Franz Wagner was ruled out of his 20th consecutive contest ahead of the Magic’s game against the Kings on Thursday night at Kia Center, but the Orlando star continues to make progress on the court as he manages an extended rehab of a left high ankle sprain.

Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said Wagner is able to go through contact and he played “a little bit” while recovering well Wednesday, but he didn’t do much Thursday on purpose.

“Today’s more of a try-to-recover from what he did the other day and go from there,” Mosley said after shootaround inside the AdventHealth Training Center.

Wagner, who originally suffered the high ankle sprain Dec. 7 at New York, has tried to return from the injury twice already but continued to deal with pain as a result.

Earlier this week he joined Osceola on a brief G League assignment for a practice session, something Orlando doesn’t have time for at this point in the season. It was viewed as another step in his rehab process.

Missing a total of 45 games because of the injury, including Thursday, he’s only been available for four of the past 45 contests. Entering Thursday’s game against Sacramento, the Magic were 22-22 without him this season and 16-12 with him.

And after Thursday, Orlando only has nine games remaining in the regular season.

Although it seems as though time is running out for Wagner to return in the regular season in order to ramp up for the postseason, Mosley doesn’t view the situation that way.

“That’s not a rule I’m putting in,” Mosley said when asked by the Sentinel whether or not there’s a minimum number of the regular season games Wagner has to play in before the postseason. “If he’s available, he’s playing.”

While the Magic will see how Wagner continues to recover from his latest on-court work, Mosley did provide a clearer update on Jalen Suggs.

The Magic guard, who missed the past two games due to an illness, was able to go through shootaround Thursday morning and is “definitely” feeling better, Mosley said.

The same, however, couldn’t be said for Anthony Black (left lateral abdominal strain) and Jonathan Isaac (left knee sprain). Both were ruled out of Thursday’s game with Black missing his 11th straight and Isaac his eighth.

Mosley said Black is on the floor but doing no contact.

“Just kind of getting some light shooting in, but not much movement,” said Mosley, who added that Isaac is in the same boat as Black.

After hosting the Kings, the Magic travel to Toronto next on Sunday as the postseason race continues to ramp up with the regular season winding down.

And although Orlando had dropped its last six, Mosley believes the team is near a turning point.

“We’re doing a lot of good things,” he said. “You get caught up in the results so much because these are the games that you shouldn’t be kicking, but you have dropped them. The results are not what we want, but our process has been right in a lot of ways. And I talk about the ball moving, us sharing it, us getting the assist amount, touching the paint, getting the ball out in transition. The clean up will be, how can our defense take another step in the right direction? (That’s) what we need to do moving forward.”

Orlando entered Thursday’s slate of games 10th in the East, in a virtual tie with No. 9 Charlotte, half-a-game back of No. 8 Miami, 1 1/2 games behind No. 7 Philadelphia and two games from the No. 6 Raptors.

“It should be motivating,” Mosley said about where the Magic find themselves in the standings. “If you’re not motivated by what’s happening right now, you’re in the wrong sport.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

Up next …

Magic at Raptors

When: 6 p.m., Sunday, Scotiabank Arena

TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida