{"id":251367,"date":"2026-04-29T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251367\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:45:10","slug":"orlando-magic-not-expecting-franz-wagner-to-play-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251367\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic not expecting Franz Wagner to play Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 Regardless of how much time Franz Wagner<\/a> could potentially miss during the NBA playoffs<\/a>, the Magic<\/a> believe they\u2019re prepared to still have success without him on the court.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Orlando<\/a> played plenty already without him this year, in fact more than half the season.<\/p>\n

Wagner missed 48 games in the regular season due to the extended rehab of a high left ankle sprain and is now dealing with a right calf strain he suffered during the third quarter of Monday\u2019s Game 4 against the top-seeded Pistons<\/a> that Orlando<\/a> won to take a 3-1 series lead in the first round.<\/p>\n

Although he was officially listed as questionable ahead of Wednesday\u2019s 7 p.m. Game 5 at Detroit, multiple members of the Magic didn\u2019t expect Wagner to be available, including Paolo Banchero,<\/a> after the German forward didn\u2019t participate in shootaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalf strain \u2014 you don\u2019t want to mess around with that,\u201d Banchero told reporters Wednesday morning inside Little Caesars Arena. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t think that\u2019d be very smart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some guys come off the bench, play well, defend at a high level, so those guys just got to step up and get ready to go,\u201d he added. \u201cObviously we want Franz to be healthy, that\u2019s the most important thing, but I\u2019m confident that we\u2019ve got guys that can step up. Obviously he\u2019s one of our best players so you\u2019re not going to make up for everything you\u2019re losing with him out, but we\u2019ve got guys that can fill that role and other guys that can step up as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those \u201cguys\u201d include various bench pieces such as Jamal Cain, Tristan da Silva and Anthony Black.<\/p>\n

Cain has thrust himself into Orlando\u2019s rotation down the back-half of the season and filled in for Wagner during the fourth quarter of Game 4 when he notched eight points and nine rebounds across 24 extended minutes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, da Silva is no stranger for starting in the place of Wagner. It was something he did last season as a rookie when Wagner missed time because of a torn right abdominal muscle and also something he did at various points this year.<\/p>\n

The same could be said for Black, who started 40 of his 64 regular-season appearances when Wagner missed time.<\/p>\n

Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> said Orlando\u2019s approach in the postseason doesn\u2019t change without Wagner, even though this is no longer the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the \u2018next man up\u2019 mentality,\u201d the Magic center said. \u201cIt\u2019s what we\u2019ve stood on ever since I\u2019ve gotten to Orlando. We\u2019ve battled a lot of injuries throughout the year so it\u2019s the \u2018next man up\u2019 mentality. The stakes are a little bit higher with it being a playoff game and a possible shutout of the series, but it\u2019s still the same mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eighth-seeded Orlando went 25-23 without Wagner in the regular season and 20-14 with him.<\/p>\n

He played five of the final six games in the regular season, both of Orlando\u2019s play-in tournament contests and the first four games of Orlando\u2019s best-of-seven first-round series against Detroit.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ve been without him for 50 games so we\u2019ve had chemistry and camaraderie built up with him playing or not playing,\u201d Magic guard Desmond Bane<\/a> said. \u201cI expect us to still come out and be the more physical team and the more aggressive team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Regardless of how much time Franz Wagner could potentially miss during the NBA playoffs, the Magic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251368,"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-251367","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\/251367","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=251367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}