It was not pretty, but the Orlando Magic got a big spark from Elfrid Payton to hold off the Denver Nuggets and clinch a winning road trip.
The Orlando Magic had to dig deep and find a way to gut out a win on the road with shots not falling (they made just 1 of 16 3-pointers) and turnovers building upon themselves over and over again — 20 turnovers in total. The Denver Nuggets were doing their best to take advantage despite their own shooting and turnover woes.
It felt like whichever team sharpened up enough first would take the game.
That turned out to be the Orlando Magic. They held the Nuggets to 27 points in the second half and 24.4 percent shooting. Even with the turnover and shooting issues that persisted into the second half, Orlando had control of the game with defense as the catalyst.
That did not stop Elfrid Payton from knifing through the lane and pushing the pace when he could. And that proved to be enough of a push to get the Magic into the lead and hold on. The Nuggets had a run in them, but not enough to crack the Magic’s defense long term and push into the lead.
Orlando won ugly and in a hardly satisfying way. But the team did enough and the win is all that matters in the end.