Utah Jazz comeback from 18 points down to pull off an incredible win over Orlando Magic
A night after beating the Miami Heat in overtime, Utah Jazz pulled off a second incredible win in a row as they came back from nowhere to outsmart Orlando Magic by 104-94.
Utah playing perhaps the toughest back to back games of the season, again left it till late in the match as they surged to a 24-2 run after being 18 down to the Magic in the third quarter.
Deron Williams led Utah with 30 points and 14 assists. Paul Millsap, the star of the show against Miami scored 23 points while Al Jefferson chipped in with 21 points as the Jazz shot at 50 percent to pin the Magic.
First Quarter
The match started on an even pace with both teams clawing back at each other in the first quarter. Utah generally held the lead in the initial period but the Magic bounced back each time to reduce the advantage. Vince Carter made a 3-pointer from 29-feet
away on the buzzer, pumping his right hand in celebration to bring life to an otherwise subdued crowd making it 23-22 in the favour of Magic.
Second Quarter
The second quarter followed the same trend as neither team was willing to give an inch to the opposition. With the score evenly poised at 33-32 Brandon Bass made a three point shot as the Magics upped the ante reeling off an 11-2 run in the last two minutes.
Third Quarter
The teams entered the second half with Orlando leading by 10 points. The Magics continued their momentum in the third quarter and dominated the early part nailing in five 3-pointers. Rashard Lewis slipped in a 3-pointer as Orlando raced to an 18 point lead
at 74-56, their biggest of the match.
Fourth Quarter
The Orlando onslaught really brought the best out of the Utah Jazz as they sprinted to a 24-2 run bridging the third and the fourth quarter to go into the lead at 80-76 with 7:08 to go in the match.
Orlando Magic tried to catch up with their opponents but the Jazz were on a roll as they slipped away with the match. A Dwight Howard free throw made it 91-94 with 1:44 on the clock. Al Jefferson had a huge hook over Dwight Howard for a turn-around jump
shot and Deron Williams followed with a jumper over Nelson with 46.5 seconds remaining to give Utah an 8-point lead and stall the Orlando resurgence.
William concerted six free throws in a row to round off a successful night for the Jazz where they again rallied back from a hopeless position to beat Orlando in their own backyard.
Vince carter scored 20 points for Orlando with Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis also came up with 19 and 16 points respectively. Dwight Howard, who had scored 23.2 points on average in each game this season, was held to only 14 points in the game, 8 of them
coming in the first quarter, as Orlando Magic lost their second game in the season.
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