Thunder at Magic
A pair of teams coming off impressive road wins clash Wednesday night in Orlando as the Magic host the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Magic finished their longest road trip of the season with a 3-3 mark after a 106-83 runaway win at Charlotte on Monday, which came two nights after a rough showing in a loss at Golden State.
"That was one of our best wins, because of our approach," coach Steve Clifford told reporters. "Coming off a poor performance, fly across the country, five o'clock (ET start), we could have had excuses. But I thought our attitude was great and it set the whole thing up." The Thunder opened their two-game road trip with a 112-107 triumph at struggling Houston on Monday, using a 41-20 advantage in the fourth quarter to pick up the dramatic win. "It was fun to see how guys stayed together, stayed the course and fought back," guard Chris Paul, who scored 28 points, told reporters. Paul is averaging 29 points while shooting 20-of-33 during Oklahoma City's two-game winning streak.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Oklahoma, FS Florida
ABOUT THE THUNDER (25-19): Danilo Galinari scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Dennis Schroder had 23 points in Monday's win, combining to score 27 in the big fourth quarter. "Dennis and Gallinari offensively, made some really, really big shots to get us back in the game," coach Billy Donovan told reporters. "And then we got some timely stops and some good rebounds. So it really was an amazing job by those guys." Center Steven Adams did not return after suffering a sprained ankle in the first quarter and he is listed as day-to-day.
ABOUT THE MAGIC (21-23): Evan Fournier worked through an illness to score a team-high 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the rout of the Hornets. "He was great," Clifford said. "He's been hurt, he's been sick and he's playing through it. I mean he wasn't good tonight, he was great." Nikola Vucevic finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds for his team-leading 21st double-double.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thunder SG Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has 51 rebounds over his last five games.
2. Magic SG Terrence Ross hit 5-of-8 3-pointers Monday after going 16-of-63 from long range over his previous eight games.
3. Oklahoma City took the first meeting this season to extend its winning streak in the series to four straight.