{"id":250295,"date":"2026-04-28T22:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/250295\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T22:44:20","slug":"orlando-magics-franz-wagner-injured-could-miss-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/250295\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic’s Franz Wagner injured, could miss Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franz Wagner<\/a>\u2018s status for Wednesday\u2019s Game 5 against the top-seeded Pistons<\/a> is uncertain after the Magic<\/a> forward exited Monday\u2019s Game 4 late in the third quarter and did not return due to right calf soreness.<\/p>\n

An MRI on Tuesday showed that Wagner suffered a right calf strain, and he\u2019s considered questionable to play at Detroit<\/a>. His availability for Wednesday will depend on how he responds to treatment, the team said.<\/p>\n

Wagner recorded 19 points, five rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes before he exited the contest that Orlando<\/a> won 94-88 to take a 3-1 series lead in the first round of the NBA playoffs against Detroit.<\/p>\n

Wagner was 8 years old the last time the Magic won a playoff series, 16 years ago. His teammate Wendell Carter Jr. was in the fifth grade with dreams of one day becoming an airline pilot.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to this week and the pair of teammates, alongside Paolo Banchero, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs, are part of a Magic starting five that has put Orlando on the verge of advancing out of the first round for the first time since 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a sigh of relief, but you never want to look at it that way,\u201d Carter said about the 3-1 series lead after the six-point win. \u201cIt\u2019s the first to four. That\u2019s what our mindset is. We don\u2019t care about what happened. It\u2019s about the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just how difficult will it be for the Magic to secure a fourth win over the Pistons to reach the Eastern Conference Semifinals?<\/p>\n

\u201cAs difficult as the other ones,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cObviously they\u2019re going to play with a sense of desperation especially on their homecourt. We\u2019ve just got to have the same mentality as we did (Monday night), take the fight to them and play one play at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagner, who previously missed 48 regular-season contests due to a left high ankle sprain, said after the game he felt his right calf tighten up on him some before he went to the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously sucks to come out of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most important thing is that we got the win and we\u2019ll figure out the rest (Tuesday).\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked postgame if he anticipates being able to play on Wednesday, Wagner replied: \u201cI hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the first four games of the series against the Pistons, Wagner averaged 16.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.7 steals during 30.4 minutes per night.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s unable to play in Game 5, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley could turn to fourth-year forward Jamal Cain, who filled in for Wagner the rest of Monday night. Cain\u2019s one-handed dunk over Jalen Duren in the second half highlighted his eight-point, nine-rebound performance in Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s playing huge for us,\u201d Bane said about Cain. \u201cHe played 24 minutes and closed the game in an NBA playoff game. That\u2019s something that you can\u2019t take for granted, and it\u2019s something that will be huge for him and his career moving forward. I\u2019m very happy with the way he\u2019s playing and I think he\u2019s still got another gear to him and another level to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

With or without Wagner, the Magic are aware just how desperate Detroit will be facing elimination on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Pistons played with a similar sense of urgency in Game 2, which they won by 15 points to avoid a 2-0 hole, but now their backs are up against the wall in Game 5.<\/p>\n

The Magic are hoping to become just the seventh No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 in a series in league history. It\u2019s happened only four times since the first round of the playoffs was expanded to a best-of-seven series in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve felt exactly what they\u2019re capable of doing,\u201d Mosley said about the Pistons. \u201cIt\u2019s not a team that\u2019s going to back down. They\u2019re coached by a guy that\u2019s not going to let them back down. They\u2019ve got guys that know how to win games. So, (it\u2019s) our ability to exceed the effort, exceed the energy, sustain it and make sure that we just do all of the little things within the game because that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to come down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Magic do advance, Orlando next would face the winner of Cleveland and Toronto, a series that\u2019s tied 2-2 entering Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Although their confidence is high as they hit the road, the Magic aren\u2019t looking ahead to their next potential opponent just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we\u2019re the better team and that\u2019s how we\u2019re playing,\u201d Anthony Black told the Orlando Sentinel. \u201cSo, we\u2019ve just got to do it one more time to close out the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Wagner: \u201cJust one more game. We\u2019ve got to make sure we stay locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Pistons, Game 5<\/p>\n

When:\u00a07 p.m., Wednesday, Little Caesars Arena<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0Prime Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franz Wagner\u2018s status for Wednesday\u2019s Game 5 against the top-seeded Pistons is uncertain after the Magic forward exited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,2295,139,141,1239,140,109,76046,110],"class_list":["post-250295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250295","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=250295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}