{"id":150557,"date":"2026-02-10T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150557\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:38:08","slug":"orlando-magic-win-3rd-straight-with-franz-wagner-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/150557\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic win 3rd straight with Franz Wagner back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Magic<\/a> forced 10 turnovers in the first half of Monday\u2019s game at Kia Center<\/a> against the Bucks<\/a>, the team had only scored six points off those takeaways.<\/p>\n

Orlando<\/a> actually trailed by three points at the halfway mark, 54-51, largely due to its lack of shotmaking. Milwaukee<\/a> had made 40% of their 3-point attempts before the break and held the Magic to just 19% from distance.<\/p>\n

Then came the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad notched 10 points off five Milwaukee turnovers, shot 54.5% from beyond the arc and outscored the Bucks 36-20 in the 12-minute stretch to take control and capture a 118-99 victory in front of a national TV audience on Peacock, NBC\u2019s streaming service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a point in the game where we just kind of turned it on,\u201d Magic forward Jonathan Isaac<\/a> told the Orlando Sentinel<\/a> in the locker room after the 19-point victory. \u201cWe were playing solid defense throughout but that third quarter, seemed like we were able to just put couple (stops) together and then fuel our offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce your defense starts fueling your offense, it\u2019s kind of just wraps from there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Bucks coach Doc Rivers described Orlando as the more physical team after the loss and, while the third quarter was when the Magic took over, the team believed it was just a matter of time for the dams to break defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good defensive game overall,\u201d Magic forward Paolo Banchero<\/a> said. \u201c(The Bucks) have been a pretty high-scoring team. They\u2019ve been shooting the ball really well, especially without Giannis (Antetokounmpo).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just did a good job of running them off the line and forcing them to take tough shots,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In the three games before facing Orlando, the Bucks had scored 130-plus points twice, averaging 125.7 in that stretch. For the Magic, Monday\u2019s game marked the second in its past three holding an opponent to fewer than 100 points.<\/p>\n

It was also Orlando\u2019s third straight win, something the team hadn\u2019t accomplished since Nov. 25-Dec. 1. Although they\u2019ve won five of their last seven, they\u2019re still not pleased.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, honestly, I would contribute that to them being lesser teams,\u201d Banchero said when asked what\u2019s changed defensively as of late. \u201cNot that good, you know? I think Utah took their starters out, Brooklyn not being very good. Milwaukee, they\u2019re alright.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think we\u2019ve just got to lock in and continue to just be who we are defensively and hopefully it translates to when we see some better teams down the road,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Getting Franz Wagner back helped, too. In his first game back from a nine-game absence managing the extended rehab of a left high ankle sprain, the Magic forward racked up 14 points, five assists and two rebounds in just 17 restricted minutes.<\/p>\n

The contest served as just the 18th regular-season game since the start of the 2024-25 season in which Wagner, Banchero and Jalen Suggs shared the floor out of 134 possible games in that stretch.<\/p>\n

In 12 games together this season, the Magic trio has recorded a net-rating of plus-15.2 when on the court, according to NBA.com<\/a>. Of the 48 three-man lineups that have played at least 140 minutes together for Orlando this season, that net rating leads the team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously still working my way back and obviously got to find a rhythm out there \u2026 But pleased with how I played and hopefully could help the group win,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n

After starting his previous 317 NBA games played with the Magic, as well as 55 college games played in two season at Michigan, Wagner came off the bench for the first time since his youth days with Alba Berlin in Germany. That allowed Mosley to better control his minutes as he works back to form from injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely different,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cBut I came off the bench before in my life so just trying to find other ways to obviously get ready and be ready once you get subbed in. Sometimes it\u2019s fun to have a change of routine like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banchero appeared to avoid a major injury himself when Isaac blocked a Kevin Porter Jr. layup late in the third quarter and the ball ricocheted off Banchero\u2019s right hand.<\/p>\n

Banchero said it was his right index finger that got hit and it felt \u201ca little stiff\u201d after the game, but he didn\u2019t undergo an X-ray on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully it doesn\u2019t bother me too much. \u2026 It\u2019s probably just a jammed finger, just jammed it pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic host the Bucks again on Wednesday in their final game before the NBA All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Although Orlando has won three games in a row four different times this season, it has yet to win four consecutive contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important,\u201d Isaac said about the last game before the break. \u201cI think we definitely sent a message (Monday night) and I don\u2019t feel any reservations about next game. We\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Bucks<\/p>\n

When:\u00a07 p.m., Wednesday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although the Magic forced 10 turnovers in the first half of Monday\u2019s game at Kia Center against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-150557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-magic","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-social","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}