Isaac, Vucevic help power rout
Magic follow up huge victory against Bucks by running past Hawks
ATLANTA — The Orlando Magic continued to look like a team with no interest in tanking, shaking off a slow start and routing the Atlanta Hawks 124-108 Sunday night.
Orlando rode the wave of Jonathan Isaac and Nikola Vucevic, especially in the first half.
Vucevic scored 19 points, with 15 of those coming in the first two quarters, while Isaac added 17 points.
One of Vucevic’s key early scores was a second-chance bucket off an offensive rebound, stopping a mini Atlanta spurt that chopped Orlando’s double-digit lead to six with a little more than two minutes left in the second quarter.
Vucevic also sank a pair of free throws that were a part of an 11-2 run that extended Orlando’s 52-46 lead to a commanding 63-48 halftime advantage. It was Orlando’s way of shrugging off a slow start in the first quarter that featured nip-and-tuck action, resulting in the Magic clinging to a 26-25 lead going into the second quarter.
Terrence Ross came off the bench to provide 18 points. Orlando saw seven scorers reach double figures.
But the Magic got, perhaps, a bit of an unexpected boost from power forward Aaron Gordon.
Gordon was considered questionable after taking a hard fall during Saturday’s 103-83 win at Milwaukee, but he finished the game with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting and also chipped in three assists.
The Magic buried four of their seven first-half 3-pointers in the last four minutes of the second quarter and finished 11-of-29 from behind the arc. Isaac went 3-of-6 from long range for the game while both Gordon and Jarrell Martin knocked down a pair of 3s.
At the start of the third, Gordon picked up where he left off as he slashed to the basket for a layup despite two Hawks keeping their hands in his face. Two possessions later, a two-handed slam by Evan Fournier pushed the Magic’s lead to 68-48 and prompted Atlanta to call timeout at the 10:31 mark of the third.