Joe Ingles makes triumphant return to Utah as Magic overcome multiple injuries to win

Prior to one season with the Bucks, veteran forward Joe Ingles spent the first eight of his NBA career with the Jazz.

Although he returned to Salt Lake City once already last season with Milwaukee, Thursday’s Magic road game at still served as a homecoming of sorts for Ingles.

“It’s always nice come back,” Ingles said at shootaround prior to the game.

And leave victorious.

The Magic won 115-113 at Delta Center to end their four-game trip west at .500 on Paolo Banchero’s winning drive with 14 seconds left. Banchero led everyone with 30 points on 9-for-13 shooting and 9 rebounds. Wendell Carter had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Franz Wagner scored 21 and Cole Anthony (18) and Moe Wagner (10) led the bench.

After entering the season healthy, the backcourt was hampered with Markelle Fultz sitting because of left knee swelling and his replacement in the starting lineup, Gary Harris, leaving with a groin injury after playing 14 minutes and failing to score. Carter exited with 1.4 seconds left because of an apparent left-hand injury on his final rebound when Talen Horton-Tucker (15 points) missed the go-ahed shot for Utah.

Jalen Suggs shifted to starting point guard and only shot 1-for-7 (6 points), but rookie Anthony Black received his most meaningful playing time and went 4-for-4 for 9 points in 16 minutes.

Coach Jamahl Mosley said when the team arrived, Ingles reminded everyone that he finished his time there as the franchise’s leader in 3-pointers with 1,071 made.

“He let us know that when he walked into the building,” Mosley said. “It’s great to have him have that excitement and that joy with this team.”

Ingles (4 points) only made 1 of 5, but it was his first made 3 with Orlando.

The team as a whole has struggled to hit shots from beyond the arc to start the season. They were 10 of 28 Thursday (35.7%).

The Magic have been one of four teams shooting 3s at 30% and they’re only fifth-worst in the league by half a percentage point. Only the Portland Trail Blazers, who Orlando defeated last week, is shooting sub-30% from 3-point range entering Thursday.

“We’ve got to find our flow offensively,” Mosley said.

Failing to make 3s isn’t anything new.

Last year, Orlando shot 33.1% from deep which is part of the reason the franchise signed Ingles in free agency to help Harris, the only other long-distance specialist in the rotation.

Although the results aren’t there yet for Ingles, the Magic still feel confident that they will find footing on offense.

Orlando will need to do that sooner than later as the upcoming schedule remains challenging and features a gauntlet of NBA stars.

The Magic return to the Amway Center on Saturday when they take on the LeBron James and Lakers, who beat them in L.A. earlier this week. Two days later, 4-time All-NBA guard Luka Doncic and the Mavericks come to town before the Magic travel to Mexico City for a meeting with 2-time All-Star guard Trae Young and the Hawks.

While the Magic would like to see improvement in their ability to sink 3s, they had limited opposing teams to 101.8 points, second best in the league, entering Thursday.

“Regardless of who we play, we’ve got to contest as many as shots as we can and disrupt the game,” Ingles said.

Losing Fultz, a two-way guard, is an immediate hurdle the Magic must clear.

His sore left knee is the same one that Fultz had surgery on to repair a torn ACL eight games into the 2020-21 season.

Fultz, who’s averaged 11 points, 4.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds in four games, also missed the first 21 games of last season with a fractured left toe.

Fultz serves as Orlando’s primary ballhandler and combines with Suggs for one of the league’s best defensive backcourts.