Wendell Carter puts his stamp on Orlando Magic win

Wendell Carter will deflect the attention. His success came from his teammates. They set him, finding him on dives and leaving it off to him in the dunker spot. They were the ones putting him in a position to succeed.

And Carter is right. Big men rarely are the central pieces in an offense. They are rarely setting everything up and putting everyone in the right spot. Much less, the ones initiating the offense and taking that isolation play for the final shot.

Yet, that is being a bit too modest. Because Carter is often the one getting guys in the right shot.

As the coach’s saying goes: The best way to get yourself open is to screen for someone else. And Carter was often the one setting screens to spring open the offense.

And then sometimes, Carter just had to go get it. He just had the will to grab offensive rebounds and finish around the rim.

Wendell Carter turned in a dominant performance in the Orlando Magic’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder as he guided the team to a needed win and put his stamp on everything in the game.

Carter rightfully got a water bottle bath on the court after a career-high 30 points. Markelle Fultz and Mo Bamba ambushed him while he spoke with Bally Sports Florida’s Dante Marchitelli after the game.

That was the celebration the big man got for his career game. But more importantly, that was the celebration he got for pushing the team to a much-needed victory — as frustrating as it was beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 90-85 at the Amway Center on Sunday.

And Carter will always tell you that was the most important thing.

"“I just saw it as an opportunity to help my team out,” Carter said after Sunday’s game. “As long as we got that win tonight, that’s all I was focused on because of the start we had to the game. We had to get things turned around for sure. That was my whole mindset coming out of halftime at least.”"

But this was something different.

As coach Jamahl Mosley put it after the game, his dominance stood out in this game. His physical presence and his voice made a difference and Mosley said it showed what it meant to the team to bring that to the front.

Carter entered the game in the fourth quarter with the Magic trailing by five points with seven minutes to play. He proceeded to score 10 points and grab seven rebounds, making all three of his shots in the quarter.

He hit a game-tying three two minutes after stepping onto the floor. Followed that up by scoring on an alley-oop from Franz Wagner as the two ran a perfect pick and roll. In the meantime, after tying the game at 76, Carter grabbed three straight rebounds.

His only misstep was an inadvertent elbow to Isaiah Roby’s face that got him an offensive foul after the officials reviewed the play. That was about the only mistake Carter made.

This was domination from a big man just willing his team to the victory. Every rebound was going to be his.

In one play near the end of the game, Wagner ran the pick and roll with Carter but missed his layup. Carter gathered the rebound between three Thunder players and layed it in himself to give the Magic a four-point lead.

That was all the cushion the Magic would need to close the game.

Carter has had a career season, averaging a career-high 15.0 points per game while shooting 52.4-percent from the floor on a career-high 11.0 field goal attempts per game, the first time in his career he has taken more than 10.0 field goal attempts per game.

These are all important signs for Carter, who at times struggled with his shot with the Chicago Bulls as coaches shuffled through and seemed to want to use him in different ways. Carter has transformed how he has played, adding a 3-point shot and a more aggressive mindset to his game.

Carter has been a flat-out revelation since the 2022 calendar year began. He is averaging 17.7 points per game and shooting 55.8-percent from the floor since Jan. 1. He has earned two nominations for Eastern Conference Player of the Week in the process.

That is for the stuff everyone can see. He has proven to be a strong outlet as a shooter in the mid-range and even to the 3-point line. He can freeze the defense with a pump fake and get past his defender to score.

But what has stood out about Carter is how he puts his fingerprints on everything in the game. Carter has established himself as the team’s best player for the moment because of how he makes everyone better and impacts every aspect of the game.

Carter is 13th in the league with 3.8 screen assists per game, according to NBA.com’s tracking stats, generating 8.4 points per game. As the roll man in pick and rolls, the often moribund Magic offense scores 1.05 points per possession (entering Sunday’s game).

When he is on the floor the Magic are -3.9 points per 100 possessions, the best mark of regular rotation players on the court. Since Jan. 1, the Magic are -1.2 points per 100 possessions when Carter is on the floor, the best mark on the team by more than two points per 100 possessions.

He still makes his biggest mark on defense.

The defense is still better with Carter on there because of his ability to protect the paint and protect the rim and his ability to get out and defend on the perimeter.

Carter does a little bit of everything. And in this way, he puts his stamp on everything.

"“Just trusting the work that I put into this game night in and night out,” Carter said after Sunday’s game. “Whether it’s practice or after practice or late nights, I’m always putting in the work. When I go out there and lace them shoes up and it’s time to play, I trust that work. Sometimes I might have an off night or I might be on, the shots I take I have taken a thousand times. I just feel comfortable now.”"

For this team, that is what they need. And it is the kind of thing that will be scalable as the Magic add to their team. Wendell Carter’s versatility has allowed him to anchor the team as its center and play alongside another big like Mo Bamba.

But still, no one imagined Carter making this deep of an impact or being this clearly so positive for the team. Carter has turned himself into an anchor defensively and placed him somewhere in the Magic’s frontcourt moving forward.

In game after game this season, Carter has put his stamp on the game in some way.

The measure of a star is something more. And Carter may not be a star player at that level. But this kind of consistency and production is the measure of a really solid player. And the Magic will take those right now as they look to add to this rebuild.

Carter might very well be able to do more and break into the upper tiers of NBA big men. Like everything else on this roster, there is a lot to do to get there.

What is important now is to see the hints of the team getting there and the potential of getting there. Carter has pushed his game to get there.

He took over Sunday’s game. He made sure the Magic won.

Like he seems to do every night, Carter put his stamp on this team and put his stamp on this team’s future.