Walker, Hornets overwhelm Magic
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Kemba Walker scored 21 points and the Charlotte Hornets opened a 33-point lead in the second half en route to a 120-101 victory over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.
Nicolas Batum scored 20 points to go with nine rebounds and eight assists for Charlotte. Batum and Walker were each 8 for 12 from the field.
The Hornets went on a 20-6 run to open the second half and held the Magic to 5-for-22 shooting and 13 points in the third quarter.
Charlotte and Orlando were off to the races in the first half, scoring a combined 117 points and shooting a combined 56.6 percent from the floor. The Hornets pulled ahead by seven points at halftime, but had some momentum building defensively to pull ahead.
The Magic were keeping pace well in the first half, making 59 percent of their shots. Serge Ibaka scored 15 of his 20 points in the first quarter. He added seven rebounds. Nikola Vucevic finished with 21 points and was 10 for 13 from the floor.
Orlando kept contact with Charlotte throughout the first half, but eventually could not stop the avalanche coming at them. Their defense struggled to contain the Hornets penetration and passing.
Nor could they keep up when the onslaught began.
The Magic shot 19 for 48 overall in the second half. And slowly the lead grew and grew on them. Their defense struggled to stop it as frustration over another blowout defeat -- at home, no less -- set in.
On one possession, the Magic saw three consecutive missed open 3-pointers -- one from Elfrid Payton and two from C.J. Watson. It was emblematic of the offensive struggles and a game that slipped further and further away.
So too was the cutting layup Walker scored through a wide-open lane a few possessions later to open up a 23-point lead.
NOTES: Evan Fournier missed his third consecutive game with a heel injury. Coach Frank Vogel said Fournier is experiencing pain and the team did not want to re-aggravate it with three days off before the team's next game Sunday in Indiana. Jodie Meeks started in his place. ... Orlando Magic guard Elfrid Payton had high praise for his opponent in Wednesday's game. He said Kemba Walker is the most difficult player for him to defend in the NBA. Walker is averaging 22.3 points per game entering Wednesday's game and has begun a serious push for his first All-Star berth. That campaign began for the Hornets with a release of a video online featuring Walker as the "Charlotte Hornets Ranger" in a parody of Walker, Texas Ranger. ... The Magic and Hornets entered the game with the two lowest rates of isolation plays in the NBA, according to NBA.com's Player Tracking stats. The Magic run isolation plays on 4.8 percent of their possessions while the Hornets run isolations on 4.0 percent of plays. ... Despite not having a dominant rebounder, the Charlotte Hornets entered the game third in the league in defensive rebound rate, grabbing 79.8 percent of all available rebounds, and limiting second-chance opportunities. The team's leading rebounder is Nicolas Batum at 7.5 per game, but the Hornets have four players averaging at least five rebounds.