This Is Exactly The Spark The Magic Needed...

This is exactly the spark the Orlando Magic needed. Franz Wagner is playing out of his mind. The Magic are finally stacking wins, and suddenly this team is showing signs of life. But after everything we've seen this season, is Orlando finally turning the corner, or are we getting ahead of ourselves? We'll break all this down and more on today's episode of Magic Digest. What's good with it? It should be going back in the building. And I just want to say, man, that was an exciting game. I didn't think it would be. As interesting as it was against that Utah squad, but I am very glad the Magic pulled out the victory. And when we look at the upcoming games that the Magic have, there are some chances for some victories here, especially if we look at this contract over on Couchie for the Milwaukee Bucks versus the Orlando Magic. And before we get into that, I want to let you know that this video is brought to you. By our good friends over at Couchie. On Couchie, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sportsbooks. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. For example, if you want to put your money on the Magic to win, even though they are highly favored, you can still turn your $25 into $31.94 and even more if you believe the other way. Well, we're not feeling none of that around here. But we're going to definitely say thank you to our good friends over on Couchy. If you're interested in trying out Couchy, use the link in the description and pin comment and code DIGESTNBA to get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first $25. Big thanks to our good friends over on Couchie. And we're just going to go ahead and get into it. Franz Wagner takes over against the Jazz. We're going to apologize for that. Yeah, but we see. Last night, they pulled off the 123-108 victory. We'll get into all the different stats here and there. Big news, interesting news. Shout out to Alex Morales for getting the first start of his NBA career. The two-way player guy that we brought on from the Osceola Magic. Didn't have the greatest game, you know. Only player on the team with a negative plus minus, but you know. I still saw a lot of good effort. You can see that it's just effort with this guy, like whether or not he's doing a lot of amazing things, you do see the effort, and I like that from a young guy. But last night was all about Franz. It really was. We're talking 38 points, 8 rebounds. He only had one assist, which was very interesting because it was just like he had no desire to pass the ball. It started. Early, he got into kind of a chippy back and forth with one of the players. And then he started going at it with the crowd and it was on and popping. I mean, it was this dude was on a mission. It felt like every time he got the ball to, you know, get to his spot on the floor. In fact, if we take a look at where he was doing the damage from. With him going 12 of 23 from the field, three of seven from the three-point line. That's major, especially for Franz, who has been shooting the three, but not confident because he hasn't been hitting it. So that definitely is a positive sign. We can see that he did his work in the paint, getting to the rim and just getting into that little, you know, dotted line floater. Oh, he had a few of those last night. Very crafty moves. We're seeing that he is really expanding his work with the handles, becoming more comfortable, being shifty, having a lot of optionality when he's driving and attacking, starting to see that drive to the right spin move. Go back, you know, tossing it up off of two or three hands and him getting to the line. He was nine of 10 from his free throws last night, man. Again, all pointing to the overall victory. I don't know why that was showing that it forgive me on that, but I do have a question. Oh, before we get into that, where did he do the majority of his work? Fourth quarter, Franz, baby. Fourth quarter, Franz was on in the fourth, including 12 points in the quarter. And I got that from Carl Maximilianard after the game again. Fourth quarter, Franz, it seems like he is taking it upon himself, especially when the team needs it the most to get it going. And it felt like it got everybody going last night. I do have a question, only because this was posed to me by another Magic fan, and I feel I will come ask the best Orlando Magic fans for your opinion down below in the comments. Is there a bit of double standard that we're starting to see? And I'll pose it like this. Would Paolo get the same praise for a one assist 38 point game? I'm going to just leave it at that. You guys let me know down below in the comments. Yes, a great scoring night is a great scoring night, or nah, with Paolo, it's something different. All right? Just let me know. Let me know. Because, you know, when you think about... The way that