The Orlando Magic took care of the basketball and worked it for great looks, which was a perfect recipe for a 107-99 victory over a hot New York Knicks team.
The Orlando Magic have done well at reacting to the hands they have been dealt this season. Tonight provided a new challenge: compensate for the absence of an injured Elfrid Payton for the majority of a game.
And once again, the Magic stepped up to the challenge.
Both Mario Hezonja and Shabazz Napier did admirable jobs of setting the table as the Magic stayed one step ahead of the New York Knicks the majority of the evening.
Of course, having Nikola Vucevic begin to launch flame balls hardly hurt. Vucevic got hot in the third quarter and helped the Magic maintain their halftime lead while finishing the quarter with 16 points. He continued the assault with 10 more points in the fourth to record his third straight 20-plus-point effort as the Magic defeated the Knicks 107-99 at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
| Score | Off. Rtg. | eFG% | O.Reb.% | TO% | FTR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando | 107 | 115.3 | 57.0 | 21.1 | 10.8 | 12.8 |
| New York | 99 | 111.2 | 55.9 | 26.5 | 16.8 | 21.1 |
Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 26 pts., 9 rebs.; Tobias Harris (ORL) — 20 pts.
Lance Thomas (NYK) — 24 pts.; Carmelo Anthony (NYK) — 23 pts., 6 assts.
With Vucevic finally hitting stride this season, the Magic are all the more difficult to stop. Vucevic may be Orlando’s only low post threat, but when he is hitting the Magic just seem to click all the better. He is frequently featured early in games, but when he stays involved Orlando is a different team.
The spacing is better and everyone finds better looks at the rim.
It is no accident that the Magic shot 51 percent from the field while knocking down 10 of 22 threes. The Knicks had to respect Vucevic the entire night, and Vucevic consistently still found ways to get looks.
Craftiness is really the only explanation.
Vucevic finished with 26 points with his last bucket putting Orlando up 102-94 with just more than a minute to go.
His extra offense was needed on a night when the Magic easily could have succumbed to fatigue. The Magic played less than 24 hours after the narrow loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Orlando on Sunday night, and despite that quick turnaround the energy was abundant.
Evan Fournier got Orlando going late by scoring five quick points to give Orlando the cushion necessary to put the Knicks into desperation mode heaving threes late in the fourth quarter. Fournier finished the game with 16 points, and he is beginning to turn things around after a tough little slump that hopefully is mostly behind Fournier now.
The Magic turned it over just nine times in the game while scoring 25 points off 15 Knicks turnovers.
The difference between these teams’ effort to protect the ball is what made the difference throughout, and it was given its accenting highlight when Tobias Harris forced Carmelo Anthony’s fifth turnover to lead to a Victor Oladipo jam that put Orlando up by 10 with 57.9 seconds to go.
Harris himself shot an efficient 50 percent from the floor in the game and eventually put the nails in the Knicks’ coffin by hitting two insurance free throws to put Orlando up eight with just 12 ticks to go. The Magic executed down the stretch, and Anthony faltered.
Anthony did a lot of good things, but Harris seems to relish the chance to square off with him. Tobias has averaged 18.5 points per game against the Knicks in his career.
The Magic improved to .500 on the road, and this was a game that hardly could be counted on given the tough nature of back-to-backs and the fact the Knicks were riding a four-game winning streak coming into this game.
Next: Trends or Mirages: The Magic at the quarter pole
It is not often an opponent hits 51 percent from the floor with a plus-six edge on the boards and loses by eight, but the Magic did so many of the little things right—that the result was a big win.