LOS ANGELES — The shot is what fans will remember; Franz Wagner called it the biggest of his young NBA career.
For the Orlando Magic, however, the real story is everything that led up to the shot.
On Thursday, the Magic’s star forward finished off one of the best games by an Orlando player in recent memory — and possibly wrote his own All-Star origin story — with a game-winning 3-pointer over Cam Reddish with 3.1 seconds left, sending the Magic to a 119-118 win over a Lakers team that had won six straight.
The shot gave him 37 points and 11 assists on the night, capping the first 35-point, 10-assist outing by a Magic player in more than 20 years.
This wasn’t just something that popped out of the blue, though. Talk to the Magic about Wagner’s practice habits, work ethic and approach to the game, and it becomes clear that nobody was surprised by his performance … or that he could carry the team to seven wins in its last eight games during star forward Paolo Banchero’s absence with a torn oblique muscle.
“He’s been doing this for a while,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “He’s continued to step into that role where he has to dominate and be the focal point.”
It’s not like he hasn’t had big moments before, either. Wagner was a key player on the Germany team that won the 2023 World Cup, hanging 22 on the US in a semifinal win and 19 in the gold medal game against Serbia. But on an NBA stage, this was his breakout moment.
So when Anthony Davis left the door open for the Magic by missing two free throws with 18 seconds left, Wagner grabbed the ball from Goga Bitadze, and the other Orlando players got out of the way and watched him operate, trusting the work he’d done to prepare for this.
“People talk about good (shot), bad (shot), lucky, unlucky,” Mosley said. “He works on that. That’s the thing, he works on those big shots, 3 … 2 … 1 … take the shot.”
Wagner wanted to get a more favorable matchup than having Davis’s monstrous presence on him, so he engineered a switch to get Reddish instead — still a big, long defender. He was originally hoping to probe a pathway to the basket to take advantage of the long-striding finishing skills that have made him a star, but when he didn’t see a clear opening he went for Plan B and got to his step-back going left for the game-winner.
“We were down two, I got lucky with them missing a couple of free throws at the end, and we didn’t have any timeouts,” Wagner said. “At first I had [Anthony Davis] on me, and found a way to push that matchup a little bit. They were set up pretty well, so I didn’t really see any driving lane.
“I was thinking best shot (and not just shoot the 3). I would have taken it to the basket too, but I didn’t see any driving lanes, and I was a little taller than Reddish so I tried to shoot over him.”
But again, don’t focus just on this play and this shot. Instead, look at everything that led up to it, from the work he did in the summer on this 3-point shot, to the first half he spent patiently attacking LA’s defense with skip passes to the weak side, to the end-game situations he rehearsed in practice. And watch him after the shot went in, too: He fist-bumped his chest but then marched to the bench, cold as ice, and pointed a single finger to everyone for one more stop. It was only after Davis’s last shot went awry that he pumped a fist, chest-bumped Jalen Suggs and Jett Howard, and was quickly mobbed by the rest of the bench.
The fourth-year forward known as “Boogie” in the locker room has averaged 27.5 points, 6.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds during his last 10 games, all of which came without Banchero. The 37 points were a season high and the 11 assists a career high, but he’s threatened those totals multiple times in the past two weeks — this wasn’t some wild outlier.
The story, then, isn’t that this one shot happened to catch net. It’s that the 6-foot-10 forward’s ball skills evolved to the point that he basically operates as the team’s point guard, and that his scoring is so potent that everyone in the building knew he was getting the ball on the final two possessions (he also drove for a layup with 20 seconds left) and he still scored.
Nobody understands that more than his older brother, housemate, carpool partner and Magic teammate, Mo Wagner.
“He did all right,” the elder Wagner said. “If he’s not making that shot, I’m kicking his a–.”
He then added more seriously, “It’s very cool to have a superstar in your family. It’s awesome, the way he works, how determined he is, how diligent he is, how obsessed he is, it’s incredible. The fact I can be able to see it is awesome too.”
And it was perhaps fitting that he won the game on an off-the-dribble 3-pointer, the one skill that gave him the most trouble during 2023-24 when he slumped to 28.1 percent from distance. That percentage includes a game-tying, last-second attempt in this same building a year ago that was blocked by LeBron James.
“A lot of stuff is mental too for us players,” Franz Wagner said. “For me to get over the jump a little bit over the summer and carry that into the season means a lot.
“I’ve come a long way since I came into the league, (but) last year was at times a struggle for me. Progress is never just linear; you just gotta stay level-headed.”
After the sweet payback of Thursday’s shot, he’s back up to 34.4 percent in 2024-25. And that has come despite Banchero’s absence often leaving him with a more challenging shot mix off the dribble like the one that beat the Lakers.
“I do work on my off-the-dribble 3 a lot, and you work on it for those moments,” he said. “I just stepped into it with confidence.”
And after that shot, and Jonathan Isaac’s defense to foil a desperation shot by Davis at the buzzer, the Magic team jumped out on the court to celebrate what may end up a defining win for this emerging group … as well as one that helps net Wagner a first All-Star trip.
“Yeah, Boogie’s special,” Suggs said. “That was like a movie moment.”
“It was a crazy experience, crazy adrenaline rush” Wagner said. “It’s great to see your teammates so happy for you.”
(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
