SALT LAKE CITY - Few players throughout the league right now are hotter than the Orlando Magic’s Franz Wagner, with his most recent sensational performance coming Wednesday in the finale of a four-game West Coast road trip.

The 6-foot-10 German forward matched his career high in scoring with 38 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field, 3-of-8 from beyond the arc and 9-of-10 from the free throw line to lift the Magic to a 123-108 victory over the Utah Jazz at the Delta Center.

“I think it was the way they were defending the pick-and-roll. We got into the paint a bunch of times,” Wagner said. “I was just trying to make the right play.”

Playing severely shorthanded and with little rest with it being the second night of a back-to-back, the Magic came through in crunch time with timely defensive plays, clutch shooting and, of course, brilliance from Wagner.

It looked for a while that this game, like a couple of the others played between the Magic and Jazz in Salt Lake City the last several years, was going to come down to the wire. Instead, Orlando went on an 18-5 run midway through the final frame to seize full control.

Desmond Bane, who made a game-winning shot the last time the Magic were in Utah, came on strong late with 11 of his 25 points in the fourth. Wagner had 12 of his 38 in the final frame.

“Resilience,” Bane said. “I thought we had good poise and resilience. Coming into the fourth it was a close game – we didn’t have the third quarter we wanted – but the fourth quarter we stayed with it and we were able to execute. Jevon (Carter) came in and gave us a spark, made some big shots. Boogie controlling the pace of the game. Couple big offensive rebounds from the group. It was a great fourth quarter.”

It was the third straight game Wagner scored 30-plus points. The last time he had at least 30 points in three consecutive games was in December 2024. It was also the third time he scored 38, with the other two times occurring on Dec. 28, 2021 against the Bucks and on Feb. 4, 2024 against the Pistons.

Anthony Black had another strong performance with 22 points and eight assists and Jevon Carter, who was a plus-24 off the bench, finished with 11 points. 

Rookie sensation Darryn Peterson led Utah with 22 points, Brice Sensabaugh had 19 points and Ace Bailey finished with 18.

Both teams were undermanned. Paolo Banchero (ankle), Jalen Suggs (knee), Tristan da Silva (calf), Jamal Cain (shoulder), Noah Penda (hamstring) and Jonathan Isaac (knee) were out for Orlando, while Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee), Lauri Markkanen (hand) and Jusuf Nurkic (toe) were out for Utah.

The Magic, winners of two straight, now return home where they will play the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday at 7 p.m. in an NBA Cup game. Orlando is currently 1-0 in the Cup, having already defeated the Raptors in Toronto.

“I think continuing to do a great job of taking care of the basketball,” Magic head coach Sean Sweeney said of what needs to continue. “Another game where we have done a good job taking care of that ball (13 turnovers on Wednesday). We did a great job of crashing (the offensive glass) – we had 28 second chance points, so we have to keep that up. Just building on what we’ve done, building on the habits that we have, (and) building on the fundamentals that we believe in.”