Last night, Orlando recorded its 4th consecutive success and its 9th of the season by winning at home against Atlanta (135-124). The Floridians took advantage of the good performances of Bol Bol, but also of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, to get the best of the Falcons.
Why would you want Victor Wembanyama when you already have Bol Bol in your squad?
That’s what Magic fans must be thinking after another great performance from Manute’s son (21 points, 7 rebounds, 7/13 shooting including 3/4 from distance, 1 block). The air of Orlando definitely seems to do him the greatest good since we remember that at the heart of his first complicated seasons on the side of Denver, the Disneyland bubble had been a rare thinning for the former Duck of the ‘University of Oregon.
A few months after coming very close to leaving the Great League, the native of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, seems to have launched his NBA career in earnest with Florida.
But then, you will tell us, with such a powerful and increasingly regular giant (2.18 m), is there still a question of tanking at Mickey’s?
Bol Bol are you SERIOUS?? pic.twitter.com/A5yVTPj0eX
— NBA (@NBA) December 15, 2022
The players coached by Jamahl Mosley are in any case doing what is necessary to hear no more about it, preferring to leave it to the vile Hornets and Pistons (who also faced each other that night). And Bol Bol is not alone in this work of seeking respect in the NBA.
As often when Orlando performs, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are not far away, and the victory against the Hawks was no exception to the rule (20 points for Banchero, 24 for Wagner). The Italian and the German are expected as the locomotives of Magic this season but also as pillars of the future of the franchise, and the least we can say is that they clearly assume their status (better than their fellow footballers, for example).
Note that the other Wagner brother, Moritz (17 points) as well as Markelle Fultz (16 points) also brought their stone to the building to allow the friends of Stuff the Magic Dragon to win. On the Atlanta side, we will remember the solid performance of De’Andre Hunter (25 points) to best compensate for the poor form of Trae Young (19 points at 6/15 shooting).
This German-Italian-Sudanese frontcourt is definitely going strong in this 2022-23 financial year. What to walk in the footsteps of another illustrious international Big Three formed by an interior of the Virgin Islands, accompanied by his Franco-Argentine backcourt (well, well)? Well, we may be getting a little carried away, but we’ll talk about it again in 2028 when the Magic will have signed the three-peat with a Finals MVP for each member of the magic trio.