Orlando, FL – Orlando slides to four straight losses after a hard-fought battle in Milwaukee where the Bucks won 118-114.
In the first quarter the Magic and Bucks were pretty evenly matched stats wise, but it looked very different on the court. The Bucks jumped out to an early 10 point lead, just to blow it away minutes later as Orlando went on a 14-2 run. Mo Wagner and Cole Anthony came off the bench earlier than usual tonight, but they made some immediate impact by hitting threes, crashing the boards, and making the right play every time offensively.
Mo Wagner especially had a great quarter, pouring in an early nine points and forcing Giannis Antetokounmpo to cut his rest short and come back into the game to help the home team retaliate. As soon as Giannis got back into the game, Orlando and Milwaukee began to trade buckets and neither team was able to really pull away, which resulted in the period ending at 31-28.
The next quarter was another back and forth match where both teams did their best to keep the other from getting too comfortable. The defensive energy could be felt in the air tonight, with the Magic showing some great hustle and prowess. Jonathan Isaac went up against Giannis who tried to bully his way into the paint and was rejected by Isaac twice after he had some perfectly timed jumps to swat away the former MVP’s shots.
Mo Wagner kept his foot on the pedal and continued to make the most of his minutes with Wendell Carter Jr. back in the line up and scored a very efficient six points this quarter, bringing his total for the half at 15. His brother, Magic star Franz Wagner, was also having an incredible game up to this point with 10 of his own points and a well-rounded box score as well. Despite the fact that the Magic got outrebounded this quarter and couldn’t hit a single three pointer, they still went into halftime with just a three point deficit.
As the third quarter rolled around, the Bucks again used their big bodies to dominate Orlando on the glass, collecting 17 rebounds this period as opposed to the visiting team’s 10 rebounds. This led to plenty of opportunities for Milwaukee to run the floor and catch Orlando’s defense out of position and gave them some easy buckets. The home team’s defense also showed up this quarter, which allowed for there to be a few runs that the Bucks went on where Orlando was helpless on both ends of the court.
The Magic just couldn’t break down Milwaukee’s daunting paint defense and had to rely on some good movement from their players to create enough space to get off a shot. As a result, the Bucks were able to close off the quarter with a near double digit lead, which crushed the Magic’s spirits.
The last quarter was a roller coaster ride, with the Magic being as close as just two points from tying the game to 10 points down. The effort from the Magic was evident the first few minutes, where everything seemed to be clicking for them, from their shooting to their rebounding to their defense. The only thing that came back to haunt Orlando was their nine fouls, which led to 15-16 shooting from the free throw line for the Bucks in the period and ultimately being a large factor in their win this game.
The Magic finished the game with five double digit scorers, with two of them being off the bench and three of them getting above 20 points. With this tough game on the road, the Magic never backed down once and showed resilience the whole way through in spite of the loss.
The Magic will travel to Indiana for the second time this season on the night before Christmas Eve to try and replicate their elite performance from their first meeting with the Pacers earlier in the year.
