ORLANDO, Fla. — Franz Wagner scored 31 points, Cole Anthony added 25 and the Orlando Magic beat the Washington Wizards 139-120 on Wednesday night for their eighth straight victory.
Jalen Suggs had 22 points for the Magic, who were eliminated from the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament by a tiebreaker Tuesday night. Their win streak is one short of the franchise record set in 1994 and matched twice in this century.
Kyle Kuzma led Washington with 24 points. Deni Avdija added 22 and Jordan Poole scored 19.
The Magic shot 60.7 % overall and made 17 of 27 from 3-point range in the opener of a two-game series. The teams play again Friday in Orlando.
The Wizards have lost 10 of 11. They kept the margin in single figures for most of the game, but Wagner beat them down the court and dunked on a pass from Joe Ingles with 2.4 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 102-89.
Orlando’s bench took over in the final quarter and stretched the lead to 21 on a spectacular dunk by Anthony with 6:40 remaining. The Magic bench finished with 65 points.
It was Anthony’s sixth straight game of 15 or more points, all off the bench. In those six games he has averaged 20.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists.
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