it’s time to throw it up.”
Dallas (4-4) rested its starters Thursday and played refreshed, pushing its lead above 20 in the third quarter.
Orlando (4-4) didn’t help itself, posting a preseason-high 26 turnovers.
Tobias Harris led the Magic with 14 points.
The Magic played under slightly dampened spirits following news Friday that second-year guard Victor Oladipo would have surgery Saturday for a facial fracture he sustained after catching an inadvertent elbow in practice Thursday.
Oladipo had already missed the entire preseason with a sprained right medial collateral ligament and remains out indefinitely. He joins Channing Frye, who also sat all eight preseason games and is out with a sprained left MCL.
A night after resting the top seven players in his rotation at New Orleans, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle went with his projected opening night starting five of Parsons, Nowitzki, Tyson Chandler, Monta Ellis and Jameer Nelson on Friday.
They all played 20-plus minutes, led by Ellis with 26.
“That is always the goal,” Chandler said of Dallas’ championship prospects this season. “You look at our team and look at the chemistry we’re having. We just have to continue to get better…and everything else will take care of itself.”
Vaughn said he has yet to settle on his starting five for the regular season opener, but acknowledged that preseason injuries have left things fluid in the interim.
It means that Orlando’s Friday starting lineup of Harris, Kyle O’Quinn, Nik Vucevic, Maurice Harkless, and Luke Ridnour is certainly a possible combination to open the regular season next week.
The Magic got another injury scare in the third quarter when Ridnour limped off after banging knees with Parsons.
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TIP-INS
The Mavericks: G Raymond Felton missed his sixth straight preseason game with a sprained right ankle.
The Magic: Along with Oladipo and Frye, the Magic also played without Ben Gordon (dental work) and Dewayne Dedmon (sore foot) on Friday.
INJURY TALK
Vaughn said in the day since his injury Oladipo has remained in good spirits and that he is confident he will take his recent run of bad luck in stride. “One of the things I told him was it could be worse,” Vaughn said. “Life’s about challenges, how you face them and how you overcome them. And right now he’s got a couple of challenges. He’s working back from one challenge with the knee, so I joked with him that ‘the knee will probably be completely healed by the time you come back from the facial fracture.'”
HOMECOMING
Orlando’s fans gave Nelson, who spent the first 10 years of his career in Orlando, a loud ovation when he was introduced pregame. Nelson was waived by the Magic after last season, freeing him up to become an unrestricted free agent and eventually sign in Dallas.
STAT WATCH
Vucevic has been consistent throughout the preseason and ended it that way. The Magic’s big man appeared in seven games this preseason, reaching double figures in them all. He had his second double-double Friday with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
UP NEXT
Dallas opens the regular-season at San Antonio on Tuesday.
Orlando opens the regular-season at New Orleans on Tuesday.
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