Orlando Magic Grades: Orlando Magic 109, Phoenix Suns 103
The Orlando Magic broke a four-game losing streak in a struggling game against the Phoenix Suns. The Magic were able to steal a close game outlasting the Suns for a 109-103 victory.
The Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns both came into this game with draft implications and, perhaps, motivation to lose to maintain draft positioning. The winner would pehraps be the loser.
The Magic do not care. They continue to push for wins when they can and took care of the undermanned Suns 109-103 at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Friday, coming home from the three-game road trip with at least on positive result.
Friday night’s win gives Orlando 25 wins in the season, and pushes the team farther from Phoenix in the race for the highest pick in the draft. The Suns are 1.5 games behind the Magic, holding down the third spot in the Lottery pecking order.
Orlando started Friday’s game with a strong pace on defense. the Magic’s defense pressured the Sun’s into nine turnovers in the first quarter, giving the Magic 13 points on Suns turnovers.
The Suns’ recklessness with the basketball in the first quarter gave the Magic eight steals, putting the Magic on a 15-0 run and pushing their biggest lead to 14 points. Evan Fournier helped maintain the Magic’s lead in the first quarter, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and scoring 11 points.
Beginning the second quarter, the Suns started to catch momentum as the Magic were frozen on offense, scoring zero points in the second quarter. Phoenix started the game off going on a 10-2 run while making the Orlando’s defense look flimsy.
The Magic were not the only ones having problem scoring in the second quarter. Orlando held Devin Brooker to 10 points and did not allow him to score a single point until the third quarter. Terrence Ross‘ defense helped contain Booker from taking off against the Magic.
Alan Williams and Tyler Ulis led the Suns in the second quarter. Ulis dropped 12 points in the quarter, cutting the Magic’s lead down to two at the break, 60-58.
Phoenix continued to storm back, taking a five-point lead in the third quarter when Ulis gave a bounce pass to T.J. Warren, giving Warren an easy layup with 8:03 left in the third quarter.
Aaron Gordon helped pace the Magic with two highlight dunks. His first one came off a crossover on Ulis and soared up and threw down a monster dunk. His second one came from a lob from Elfrid Payton, as he caught the lob with one hand and stuffed the ball before falling hard on the floor with 4:50 left in the fourth quarter.
The Magic and Suns went through 18 lead changes throughout the entire game as the two teams remained tight.
Orlando came through in the end. Evan Fournier dropped 25 points, helping the Magic end a four-game losing streak in a 109-103 win.
The Magic returns back home on Monday to host the Philadelphia 76ers.
B+. <strong><a rel=. C. Orlando Magic. NIKOLA VUCEVIC
PF. Orlando Magic. AARON GORDON. A. Aaron Gordon scored 17 points, while hitting 7 of 12 from the field, grabbing four rebounds. He also racked up four blocks. Gordon played very well on the defensive end, while his two sick dunks in the game did help him on offense giving him momentum to drop his 17 points.
A-. Evan Fournier scored 25 points, helping the Magic from start to finish on both offense and defense. Fournier knocked down a pair of 3-pointers while dropping 11 points in the first quarter. Fournier played very well on offense, getting points inside the paint though hard contact and draining points from behind the arc.. SG. Orlando Magic. EVAN FOURNIER
C+. The Phoenix Suns played with little effort on both ends of the floor, trailing by as much as 14 points in the first quarter, and committing nine turnovers only in the first quarter.<p>Phoenix came back into the game without <strong><a rel=. 22-47. 14th West. PHOENIX SUNS