The Jazz outscored the Magic 35-21 in the second quarter of Saturday’s game at Kia Center to take an 11-point lead into the half.
Utah, who saw three-time All-Defensive center Jaren Jackson Jr. make his debut for the team after he was traded from Memphis, didn’t slow down from there when its lead increased to 17 points with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
But something peculiar took place next.
After Orlando ended the third frame on a 10-0 run to cut its deficit to single digits, Jazz coach Will Hardy benched the majority of his starting lineup, including Jackson Jr., who notched 22 points in 25 minutes, and Lauri Markkanen, who led all scorers with 27.
Facing mostly backups in the fourth quarter, Jamahl Mosley‘s squad won 120-117 against a Jazz squad that recorded its 37th loss of the season.
What happened?
“They definitely handed us that win,” Magic forward Paolo Banchero told the Orlando Sentinel in the locker room after the three-point win. “But a win’s a win.”
To Banchero’s point, while Orlando certainly made efforts to win — back-to-back 3s from Moe Wagner and Tristan da Silva sparked a key stretch late in the third — the Jazz (16-37) made sure to lose.
Trailing the Magic by three points with 8.7 seconds remaining in the game after Jalen Suggs sank a pair of free throws, Utah decided against calling its final timeout in order to draw up a set play. Instead, the Jazz brought the ball down the court and reserve guard Isaiah Collier missed a long-range shot in the closing moments.
While Utah needed the loss in order to help secure better positioning in June’s NBA draft, Orlando needed the win just as badly to help remain afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
And ultimately, regular-season wins all count the same regardless of the details.
“We’ll always take a win, obviously,” da Silva told the Sentinel. “It’s a good way we kind of crawled back into the game.
“You also saw the lineups that they put out there, so there’s still a lot of stuff that we can look at [from] this game and see what we can get better [at] to make sure that we also have those types of performances against the primary lineups of teams,” he added.
Specifically in the second quarter, the Jazz scored 22 points in the paint, outrebounded Orlando 19-8 and limited the Magic to 1-for-11 from 3-point range.
Utah outscored Orlando 14-4 across the final five minutes of the first half while scoring 11 fastbreak points in the quarter.
“I thought we just were a little undisciplined getting back in transition, giving up some cuts and stuff like that,” Banchero said about the second frame. “[The Jazz] do a good job moving the ball and making the defense rotate with some creative stuff on offense.”
Knowing it can play better regardless of who’s on the floor, Orlando was still without Franz Wagner, who missed his ninth game in a row due to left high ankle sprain injury management.
He initially missed 16 contests (Dec. 9-Jan. 11) due to the original sprain and previously said he “probably wasn’t ready” to play two games during the team’s January trip to Europe, which led to lingering soreness and an extended rehab.
Prior to tip-off Saturday, Wagner said he’s progressing well. After the trade deadline on Thursday, Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said Wagner was “very close” to returning.
But with only two games remaining for the Magic until NBA All-Star Weekend, time is running out for Wagner to see the court before the league break.
“Yeah, that’s my hope, for sure,” Wagner said when asked by the Sentinel about a potential return before the All-Star break.
The Magic forward said he went through two good workouts the past two gamedays on Saturday and Thursday, and he and the team are monitoring how the injury responds to those sessions.
Neither side wants to make the same mistake as last time when Wagner first tried to return.
“Checking all of the boxes of the movements that I’ve got do in a game,” Wagner said when asked what he’s looking for to make sure he feels OK to make the next step to return. “And then being OK with a little bit of pain but obviously gauging [it].
“It should never be too much and shouldn’t get worse after a workout the rest of the day,” he added.
Orlando’s last two games before the break are both against the Bucks, who held onto former Magic guard Gary Harris past the trade deadline but sent Cole Anthony to Phoenix.
The Magic (27-24) have won four of their last six games and Milwaukee (21-29) enters on a three-game winning streak.
“We haven’t played our best basketball, probably,” Magic big man Moe Wagner said. “There’s plenty of reasons for that. But the beautiful thing about the league is that you have 82 games; you don’t just have 30. There’s plenty of NBA teams in the past that haven’t had that season they were expected to have and kind of turned it around toward the end. And that’s the mindset.
“It’s on us players to kind of come up with that because we’re out there,” he added. “Everybody’s got to kind of make a decision whether we come to work, do our routine and do that with the right mindset and then come to the game and see if the result works out, or if we just kind of put our heads down and somewhat — I don’t know how do you want to call it — but like surrender to the circumstances. After the All-Star break, after we kind of rejuvenate our mind a little bit and re-charge, we will not surrender.”
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com
Up next …
Magic vs. Bucks
When: 7:30 p.m., Monday, Kia Center
TV: Peacock