Orlando's Paolo Banchero won't play for a few weeks. The Magic see it as an opportunity for everyone

Paolo Banchero knew something was wrong. He was surprised to learn the extent.

The Orlando Magic All-Star will miss the next several weeks with a torn right oblique, an injury that happened in his team’s loss to Chicago on Wednesday night. The abdominal muscle injury was diagnosed Thursday, causing Banchero to miss the game Friday in Cleveland. The Magic take on the Cavaliers in a rematch of an Eastern Conference first-round series from last season.

“I felt it when it happened,” Banchero said Friday, speaking with reporters in Cleveland after Orlando’s shootaround. “Didn’t know what it was but knew it didn’t feel good. Just tried to play through it, wanted to get it looked at after the game, was hoping it wasn’t too bad but obviously it was a little worse than I thought.”

Banchero was off to a monster start — his 29 points per game ranked seventh in the league entering Friday. He’s one of only three players who started the day averaging that many points along with 8.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. The others: Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.