Ryan Anderson guides Orlando Magic to an impressive win over the Indiana Pacers – NBA Recap
After getting reduced to a franchise low 56 points last night against the Boston Celtics, the Orlando Magic found their offensive zone Tuesday night against the Indiana Pacers.
Trailing by 9 points early in the second quarter, Earl Clark displayed a brilliant defensive display - including three blocks - to gee up the Magic. From there on, Orlando never looked back, scoring double the points they did last
night to carve out a 102-83 win over the Pacers.
Dwight Howard had a humble night with only 14 points and 9 rebounds, but he made history in the game by becoming the leading scorer in the franchise history, eclipsing Nick Anderson’s record of 10,650 points. When asked about the
feat, the Superman was humbled;
"It's a humbling experience," said Howard, who began the game needing just eight points to break Nick Anderson's mark. "It does mean a lot. Not too many players in this league can say that they were their franchise's leading scorer."
With Howard, having foul problems, Ryan Anderson picked up the slack with a game-high 24 points while J.J. Redick had 15 off the bench. The Pacers were led by 16 points from Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert.
After a 24 percent shooting last night, the Magic shot 45.8 percent from the floor tonight, including 13 three pointers. The Pacers in contrast, managed 39.7 percent.
After going down 4-0, the Pacers made 6 of their first seven shots enroute to a 21-11 lead inside the first seven minutes. Magic bounced back with a 9-2 run, but the Pacers ended the period with a 29-22 lead.
Indiana extended the lead to 9 in the first three minutes of the second and were leading by 39-31 with 5:25 to go in the first half, when Orlando jumped to a 14-6 spurt to take a 45-43 lead entering the last minute before the break.
Hibbert scored on either side of the interval to give Indiana a two point lead, one which they maintained till Howard made a dunk to tie the scores at 54. The jam initiated a 15-2 run that put the Magic firmly in command.
Orlando entered the last frame with a 74-62 lead and after facing some early resistance, they blew away with an 11-2 run to ice the game.
The win was good enough to earn Magic some praise from their coach Stan Van Gundy;
"When you take a loss like last night, people get focused a little bit. You quit taking winning for granted. Sometimes when you win a lot you start thinking about other things. I thought we played well defensively and our effort
was lot better."
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