The Orlando Magic graded well as they took control of the pace of the game and led virtually wire-to-wire for a win over the Chicago Bulls.
The Orlando Magic scored a surprising 121-114 win over the Chicago Bulls at United Center on Monday, making everything seem so right in the world.
Actually, this might be near-apocalyptic with the way Orlando controlled the pace of the game throughout.
Jacque Vaughn had his team push the pace from the beginning, even off of made baskets and that led to a more fluid offense that put the Bulls squarely out of their comfort zone. They had to pick up their pace too to match and their defense suffered a bit as they tried to adjust to the cutting and ball movement from the Magic’s offense.
It became an incredibly impressive offensive performance against this Tom Thibodeau-led team.
So even with Pau Gasol and Derrick Rose pouring in fantastic games, the Magic opened up a 17-point lead at one point, held off every rally from the Bulls and closed the game.
That part on the road was impressive.
So too was the way Nikola Vucevic and Victor Oladipo carried this spunky, undermanned Magic team across the finish line. We will get into Vucevic and Oladipo in more detail as we hand out some grades: