What Jamahl Mosley Said After Magic's 101-79 Loss to Trail Blazers

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Magic welcomed Franz Wagner back into the fold Thursday night after a 20-game absence due to a torn right oblique. But, it didn't alleviate a Magic team that continues to sink – the Magic dropped their fifth straight game by at least 13 points in a 101-79 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Here's a partial transcript of what coach Jamahl Mosley, Wagner and Tristan da Silva said postgame:
Jamahl Mosley
On how much their self-inflicted wounds cost them tonight...
“A lot. Statistically, it can give you exactly what the problem was, 22 turnovers for 22 points in a 20-point game. Then you have 31 free throws because you’re attacking the basket, you miss 10 of them, there’s your answer right there. And you do enough defensively to get the job done, but then you can’t give the ball back each time to allow them to run out and get easy baskets. Self-inflicted wounds.”
On what he thinks isn’t clicking with the offense over the last few games...
“You know, I think as you bring guys back and guys are in and out of the lineup it changes the dynamics of rhythm and roles and bodies moving in and out and you’re trying to preserve guys and not burn guys out, you know, minutes restriction. Those are all things, all right, those are realities, and we said there was going to be bumps in the road, we were highly aware of that. There’s going to be bumps as we go through this and get guys back into the lineup. Now that is not an excuse for our spirit not being right and our energy not being right from the beginning of the game. And again, it cannot be based on shots going in or out, because lately they have not been going in and so you shoot 6-25 from three, that leads to a lot of long rebounds to get out in transition. So, you’re putting your effort to get back in transition and then when you do get the stops, you end up getting 22 turnovers for 22 points. Those are situations that we’re going to have to clean up, so we’ll watch this entire thing tomorrow to understand exactly where we need to improve, communicate at a high level, what needs to be done and how we can approach it better before Detroit on Saturday.”
On making sure the team stays confident moving forward...
“You have to stick with the process. Obviously, the numbers will at some point break the other way, but you’ve got to stay confident. You [have] to continue to put the work in. It will be a day, tomorrow, where you watch this entire film, you get shots up, you focus on the details of what we can do better, the things that we did well tonight. Because obviously we’re getting good looks and so they’re just not falling. So, our ability to take care of the basketball [number] one, step into our shots with confidence and then when we do get the stops, you’ve got to be able to get out and get easy
baskets.”
On Franz Wagner’s performance tonight in his return...
I thought he was trying to find his rhythm. I thought he found a little groove. Again, the guys were confident in finding him, his ability to attack, getting downhill. You know, give Portland credit they did a great job of switching things to try to stall us out, they packed the paint very well. So, give them a ton of credit for what they did defensively in order to stop us from getting to the lane. But you know, we’ve got to also make some of those free throws to give ourselves a chance, timely shots, timely makes. But for Franz, I thought he did well for his first time back in this many weeks.”
Franz Wagner
On his return to the lineup...
“Yeah, it was obviously really cool to play again. I was pretty nervous before the game. It was a long time for me [being] out, but I felt decent within the game. Obviously, you know, it’s going to take a little bit to hopefully get back into a rhythm, but it was fun to be back out there.”
On the team’s offensive struggles tonight...
“Yeah, we’re struggling right now, and we’ve got to understand, you know, we’ve got to stick together. It’s part of a long season, we go through ups and downs, and it’s going to take everyone staying together to get out of it. Like I said, we have a bunch of games left. It’s no reason to hang our heads but we’ve got to get better.”
Tristan da Silva
On what he is seeing from the team offensively...
“Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to kind of catch a rhythm with guys being out so much. You know, last game I saw the injury report; I think we had like seven guys out. Obviously, that doesn't help but, you know, we just kind of [have] to stick together and figure something out. Obviously, having Franz [Wagner] back definitely helps kind of directing the floor, kind of seeing stuff out there, attacking mismatches, and stuff like that. It definitely makes it easier. We’re just going to have to learn from this and move forward.”
On his mindset tonight playing off the bench...
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t really change my game based on the role I play. I feel like, you know, I’m kind of comfortable playing whatever role I'm given and just try to stay aggressive, be out there, create for myself and for others, and yeah, I mean – it wasn’t enough.”
To watch their full availabilities, click below.
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