Franz Wagner was invisible in the fourth quarter.
That was the takeaway as the Orlando Magic watched the Toronto Raptors slowly wittle their 20-point lead down throughout the quarter. It was not some killer run or some overwhelming avalanche from Toronto. It happened slowly and Orlando could never seem to get a grip on things.
That is what anyone would expect from such a young team, let alone one that had only six wins to its name this year and was just coming off a nine-game losing streak.
This Magic team is not supposed to know how to close games. And having to grind through a 19-point fourth quarter after shooting better than 60 percent for the game was a test of the team’s will and trust in itself.
That was a growing message throughout the week as the Magic seemed to brush against consistency and start to put some thing together. They needed the confirmation fo belief. They needed to feel the success happen.
And that drives everything back to Wagner. When the team needed a play to get the win and get this confirmation, it was Wagner’s will that helped push the Magic over the top.
Franz Wagner made the winning plays throughout the Orlando Magic’s game Friday as they are starting to build some consistent efforts to grow from.
Invisible to that point in the fourth quarter, he was the one who stepped up and made the decisive play. The one that gave thet eam the result to hang onto for their strong play to cap off a 2-1 week and perhaps something a bit more.
Markelle Fultz again gave the call to take the final shot with the game on the line. He dribbled to his usual spot near the elbow, spun and turned for a fadeaway over the defense. It is a shot he is comfortable with. But he missed.
Only for Franz Wagner to outwrestling both Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes for the rebound and the put back to give the Magic the lead with 30 seconds to play.
It was Wagner’s only shot of the fourth quarter after scoring 32 points with about seven minutes to play in the third quarter. That was a sign of how difficult the Magic found things in the fourth quarter and how the team is still learning how to feed its stars or the hot hand and find its way to win.
But it was also a sign of how Wagner found his way to contribute at a critical moment. And most importantly how important winning was to him.
As Markelle Fultz put it after the game, it showed just how Franz Wagner is willing to do what he needs to do to win the game. That is not a thought Fultz had alone.
"“He’s about winning,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after Friday’s win. “We’ve said this from the beginning of the year. He is one of the most competitive guys I have been around. Add the basketball IQ on top of that and that’s what makes him special.”"
Wagner finished the game with 34 points, shooting 12 for 15 from the floor and making all eight of his free throws. He knifed through the lane, sometimes stepping through impossibly small and closing holes to get to the rim and score at the basket.
Wagner said he was not really forcing his shots and mainly playing within the flow of the offense. He was attacking off second and third actions as the ball zipped around the perimeter well.
The Orlando Magic posting an offensive rating of 116.5 points per 100 possessions, their highest since the win over the Phoenix Suns on Nov. 11, is a sign of how much the team has started to buy into the things they have been working to improve throughout the season.
The game even marked the first time the Magic had held an opponent to less than 115 points per 100 possessions in three consecutive games this season.
"“I think this game shows it works what the coaches are telling us,” Wagner said after Friday’s game. “They are telling us to get to the paint and make decisions from there. Toronto is really good at collapsing to the paint and defending the rim. That second and third action is when you get baskets at the rim most of the time. It’s a credit to how we moved the basketball around and let everyone touch it during the possession.”"
Paolo Banchero credited the team’s trust in each other too for digging out the win. Whether that was the trust in Fultz to take that final shot. Or trust in each other defensively to get the stop.
That trust has always been there, but has not been perfectly executed. The thing that has turned is the attention to detail, communication and trust is better to execute those plays at a critical juncture.
This has been something the team has clearly been working on. In the past week, the Magic have seemed really tuned into the gameplan and have executed at a higher level. That is what has clicked into place for this team to get back into games and win some more.
The Magic have often been a few plays away from getting over the hump. It was only a matter of time before they started turning in their favor.
"“We say it a ton, there is growth in wins and there is growth in losses,” Mosley said after Friday’s win. “That loss that we had up there [in Toronto], we learned fom it, we grew from it. We took the things that we needed to do in order to come out and get this one.”"
Orlando has spoken a lot about this trust and their belief in each other. What appears to have clicked is now the consistency of the team having more of its top players playing together for longer periods of time and putting that trust into action.
It is easy for Banchero, for instance, to say he believes he can pass the ball knowing that the ball will find its way back to him. It is another for the ball work its way from Banchero back into the paint and kicked back out to him.
That is what the team is trying to build. The regular season is all about consistency. Orlando is still hunting for that consistency and that ability to bring the same focus, intensity and effort every single night. The team is still trying to carve that identity.
That is what it takes though is to keep going game by game and every game.
That is what Wagner gave them throughout Friday’s game. His absence in the fourth quarter was noticeable because of what was missing for the Magic as they saw the lead whittle away.
There is still work to do to reach consistency.
The team is still making its mistakes — 20 turnovers in Friday’s game allowed Toronto to hang around despite its poor shooting percentage — and still has plenty to improve on. So the Magic still need to find the players who give them consistency and stability.
And so Orlando still has to learn how to play a more even-keeled game that keeps everyone involved.
But this was a week where the team took some steps toward that.