The Orlando Magic around Franz Wagner also lost to the Golden State Warriors and Dennis Schröder, which increases the team’s concerns.
The game actually started well for the Magic. They came out of the blocks well and quickly built up a double-digit lead, with the team from Florida leading 26:18 after the first quarter. After that, however, the shooting problems of the past few weeks set in. In the following two quarters, the Warriors took a total of 23 points from Orlando and built up a comfortable lead.
Golden State benefited from the fact that Wagner woke up too late. The German had only five points at half-time and only really found his game in the final period. He aggressively drove to the basket several times, scoring six of his nine attempts, and brought his team back before Cole Anthony gave the Magic their first lead of the half with four minutes left on the clock. After that, however, the team’s shooting problems returned and Golden State kept their nerve, with a three from Moses Moody with a minute left on the clock deciding the game.
Wagner was second on the team with 21 points and five rebounds, but only made nine of his 19 shots. Anthony led the Magic with 26 points, Paolo Banchero also scored 18 points on just 9/24 shooting, and he missed some crucial shots in crunch time. Rookie Tristan da Silva was unremarkable and only scored two points.
Orlando Magic: The concerns are growing
On the other side, Stephen Curry didn’t do much either; the boss scored 24 points, but only hit one third of his shots and 2/8 from outside. The Warriors’ top scorer was Andrew Wiggins with 25 points, while Draymond Green contributed nine points, seven rebounds and five assists in his comeback after recovering from a calf injury. Dennis Schröder came off the bench again and scored nine points in 18 minutes, while also stealing the ball twice.
The worries are growing for the Magic. Jamahl Mosley’s team has now lost all of its last seven road games, including a total of four defeats in a row. Worryingly from the Magic’s point of view, many of the defeats came against teams below .500 (Raptors, Jazz, Blazers 2x). Orlando travels to Sacramento on Wednesday night, after which it will travel to Denver at the end of the road trip.
Things are going better for GSW, though, which seems to be slowly getting back on track and is back in positive territory (25-24) after six wins in its last ten games. But now Golden State has a road trip ahead of it that starts in Utah and takes them to the Lakers, Bucks, Rockets and Mavericks, among others.
