The Orlando Magic's mounting injury report grew larger when center Moe Wagner was lost to a potentially serious left knee injury on Saturday night. But, in a historic come-from-behind win, the Magic stuck together for the victory.
But sitting at the interview dais, the fourth-year coach was somber. Moe Wagner, his team's lead bench scorer, left the contest in the first quarter with a left knee injury and didn't return. Even in a win, which was made more improbable by Wagner's sudden absence, the cloud of a loss hung over.
Grabbing his left knee, he made a couple of attempts to get up but soon realized he couldn't. He shook his head toward the Magic bench. prompting Orlando to call timeout. One by one, his teammates, coaches and Orlando's medical staff began to huddle over him. The Magic ruled Moe out during halftime and team officials said he'd undergo further evaluation. Neither Moe or Franz was seen again Saturday night.
"It was for Moe. We're all praying for Moe," Goga Bitadze said after an 18-point, 13-rebound performance in the victory. "He had a crazy season. You look at his numbers, what he did, what he has done... Sixth Man , definitely. We were all praying for him. This was for Moe. It's really bad to see another one of our guys, brother, go down."
He came into Saturday's slate of games second in total points among all reserves, his 372 points only trailing Payton Pritchard's 442. Even still, Pritchard's points had come in 240 more total minutes than Wagner's Seeing the floor for 19.4 minutes a night, Wagner led the NBA in scoring for players averaging under 20 minutes a game.
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