The Orlando Magic lost another late lead, but in building a lead showed some positive things. The finish though cannot be forgotten and clouds everything.
The Orlando Magic did everything you could ask of a team to win a game once again.
They built an 18-point lead heading into the third quarter with some brilliant ball movement and gritty, scrappy defense. The Magic were giving up a lot of points to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s superstars but had everything else under control it seemed.
Then Russell Westbrook took over. And the Magic could not stop the oncoming train.
Westbrook forced the game into overtime on a running 3-pointer from 38 feet after Victor Oladipo seemed to bury the game with a step-back 3-pointer with three seconds left.
The game would get crazier in overtime as Oladipo hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to force a second overtime. But the Magic could not recover from there. They failed to convert on free throws early in the overtime and fell behind again.
Kevin Durantblocked two shots in the corner as the Magic tried to tie the game and the Thunder escaped with the win.