On Tuesday night, the Orlando Magic had a golden opportunity to test themselves against the toughest imaginable opposition in today's NBA — the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Paolo Banchero played his heart out, tallying 32 points on 12-21 shooting from the field, and the rest of the Magic's starters did their job — with Wendell Carter Jr. recording a game-high plus-19 on the night.
However, Carter did not play 48 minutes. Unfortunately for the Magic on the night, they had to play their bench, which did not perform well at all against the Thunder. Somehow, in just 13 minutes of play, Moe Wagner, Carter's backup, was a minus-28 in a five-point loss, 113-108, to the Thunder.
The Magic bench, to put it mildly, did not play well at all and a good portion of the blame must rest on their shoulders for losing their team the game during their minutes. And after the game, head coach Jamahl Mosley wasn't pleased whatsoever with his bench mob, as evidenced by his response when asked about how tough of a night they had.
“You see it,” Mosley said, per Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel.
The upside to this is that come playoff time, the bench doesn't have to play as much. But Mosley losing confidence in a few of his bench players is not promising for the trajectory of the team for the rest of the season.
Magic banking on Franz Wagner's eventual return from injury
What would help the Magic is the younger Wagner's eventual return from ankle injury. Moreover, the team has been missing Anthony Black, which has led to Tristan da Silva having to start — depleting the team's bench corps even further.
There is only less than a month to go before the playoffs begin, so the Magic should have time to better configure their rotation after their bench stunk it up in their loss to the Thunder.
