Only a punch or two away from likely being knocked out, the Magic recovered to make an 11-0 run and cut the deficit to 71-62. He also had six assists. It was a good sign. Another 1-2 trip from Payton cut the lead to 2, and the teams exchanged missed shots until Orlando had possession with 22 seconds left in regulation.
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Thirty-one hours later, the Hawks shot ahead 30-18, moving the ball and raining 3-pointers on the Magic. Lucky for Orlando, Elfrid Payton was able to find just the right hero with 2.2 seconds left in the game. “It’s hard to take”. Millsap blocked a shot by Oladipo, leaving the Hawks with 1.2 seconds. Millsap’s potential game-winning jumper on an inbounds play came after time had expired.
The Atlanta Hawks will get their last crack at the Orlando Magic Monday night when Atlanta hosts its division rival at Philips Arena for an 8:00 PM ET tipoff. Like Atlanta’s reserves, Orlando’s bench took 18 shots, but they made one more for a grand total of four made field goals. We are a better team than this. “It was a tough loss”. “In all reality, no matter what is happening on the (offensive) end we’ve got to rely on our defense and know that our defense can pick us up”.
Millsap had 22 points and 13 rebounds, while guard Jeff Teague added 21 points.
A jumper by Victor Oladipo put the magic up 73-60, but Teague scored seven of nine straight Atlanta points early in the fourth quarter, in which the Hawks made six 3-pointers.
“I was a little nervous the entire time because they kept it within (touchdown) difference the entire time and Carolina could have come back easily, but you have to take your hand off to the Denver defense, ” Smith said. We played too well over stretches of the game to counter that with stretches that are so bad. “We were doing the right things”. Atlanta tried to rally, led by two threes from Paul Millsap, but even with an 11-point lead after three quarters, nothing was safe. It was the kind of fourth-quarter letdown Magic coach Scott Skiles has witnessed repeatedly since the first of the year.
Now holding the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks have had a solid season thus far. This is only the 3rd win of the New Year for the Magic, who surprisingly were one the hottest teams in the East in December. “But this (win) says a lot about the players in here”.
The Orlando Magic announced starting small forward Tobias Harris will be sidelined for Monday’s road contest against the Atlanta Hawks because of a sore left ankle.
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Orlando was led in scoring by Nikola Vucevic’s 28. Atlanta will again not have the services of backup center Tiago Splitter coming off the bench, as his hip injury will keep him out through the All-Star Break. The Hawks assigned C Edy Tavares to the Austin Spurs of the NBA Development League. It is exceedingly brutal when that scenario plays out when that team blows a 20-point lead in their own building.
