The Orlando Magic with and without Franz Wagner is night and day.
With him, he powers his way into the paint and can see the floor, hitting an automatic floater if defense back off him and kicking it out to the corner and open shooters when they collapse around him.
There must be something else in the water too. Because when Wagner is in the game, the ball seems to have a magnet for the rim.
Look no further than Desmond Bane's game.
Afer a relatively slow start, Bane got cooking in the third quarter, draining five of his six 3-pointers in the quarter, including a four-point play off a dish from Wagner.
In the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, with Wagner on the bench, Bane missed both of his three-point attempts. The Magic started the quarter 1-for-8 from deep.
And then Wagner checked back in as the Bucks closed the gap to 11 points. He immediately got in the paint for a floater. He got a hockey assist to Anthony Black for a three, his first made basket of the game, just by drawing defenders into the paint, giving Jalen Suggs room to drive and find Black in the corner.
Wagner, as he has been all season, carried the day in a 107-99 win over the Bucks in NBA Cup group play.
Wagner finished with 35 points, 12 assists, nine rebounds and an astounding +35. He had a points/assists double-double by the end of the third quarter. He had his 10th rebound taken away by the league office on a second-quarter controlled tip by Goga Bitadze.
Wagner was everywhere for the Magic.
That is what a star player is supposed to do. And to be clear, this is exactly the kind of tear that will put Wagner in the All-Star Game -- and maybe more if he can sustain it.
The Magic were set for a runaway but could not fully clear the Bucks with how stagnant the offense could look with Wagner out of the game.
Orlando scored only 110.3 points per 100 possessions overall and 138.4 points per 100 possessions with Wagner on the floor.
3-pointers and the paint
Much of the Orlando Magic's season has been dependent on three-point shooting. It is the flaw facing this team in the early part of the season. The Magic seemed to get their energy and consistency from their shooting.
Changing that was the key to rediscovering their offense.
Orlando is not going to stop taking threes. Creating open threes is one of the key facets of the Sean Sweeney offense. The Magic needed a modern offense that generated threes.
The Magic just cannot let that be their only way to score. It needs to be the icing on top.
That is what the Magic used it for in the third quarter. Orlando made 5 of 14 from three to keep Milwaukee at bay. Desmond Bane made all of those threes on six attempts.
But it also became a crutch, especially when Franz Wagner was out. The Magic are still looking for consistency in attacking the paint when the shots are not falling. Orlando ended up shooting 15-for-50 from three. That kept up with the Bucks with their hot shooting in the game.
The difference in the last three wins compared to the early season struggles? The Magic are winning the paint now too. They are getting more shots in the paint and scoring there.
Orlando beat Milwaukee 44-26 in the paint. A dominant showing on the interior.
They are slowly diversifying their game.
Jalen Suggs' return
Jalen Suggs said that his whole time trying to work his way back from the knee contusion and bone bruise was to focus on the work in front of him. Back in the lineup, he would just be trying to be the same J-Suggs.
The Magic do not want to tamp down his personality too much. They want him to be his usual chaotic self and make opponents work on defense. They just need a little bit from him offensively.
He looked like he was still getting his legs under him when he came off the bench and air-balled a three. He got it back with a three on his next attempt.
Suggs was slowly dipping his toes into the water.
Maybe he was a bit shot happy trying to get himself going and shake off the slow-shooting start from his first three games -- he went 1-for-8 from the floor and 1-for-6 from three. But Suggs was back to being Suggs, even in his role off the bench.
He was a difference-maker on defense. He forced the Bucks to make some wild plays to slow him down, getting under their skin with his physicality. He made some frustrating decisions with the ball and over-aggressive plays to try to steal possessions that were not quite there.
That is part of the deal with Suggs. But it was an encouraging first game back for him. The Magic needed his presence at the very least.
NBA Cup-date
The Orlando Magic know the formula to advancing in the NBA Cup: You either need to win all of your group play games or win enough blowouts to absorb the one loss. There is no advancing with two losses.
When a team has the opportunity to run a team out of the building, they need to take advantage of it.
Before we even look at the standings and where the Magic are situated midway through their group play games, the Magic know they let an opportunity slip by on Friday.
Orlando led by as much as 20 points in the second half and seemed set to coast against a poor Bucks team.
But Milwaukee did not quit. The Bucks scored 62 points in the second half, including 35 in the third quarter after scoring just 37 in the first half. Milwaukee kept the deficit to within 12 points, creeping it into single digits on a few occasions.
It was not the runaway win the team needs to assure itself safe passage -- assuming the Magic keep winning.
Orlando will take the win overall. The team is improving defensively overall -- even considering the opponents the team is facing. That is what ultimately matters.
The Magic have the Brooklyn Nets next Friday and the Detroit Pistons to close group play and put them in position to advance.
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