The Orlando Magic salvaged their four-game road trip with a 123-108 win against the Utah Jazz inside Delta Center on Wednesday night.
Just like he has on multiple different occasions this season, Magic star Franz Wagner closed the door, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter in what became one of the best performances of his six-year career.
Orlando’s win improves them to 4-7, while the Jazz are now losers of 10-straight, dropping to 1-11.
Here were a few of our takeaways!
Franz Wagner had eye of tiger, leading late surge:
The Magic and Jazz were knotted up at 98 with 6:31 left, but Orlando closed the game on a 25-10 run, making 10 of its final 16 shots. The Jazz missed five of their last nine and were the latest victim of Franz Wagner’s torrid stretch during this road-trip.
For the third time in his career, Wagner recorded his third-straight 30-point performance, tallying a season-high 38 points on 13-of-23 shooting and 3-of-8 from 3-point range. He also made nine of his 10 free-throw attempts, grabbing eight rebound with one assist across 39 minutes.
Wagner had the eye of the tiger; he’s been relentless attacking the paint all season, but the 6-foot-10 wing had an extra pep in his step — with the help of the Jazz crowd booing and, frankly, invigorating him, down the stretch.
Anthony Black continues to step up when Magic need him to most:
After dealing with ankle soreness at the start of the week, Black played both games in the Magic’s back-to-back against Sacramento and Utah.
And he looked outstanding in both.
After a 26-point, seven-rebound, four-steal performance against the Kings, the 22-year-old followed up with 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists on 6-of-14 shooting and 3-of-6 from 3-point range in 39 minutes.
Down Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane and Tristan da Silva, the Magic needed every bit of Black’s advantage creation, shotmaking, defensive versatility and playmaking. In the meantime, outside of Wagner, he’s the next guy up in that department.
Jazz weren’t shy of letting it fly:
Heading into the game, the Jazz were 22nd in 3-point attempt rate — in addition to 25th in 3-point percentage and 23rd in 3-point makes per game. In summary, they don’t take many, and they haven’t made many.
But if you turned on Wednesday’s game, you would’ve thought the Jazz were dipping their toes into Mazzulla-ball (Recall, Will Hardy did coach with Joe Mazzulla, once upon a time!).
Utah attempted 44 of its 81 shots from 3-point range, including 27 of its first 34 attempts — a 79.4 3-point attempt rate! That marks their highest 3-point attempt rate by three percentage points. Additionally, Utah’s 66.7 3PAr in the first half was the fifth-highest by any team in any half this season.
The Magic did a better job sticking to the Jazz’s top long-range threats and running them off the 3-point line. They have been pretty unlucky in terms of 3-point shooting luck through 10 games, so keeping them at bay after a fast start was important.
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