Magic beat Nets
Power forward’s career night propels Magic
125-121 behind Aaron Gordon’s 41 points.
Everyone on the Orlando Magic bench stood as the night’s critical play unfolded.
Nikola Vucevic drove toward the foul line, but two Brooklyn Nets defenders impeded his path to the basket. Out of room, Vucevic pivoted and hurled the ball to the left wing, where Aaron Gordon stood just beyond the arc.
In years past, the last thing the Magic ever would have wanted in that situation — trailing by one point with 36 seconds to go — would have been for Gordon to attempt a 3-pointer.
On Tuesday night, however, Gordon altered the scouting report. He caught the ball, elevated and sank the shot. Teammates on the bench raised their arms or applauded. The crowd within Amway Center roared.
Gordon’s trey propelled the Magic to a 125-121 victory over the Nets — and lifted the Magic to their best start since the glory days of Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and Stan Van Gundy.
“I just feel really good with my shot,” Gordon told reporters afterward. “I put in a lot of work. You guys know how hard I work. So, yeah, it feels good to have a game like this, and I just want to continue to shoot the ball.”
The Magic will want Gordon to keep shooting if he can duplicate his performance Tuesday night. After a two-game absence due to a sore left ankle, he scored a career-high 41 points and he
made all five of his 3-point attempts.
“I’m happy for him,” Vucevic said. “He works really hard on that shot. You guys know from when he came to the league to now it’s a big difference.”
With the victory, the Magic improved to 3-1 — their best start through four games since the 2011-12 team of Howard, Nelson and Van Gundy opened its season 3-1.
“I just know that our team this year has a belief in itself,” Frank Vogel, the current coach, said.
“We just have a feeling like we’re going to have a good season this year and we’re going to get over the hump this year,” Vogel added. “Everybody’s bringing a purity to their effort and their focus. So far early on it’s resulting in a couple of wins, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. Look, we can play a lot better than we did tonight, trust me.”
True. Orlando looked subpar at times against Brooklyn (2-2).
The Magic gave up too many offensive rebounds, too many points in the paint and too many free throws, and the Nets took a 101-91 lead with 10:04 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I thought we had it at the end,” Brooklyn power forward Trevor Booker said. “I guess it is just one of those games where they got hot late and they came out with the win.”
No one, not even Gordon, got hotter down the stretch than Magic swingman Evan Fournier.
The Frenchman scored nine of his 28 points in the game’s final four minutes.
“That’s the type of game where you have to figure it out and just fight, man,” Fournier said.
Even then, the Nets put a scare into the Magic.
The Magic led 120-119 when the Nets’ Allen Crabbe missed a 3-pointer.
Vucevic grabbed the rebound, but DeMarre Carroll snuck up behind him, ripped the ball from Vucevic’s hands and scored on a jumper, putting the Nets ahead 121-120 with 48.0 seconds to play.
That set the stage for Gordon’s end-of-game heroics.
Gordon entered this season as a 28.9 percent career 3-point shooter, and his tendency to launch 3s often upset his teammates last season.
And, yet, during the preseason, he made 42.9 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
That momentum carried through to Tuesday night.
“He rose up for a big shot, a game-winner,” Vogel said. “He was terrific tonight. He’s an improved 3-point shooter. He’s an improved basketball player. The kid works his tail off in the offseason. From Day One of training camp this year, it’s been evident that he’s a much-improved basketball player and playing at a high level and playing very confident. And if he just shoots it 100 percent from the 3-point line, we’re going to be OK.”