What Jamahl Mosley, Cole Anthony and Franz Wagner Said After Magic's Loss to Grizzlies

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Magic fell to the Memphis Grizzlies Friday night 105-104.

More: Magic let an important one get away, lose to Grizzlies 105-104 | Magic burned by late-game miscommunication in loss to Grizzlies

After the game, coach Jamahl Mosley, guard Cole Anthony and forward Franz Wagner spoke with reporters.

Here is a partial transcript of each availability.

Jamahl Mosley

On the reason the Orlando Magic came up short during tonight’s performance...

“I mean, there’s a lot of things that you can point at, again, like we said last night when we left the game. You know, we’re gonna see a team that does exactly what that other team did, you know, what Atlanta did. And we talk about the free throw...the margin of error. You miss ten free throws in a game that’s, you know, close in margin. You give up 15 offensive rebounds and a game that’s close in margin. Those are extra possessions you can’t get back. And I think you have to look at that as something that we’ve got to focus on and hone in on and understand about the level of concentration we have to have throughout the entire game.”

On the miscommunication that took place regarding timeout not being called...

“That’s on me, that is completely on me. We put Goga (Bitadze) in the game to go rebound [and call] timeout. And if you noticed there was a guy signaling time out and I, we didn’t get the call. And so, by that point, we had put the ball on the ground. So, in that moment, you can try to advance it and get it over. And then in that moment you just say okay. If you can get a shot with that momentum going down when they’re off balance, you get the quick look. That’s on me. I should have called the timeout. Once we advance it over half court, you know what I mean. That’s the communication part we have... I'll have to be better at.”

On what could have enhanced the Orlando Magic’s execution...

“Well, I honestly think we got a lot of good looks. I mean, we did get a lot of good looks down the stretch. They didn’t go in where they went in last night and, you know, it looks a little bit different, obviously, because you come away with the win. But again, we did get some good looks, and we continue to work on our end-of-game execution to make sure we’re getting the right looks at the right time. And they’re clean and we’re continuing to step in with confidence and knocking them down.”

On the chaos of the crowd contributing to the missed timeout call...

“I’m gonna go back to I've gotta do a better job of communicating with the group to get the timeout. And you go back and look at the film, you have Wendell (Carter Jr.) calling timeout, Goga (Bitadze) calling timeout. We’re all, you know, there’s referees didn’t see it and that’s on me. And being able to go to the referee and say we put a big in the game to say, we’re gonna go rebound [call] timeout and they’ve got to signal and look at it. And that’s part of all of the communication across the board, but that starts with me.”

Cole Anthony

On the ultimate reason the team came up short...

“I mean, it's several factors. I think we missed a lot of free throws. I think definitely some factors we couldn't control, but I think the free throws is a big one, and we just let them get too comfortable in that third quarter. The third quarter where I think we got up 20. I think we want a 23-2 run, and then we immediately let them come and match that. I think we had done a great job the whole game defending the three. And I think they hit like four or five threes just that quarter. That’s the game right there. We get up that much, we should be able to maintain that lead. So I think that’s on us. We gave them that game.

On how you overcome a game like that...

“It is what it is, we can't go back and change nothing now. But we have to take this opportunity and we have to improve on it. We have what, 24 games left this season for us in the regular season, we’ve got to tighten up. We can't be giving away games like that. We're primed and prepped to win, and then we just start laying an egg and just having these mental lapses, whatever it is. We're better than what we showed in the remainder of that game, but we’ll be alright.”

Franz Wagner

On the reason the team ultimately came up short tonight...

“I thought their offensive rebounds really hurt us. They would do a pretty good job of getting back in transition, which they are really good at. I think they are second in offensive rebounds, they did a good job with that tonight. And I think the crucial possessions, we couldn't get a stop. And then the end of the third is probably what hurt us the most.”

On what needs to change for the team to pull through in games like this...

“I think everybody on the court has to not just be worried about their own game, but what's going on on the floor and what we're trying to do as a team. And we’ve got to communicate. And then I think the coaches have to communicate and help us with that. Like on that last play, not everybody I think knew what we wanted to do. And that's not on one person, that’s everybody on the court, people on the bench. That's why this is a team sport. And it's not easy to do that, especially when there's 20,000 loud people. But that's what this is about.”

Up Next

The Magic host the Washington Wizards at the Kia Center on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 6 p.m.

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