Wagner and Black Give Orlando Enough Answers to End Its Slide

Orlando had the final answer even when Sacramento had the cleaner outside shot. The Magic made 10 of their 37 attempts from beyond the arc, yet won 107-100 on Tuesday because Franz Wagner and Anthony Black gave their offense other ways to work. Wagner’s 3 with 3:10 left before halftime completed an 18-5 run and established a 52-43 lead.

Orlando never fell behind again, ending a four-game losing streak.

That mattered because Orlando again had to function without Jalen Suggs and Paolo Banchero, along with Tristan da Silva and Jonathan Isaac. The available group needed a clear pecking order. Wagner handled the broadest share of the offensive burden, Anthony Black added pressure at both ends, and Wendell Carter Jr. kept the interior from becoming Sacramento’s playground.

The arrangement was hardly luxurious, but it was coherent.

Wagner’s 33 points were the headline, and his 10-for-10 shooting at the foul line made the scoring efficient where the game tightened. His seven assists were just as important.

Orlando was not dependent on Wagner merely beating a defender and taking the next shot; he also had to move the possession toward a teammate and keep the Kings from treating him as the only serious threat. He added seven rebounds and committed three turnovers in 38 minutes, a substantial workload that combined scoring with chances for teammates.

Black supplied a second creator instead of leaving Wagner to solve every possession. He scored 26 points on 10-for-17 shooting, collected seven rebounds and delivered five assists. Four steals gave his night a defensive edge, while his four turnovers supplied the obvious blemish.

Still, Black’s value came from the combination: he could attack, advance the ball and pressure Sacramento’s handlers without disappearing when a shot did not fall.

The possession battle put those contributions in context. Orlando committed 14 turnovers, but Sacramento committed 21. That translated to 33 Magic points off Kings giveaways, compared with 20 for Sacramento.

Black’s four steals were part of Orlando’s nine-steal total, and the Magic turned those extra chances into enough breathing room to withstand Sacramento’s shot-making. It was hardly spotless basketball. It was basketball with a margin for error.

Carter supplied another. He scored eight points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots in 33 minutes without turning the ball over. Orlando won the rebounding battle 48-34 and scored 58 points in the paint.

Those numbers mattered because a pure perimeter contest would have favored Sacramento: Sacramento made 16 of 34 3-pointers, while Orlando went 10-for-37. The Kings were more dangerous from distance, so Orlando answered by getting inside and protecting its possessions.

Sacramento’s scoring deserved respect. Zach LaVine produced 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting and made six 3-pointers in nine attempts. Another 29 points came from Darius Acuff Jr., including four 3-pointers, and gave the Kings a second scorer capable of keeping the deficit manageable. Sacramento’s largest lead was five, and Orlando’s largest was 14; this was not a wire-to-wire cruise disguised by the final margin.

The Kings also had an unusual absence of interior production from Domantas Sabonis, who finished without a point after missing both of his shots. He played 24 minutes and supplied five assists but collected only two rebounds. LaVine and Acuff compensated enough to make the finish uncomfortable, but Sacramento’s 28 points in the paint could not match Orlando’s 58.

Orlando’s interior production covered for its less successful outside shooting.

Orlando remains 3-7, and one road victory cannot answer every question raised by its missing players. It can, however, show the value of a night in which responsibilities were obvious and shared properly. Wagner directed the offense, Black gave it another engine and Carter stabilized the work around the basket.

For a team waiting on its larger pieces, that was a modest victory wrapped inside the actual one.

Sources

ESPN: final game record and play-by-play

Associated Press via ESPN: game reporting