Franz Wagner led the Orlando Magic to an impressive comeback against the Bucks with the best game of his young NBA career. Milwaukee’s Big Three around Giannis Antetokounmpo is too strong in the end, but Wagner causes a stir with a new career high.
Orlando Magic (7-28) – Milwaukee Bucks (23-13) 110:127 (BOXSCORE)
What an exclamation mark from Franz Wagner: career record, best scoring performance of a rookie this season and the engine of the strong comeback attempt by Magic. The German pulverized his previous career high with 38 points against Milwaukee (28).
He sank a strong 12 of his 20 attempts from the field, 4/8 threes and stayed perfectly off the free throw line (10/10 FT). With this statline, Wagner advanced loudly Statmuse to the first Magic rookie with at least 30 points in shooting splits of 50/50/100 since Dennis Scott in 1990. In any case, only Scott (40) and Shaquille O’Neal (46) have scored more points than rookies in the history of the franchise. In the current season, no NBA newcomer came up with more points.
In addition, the 20-year-old collected 7 rebounds, 3 assists as well as 1 steal and 1 block. Otherwise, the decimated Magic cracked – including Mo Bamba and Terrence Ross are in the corona protocol, Cole Anthony is missing injured (ankle) – but only Wendell Carter Jr. (19 and 10 rebounds) and Gary Harris (13) the double Digits. Moritz Wagner came off the bench to 7 points in 11 minutes, but had problems finishing (2/7 FG).
Ultimately, however, the Big Three of the Bucks was too strong for Wagner and Co. Milwaukee secured their fourth win in a row, Giannis Antetokounmpo (28, 6 rebounds and 6 assists at 10/19 FG), Khris Middleton (21) and Jrue Holiday (18 and 10 assists) were the most important factors. Bobby Portis also scored 19 points (5/5 threes), 17 of them at half time.
Strong Franz Wagner fueled Magic comeback
In the first half everything looked like a simple blowout for the guests. Milwaukee presented itself red-hot from a distance and had already collected 13 of the 17 triples at halftime. After a Wagner triple, the Bucks started a quarter-spanning 26: 5 run behind the strong shoot, shortly before the half-time break, the lead was up to 29 points.
But Orlando did not give up, that was primarily true of Wagner. The Berliner fired a 19-0 run with 14 points in the third round, with which the hosts fought their way back within striking distance. In the final section he followed up with another 13 points, I scored strong against Antetokounmpo, hit his threesome and brought the Magic down to 8 points a few minutes before the end.
But then the Bucks started again. First Middleton, then Holiday and finally Giannis marked important buckets, while Orlando came away empty-handed in six possessions in a row. The Greek scored 11 points in the final section, Holiday 9 and so the guests brought the game home relatively safely.
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