The Wagner brothers can’t gild Shaquille O’Neal’s honor, Dennis Schröder can’t match his strong debut performance. The NBA on Wednesday morning
The Orlando Magic would have liked a celebratory setting on Wednesday night – but the Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t play ball. The team from the Midwest, which had recently been badly beaten by the Dallas Mavericks, won its away game 127:113. Even the world champion brothers Franz and Moritz Wagner could not prevent the defeat.
Franz Wagner scored a disappointing 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes of action. Moritz Wagner contributed eleven points and five rebounds in just 14 minutes of action. That did not even come close to what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams produced at the other end: SGA came up trumps, especially in the third quarter, when he alone scored 15 of his total of 32 points. Williams, on the other hand, put his stamp on the game in the fourth quarter – with 17 of his 33 points.
The 32 goes under the roof
This ultimately put a bit of a damper on the party atmosphere. But there was still a goosebump moment: For the first time in its 35-year history, Orlando pulled a jersey under the roof – Shaquille O’Neal’s 32. Almost 30 years after his rather inglorious departure, the legendary center was given this honor. After four years with the franchise, O’Neal had moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers – and yet he is still considered the greatest player in Magic history to this day.
O’Neal was Orlando’s first-ever number-one draft pick, the Magic’s first professional Rookie of the Year, first All-Star and led the Magic to their first Finals in 1995. The Magic are the third franchise to have O’Neal’s jersey under their roof – the center previously earned the honor with the Lakers and Miami Heat.
For the Wagner brothers, it was just a small damper: thanks to their five wins from the past seven games, the Magic are still right in the race for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
Tatum steals the show from Schröder
Otherwhere, Dennis Schröder suffered his first defeat in his second game for the Brooklyn Nets – and the German world champion was clearly shown his limits. With just nine points, five rebounds and three assists, the Braunschweig native was unable to build on his strong Nets debut. The final score was 110:118 against the Boston Celtics.
Jayson Tatum excelled for the Celtics, who celebrated their fifth win in a row. The 25-year-old American finished with 41 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. It was the 25th game of Tatum’s NBA career in which he scored at least 40 points in a regular-season game.
He was modest afterwards: “We have a really good team – and it won’t always be down to me. I just understand that and I know that I need my teammates. I need everyone, we all need each other.” The Nets’ best scorers were Mikal Bridges with 27 points and Cam Thomas with 26.
