Vucevic one shy of career high
Combines for 63 with Carter-Williams in road ‘W’ over skidding Kings
The Orlando Magic didn’t look like a team with just nine available players competing on the second night of a back-to-back set.
It helps to have Nikola Vucevic on your team.
Vucevic scored 42 points and Michael Carter-Williams recorded 21 points in his return to the lineup to power the Magic to a 123-112 win Friday over the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.
“Vooch was terrific and MCW gave us a huge lift,” Magic coach Steve Clifford said.
The Kings had no answer for Vucevic.
When they sent an extra defender at him, he found an open teammate. When they left him open, he knocked down 3-pointers. When they tried to contain him with one defender, well, that didn’t work either.
The veteran center hit 17-of22 shots and was 6 of 8 from the 3-point line and finished one point shy of matching his career high of 43 points, set Feb. 5 against the Bulls. And it wasn’t just his shot-making that gave the Magic a boost. Vucevic recorded three key assists down the stretch to help Orlando hold off Sacramento and bounce back from Thursday’s tough loss at Golden State.
While Vucevic is chasing a second All-Star Game selection, he continues to focus more on helping his team win. He took a lot of pride in the fight he and his teammates showed amid all of the Magic’s injury adversity. For the second straight game, Orlando opened with nine available players.
“It’s obviously not easy to play with having so many guys out. We have to throw out different lineups, play a different way than we play at full strength but we brought it tonight,” he said. “Very proud of the guys. Big win, especially on a second night of a back-to-back with only eight, nine guys and so it just shows that you know this group’s going to fight.”
Vucevic and his teammates know that’s what they’ll get from Carter-Williams, and the Magic were happy to have him back.
Carter-Williams, who had missed the past 19 games with a sprained left foot, certainly made his presence felt. He slid into the starting point guard spot with Cole Anthony out for the second straight game and organized the offense early. Then Carter-Williams got going in the second half as he attacked the rim and scored 19 of his points. He also finished with seven assists.
“I think that having MCW back and his energy was a big boost for us,” Vucevic said.
For his part, Carter-Williams was excited to be back on the court and was eager to help his team win, especially after watching how hard the Magic played the night before against the Warriors.
Stepping into the point guard role was what Carter-Williams and the Magic needed.
“It was tough coming in from a depleting loss like that and coming in off of a back-to-back so I just tried to bring energy and tried to lift my team and do anything we could to win. Vooch, obviously, he gave us a huge night. The rest of the guys played hard as well and I know it wasn’t easy just because of coming off of a back-to-back.”
Clifford said before the game that Carter-Williams would be on a minutes restriction. By halftime, the target had moved a little after Clifford spoke with high performance director Lindsay Winninger. Carter-Williams wound up playing 27 minutes, a few more than what had been planned, Clifford said.
Carter-Williams said he felt pretty good for the most part and credited the Magic training staff for keeping him in shape while he recovered from the foot injury.
“Towards the end of the second half, I started to get a little winded and it took me a little bit to get going as well but I tried to just push through it, just tried to trust my teammates and my wind held up pretty good,” Carter-Williams said.
More than anything, Clifford was impressed with how his team responded after its six-point loss to the Warriors on Thursday.
“The biggest part of it to me was the fight, the attitude,” Clifford said. “We had a tough loss last night. We flew down here and you could tell, not that we were going to win, but you could tell guys were ready when we walked through over in the hotel ballroom.”
Clifford also had high praise for Khem Birch for his defensive minutes against Kings center Nemanja Bjelica and wing players. Birch scored four of his eight points in a key stretch of the fourth quarter. When the Kings doubleteamed Vucevic, he found Birch cutting to the basket for two dunks.
“Khem Birch was phenomenal tonight,” Clifford said. “We had him guarding perimeter players, [then] Bjelica when they came in and tried to go to him. And then obviously he [Birch] had the two really big cuts against the double team at the post there with a game on the line.”
Terrence Ross finished with 18 points and hit four of the Magic’s 15 3-pointers as they outscored the Kings 45-36 from behind the arc.
The Magic (10-17) shot 50.5% as they topped the 120-point mark for just the fourth time this season.
Buddy Hield scored 19 points to lead seven players in double figures for the Kings (12-13), who played without starters De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley.
In addition to not having Anthony, the Magic also played without Evan Fournier, Frank Mason and Al-Farouq Aminu, then lost James Ennis in the third quarter to a groin strain. It wouldn’t be a Magic game without an injury.
Carter-Williams certainly helped make up for their absence.
He scored 14 points during a 28-5 run that produced a 92-72 lead late in the third quarter.
The Kings pulled within 95-86 before the Magic got a dunk by Birch, a 14-foot baseline jumper by Ross and another dunk by Birch to push their lead to 18 at 111-93 with 6:05 left. Hield hit two 3s to spark a 13-4 run as the Kings got within nine with 3:16 to play. But Carter-Williams hit two free throws and Vucevic knocked down a 16-footer to make it 119-106. Sacramento could get no closer than nine as Orlando snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Magic will close out their four-game West Coast road trip on Sunday when they face the Phoenix Suns. The game tips off at 9 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Florida.