With the Magic trailing the Heat by 3 points with less than 5 minutes left in Wednesday’s season opener at Kia Center, Paolo Banchero drove down the right side of the paint and missed a layup.

Waiting on other side of the rim to grab an offensive rebound and get fouled upon an immediate putback attempt was Orlando center Wendell Carter Jr., who up until that moment hadn’t made an impact on the game.

Carter, with only 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting and four fouls to his name in 25 minutes at the time, stepped up to the free-throw line, sunk both attempts and brought the Magic within a point of their in-state rival with 4:14 remaining in the opening night contest.

Almost four minutes later with the clock ticking down, Carter grabbed a second crucial offensive rebound off a Banchero fadeaway and got back to the free throw line with 6.1 seconds left to put the final result, a 125-121 win for the Magic, on ice.

“He found a way,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said about Carter, who ended with 9 points. “That says so much about that young man and his growth and what he’s gone through to be able to not be great in the first half, but he understands his presence for this team and ability to stay poised and make big plays down the stretch because that’s who he is.”

Added Franz Wagner about Carter: “He didn’t get a bunch of looks the whole game and then basically wins us the game with two big rebounds. It’s important for us to go through these moments and understand that we need everybody to be locked in [at] every moment because you don’t know which play can decide the game.”

While it was Carter who saved the night late, it was Banchero (24 points), Wagner (24) and newcomer Desmond Bane (23) who did the heavy lifting on offense the rest of the game.

The only other time three Magic players each scored 20-plus points in an opening night game was on Oct. 19, 2022 at Detroit (when Banchero had 27 points, Jalen Suggs 21 and Franz Wagner 20).

Mosley described having multiple legitimate scoring options as a “very good problem” for the team.

“It says a lot about the guys that they’re not afraid of the moment and they trust each other enough to make the right play at the right time,” Mosley said. “They’re all capable of making big time plays and they celebrate each other. That’s the beauty of this team is our depth, our togetherness and the focus that we have to continue to work for one another.”

Beyond those three, Suggs added 14 points with four rebounds, two assists and two steals in his first game back from a left knee cartilage injury that forced him to sit out the rest of last season after Jan. 25.

The All-Defensive guard was restricted to just 16 1/2 minutes, with majority of his stints limited to 2-3 minutes of action. But that didn’t keep Suggs from making his mark on the contest.

“It felt really great,” Suggs told reporters in the locker room about his return. “To run around, to see the lights, to see the crowd, turn them up a little bit, start to feel my spots, find my confidence in my rhythm … When the rehab’s this long, you start to, in the back of your mind, think and you have the passing thoughts of, am I still growing and working towards the things I was doing before the injury?

“So, to come out here and feel really confident in everything that we’ve done throughout the summer and put it on display today, it was big for my mental,” he added.

Suggs described the evening as “very emotional” and said he almost began crying walking off the court when the clock hit zero.

“Rehabs, injuries and surgeries are so trying,” he said. “Physically, obviously, but mentally and emotionally [they] are so taxing … I got to settle in three times. They were quick stints but everybody gave me so much confidence from the boys on the court to the coaches reminding me of the standard, reminding me to keep working and I had more runs coming.”

He’ll get more chances to keep working when Orlando hosts Atlanta on Friday, the first night of a home back-to-back. The Bulls travel to Kia Center the following night.

And although they got the result they wanted against the Heat, the Magic know there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Miami led by as many as 12 points and scored 16 off 15 Orlando turnovers in the 4-point loss.

“We’ve got work to do,” Bane said. “It’s always good to come out of here with a win but we’ve still got a long way to go and it’s the first of 82. It’s a long journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

Up next …

Magic vs. Hawks

When: 7, Friday, Kia Center

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida