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By John Denton
Dec. 16, 2015
ORLANDO – The ball whipped so beautifully from side to side and inside from the post and back out to the perimeter that at one point in Wednesday’s first half the Orlando Magic’s players started celebrating before the ball even swished through the net.
Orlando’s ball movement was so crisp, so on time and so on point that they regularly passed up good shots for great ones. A sharing momentum that started during Monday’s rout in Brooklyn carried over into Wednesday night and it was a beautiful thing to watch considering how crafty the Magic were in setting up teammates for open looks.
The Magic used assists to set up their first nine field goals, 18 of the first 23 scores and incredibly 22 of 32 baskets at one point – passing that ignited their offense in a 113-98 rout of the rival Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.
An appreciative Amway Center crowd saw Orlando (14-11) hand out 28 assists, drill 14 3-pointers and shoot a season-best 55.8 percent from the floor.
The manner with which Orlando shared the ball carried over from Monday’s impressive 105-82 thrashing of the Brooklyn Nets. The Magic were routed last Friday at home by Cleveland, prompting head coach Scott Skiles to go to work on their offense in an effort to create more ball movement, player movement and open shots.
Channing Frye (a season-high 17 points and five 3-pointers) did damage from the outside, while center Nikola Vucevic (14 points, eight rebounds and four assists) hurt Charlotte on the inside. Elfrid Payton, who continued his 11-game tear for the Magic, outplayed Kemba Walker and had 12 points and nine assists.
Evan Fournier and Tobias Harris each scored 13 points, while Victor Oladipo (11 points, four rebounds and four assists), Jason Smith (10 points on five-of-six shooting) and Mario Hezonja (eight points and four rebounds) played well off the bench.
The Magic are now 8-4 at home – a significant mark considering that their eighth home victory last season didn’t come until Feb. 20. Since starting the season with heartbreaking home losses to Washington and Oklahoma City, Orlando has won eight of 10 games at the Amway Center.
Wednesday’s game was the start an important stretch for the Magic where they will play seven of their next eight games at the Amway Center. Orlando hosts Portland on Friday and Atlanta on Sunday. Following a quick trip to New York to face the Knicks on Monday, the Magic close out 2015 with home games against Houston (Dec. 23), Miami (Dec. 26), New Orleans (Dec. 28) and Brooklyn (Dec. 30).
Charlotte (14-10) came into Wednesday tied for first place in the Southeast Division with the Miami Heat. The Hornets came in well-rested, having been off since Saturday night thanks to a quirk in the schedule. But the Hornets were no match for the Magic, leaving head coach to frustratingly call several dispirited timeouts throughout the game.
Charlotte, who is without center Al Jefferson because of a suspension for violating the NBA’s substance abuse policy, got 16 points off the bench from Jeremy Lamb and 12 from Walker. The Hornets did make 14 3-point shots to briefly stay within striking distance.
Up 58-45 at the half, Orlando pushed its lead to as much as 18 points in the third period and took an 89-73 edge into the fourth period. Payton took advantage of his matchup against the smaller Walker after halftime, scoring eight points and handing out an assist in the third quarter alone.
Orlando drilled 13 of 19 shots in the third period and had five players in double figures before the fourth quarter even started. Incredibly, Orlando’s first 36 field goals were set up by 23 assists in the first three periods.
Orlando got off to a roaring start thanks to some incredible passing – playmaking that led to 30 first-quarter points and 58 in the first 24 minutes – for a 13-point edge at intermission.
Remarkably, the Magic had assists on their first nine field goals. The first basket without an assist didn’t come until the 1:54 mark of the first quarter when forward Andrew Nicholson dropped in a sweeping hook shot from the left block.
By the end of the first quarter, when Orlando was already up 30-23, it had nine assists on the first 11 field goals. Of the first 16 field goals, 13 came off passes from their teammates. And at the break, the Magic had already distributed 18 assists to set up their first 23 field goals.
Six different players registered assists in the early going, led by Payton’s dazzling eight assists. The blossoming point guard had a hand in Orlando’s final four baskets of the half – assists that set up two 3-pointers from Frye, another triple by Fournier and a short jumper by Payton that extended Orlando’s lead to 58-45.
Picking up where he left off on Monday night, Frye scored 12 first-half points – all of them coming on four 3-pointers. Skiles had said that the Magic are “a completely different team” when Frye is making shots and that proved true in the first half as the Magic were a plus-14 in Frye’s 17 minutes on the floor.
Charlotte came into the game first in the NBA in fewest turnovers per game (12.4), but it kicked the ball away 11 times in the first half alone against Orlando’s opportunistic defense. The Magic turned those errors into 18 points in the first half.
