How Franz Wagner’s ‘Movie Moment’ Overcame LeBron, AD in Magic’s Win Over Lakers
Franz Wagner’s three-pointer with 2.5 seconds remaining gave the Orlando Magic a 119-118 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Anthony Davis and LeBron James combined for 70 points but missed four free throws in the final 39 seconds.
It was an ending made for Hollywood.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis were putting on their best closing act, scoring the final 23 points of the Los Angeles Lakers’ fourth quarter. But when the Hall of Famers missed four of their last six free throws, they left the door open for another star.
Enter Franz Wagner, whose step-back three-pointer hit nothing but nylon with 2.5 seconds to go and gave the Orlando Magic their best win of the season, 119-118.
“It was big-time,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “They missed the free throw, make it a two-point game. He comes down, doesn’t have to rush it, lines it up. That’s the thing, we work on those spacing situations, those shots. He works on those shots. He’s not afraid of big moments, and that’s what we’ve asked him to do.”
As if the Lakers were not enough of a challenge, the Magic were down three starters – All-Star Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. to injury and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope due to the birth of his family’s fifth child – and playing the second night of a back-to-back against a team that hadn’t lost on its home floor.
But the Magic kept pace with the Lakers, with a little luck and a lot of Franz.
“I could not be happier for this team, but for him, who puts in such an amazing amount of work, to see that fall,” Mosley said. “This group, they battle. They battled this entire game, and I can’t say enough about this group, can’t say enough about Franz.”
The Lakers’ Davis, who scored 39 points, had four chances in the final 30 seconds to secure the win. With the score 117-114, Wagner front-rimmed a three-point try. Davis made one of two free throws for a four-point lead. Wagner then drove to the basket to again make the margin two points. With 18 seconds left, AD had two more chances to put the game away and missed both foul shots.
“I was a little mad I missed the first (three-point attempt), so I was glad I got another shot,” Wagner said in his on-court postgame interview.
Matched up with Davis, Jalen Suggs’ screen switched Cam Reddish onto Wagner. Between the legs, between the legs, step-back three.
Ballgame.
As Jalen Suggs sat down behind the microphone after the game, all he could do was laugh as he was asked to recount his perspective of Wagner’s triple.
“I just stared at him, I said, ‘Boog, you gotta hit it,'” Suggs said, his smile ear-to-ear. “Man, he got to his bag, step back, shot the rainbow and it went in. That’s like a movie moment.”