On Thursday night, it looked as though the Los Angeles Lakers were well on their way to victory lane against the Orlando Magic. With 19 seconds left, the Lakers were up by two, 118-116, and they had possession of the basketball. All they needed was to ice the game with two free throws. But then Anthony Davis missed both of his freebies — setting the stage for disaster for the Lakers courtesy of a cold-blooded triple from Franz Wagner.
Wagner, who has taken it upon himself to carry the scoring workload for the Magic amid Paolo Banchero’s injury, was phenomenal on Thursday. Everyone in the building knew that he was going to take the shot; he had Cam Reddish isolated at the top of the key and launched a deep stepback triple that tickled the twine and left just two seconds on the game clock.
Â
The Lakers still had a chance to reclaim the lead, but in the end, the Magic forced Davis into a tough shot in what would have been a quick redemption from his free-throw blunder. Suffice to say, the Magic forced a miss and they will be heading back home with a 119-118 win over the Lakers so as to not come away empty-handed in their annual trip to Hollywood.
This was a valiant effort from a Magic team that was in the second night of a back-to-back, having lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. They outrebounded the Lakers and made just enough triples to withstand a combined 70-point effort from Davis and LeBron James, and after a brutal start to life without Banchero, the Magic are humming and are comfortably above .500.
Related Orlando Magic NewsArticle continues below
Franz Wagner makes magic happen amid torrid stretch
Three-point shooting has never been the strongest suit of Franz Wagner’s game. Last season, Wagner shot 28.1 percent from deep on low volume. But clearly, the Magic forward has worked tirelessly on his stroke, as he made four of his 10 triples against the Lakers to finish with 37 points on the night.
Wagner has been filling up the scoring column ever since he assumed first option duties amid Paolo Banchero’s absence. He has scored 30 or more points in four of his past six games, and over his past 10 games, he has scored fewer than 22 points just once. This is the version of Wagner that the Magic envisioned when they gave him a $224 million max extension this past offseason.
Source link