Franz is having the ball in his hands and having to attack. We already determined that this season Sean Sweeney was coming out, putting the ball in Franz's hands even more. But without Paulo, without Jalen Suggs. He has had to really put this team on his back, and it's been very interesting to see. A lot of people are saying this is his all-star candidacy year. So we'll see, man. And speaking of Jalen Suggs, we do have some positive injury news. I got this from @TheRealBeatty, Jason Beatty, over on Twitter. The Magic have upgraded Jalen Suggs with that right knee bruise to questionable for Friday's NBA Cup game versus the Bucks. Also, Tristan Da Silva and Jamal Cain, who missed the last game, are also both questionable. And so I do want to say this. If we go back and look at this Magic's road trip, we're talking about four games. Two wins. You get the first game where you lost to Phoenix. And I'll say this. Out of those four games, that was the only one where it felt like the Magic were just out of it and weren't fighting back. They never really made it much of a game after it got out of hand. You have that game against Golden State where they did lose, but we saw how they were determined and turned it around in that third quarter to almost make it a game, especially at the end of the fourth. And then you have your win in Sacramento. That was a little closer than it should have been. And then you have this W in Utah. And again, if we're looking at it, we have to be honest. This is not a murderous row of teams. Again, going into this, I was hoping that the Magic would come out at least three and one where they were able to get the win in Phoenix. Sacramento and Utah and possibly fall to a very good Golden State team where Steph is playing out of his mind, but they end up 2-2, and that's just the way it is. We do have to look at the fact that they were doing this. With a depleted rotation, I mean, we know injuries are decimating this team and we're not using that as an excuse, but you cannot take away from the fact that last night in 11 games, Sean Sweeney started his seventh starting lineup. Like, what kind of continuity? That was the main word that I used in the preseason. Continuity. They're coming back. You know, they didn't make a lot of trades. They didn't do a lot of extra stuff. They just came back with the same team, hoping that, you know, progress and a new system would take us to the next level. And then immediately, as soon as the season starts, you lose half of your people, a major part of your rotation. To where you're playing, you're a two-way guy who is starting. Jason Richardson, bless his heart, he's trying. But, you know, big shout-out to Javon Carter as well. You know, he played some very solid minutes for the team last night. And again, if we look at Franz this season so far, he's averaging 23.4. Six and a half rebounds and almost eight assists. I mean, he's in, I want to say he's in the top five of assists in the league. Like, that's from... You're 6'10 forward. I'm bored. Point Franz is doing exactly what we need to do. But there was also other people who stepped up. Shout out to Desmond Bain. He hit seven of his 11 threes last night for 25 points and plus 16. Also, we got to give it up to Anthony Black AB. I was hoping that these games, he's stepping up and he did 22-7-8, you know, with some really good defense. Definitely big shout out to these guys, uh, doing exactly what they need to do. I'm not going to spend too much time on Utah or, uh, or, uh, uh, Sacramento. I will say this two things. I will say a cuff is going to be good. As a man who loves the NBA, seeing him lose like that consistently on that team, I hope it's not disheartening for him because that kid looks like he's going to be good. Darren Peterson, I don't understand why Utah, I mean, they're without some of their players, too. No Lauri Markkanen, no Jaren Jackson Jr. New Year. What's their center name? Yoke, not Yoke, Yaka Chonis. I can't remember his name, but he was out as well. He hasn't played so far this season. So, you know, it's another team dealing with injuries. So, yeah, the Magic went out and did what they had to do. We have Milwaukee next. It is, that should be another game. That should be another way that the Magic can stack up some wins. We got Milwaukee for the NBA Cup. And then it gets, then it turns around, man. We get the Celtics again, you know. We see the 76ers here. It might be a game your boys slide up in. We might have to see what's going on, man. But I'm going to get up out of here. What do you guys think about the progress that was made? Are the Magic turning the corner? Drop a yes if you think so. Or it's too early to prove. It's too early and they need to prove it against Milwaukee. You guys let me know. I'm going to get up out of here, man. It is your big Unk Eric with Magic Digest. Until the next time.