Orlando Magic followed up a poor finish against the Toronto Raptors with a good one, giving the New York Knicks a sixth straight loss with a 97-95 victory.
Evan Fournier scored a career-high 28 points with 4 steals on the night. Nikola Vucevic added 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic, once again, the most silent double-double in the NBA. Channing Frye added 9 late points for the Magic to help them hold off the Knicks. New York native and subject of recent discussions of going to the Knicks, Tobias Harris, had 12 points and 5 rebounds for the Magic.
Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points for the Knicks with 5 rebounds. Iman Shumpert was the only other member of the Knicks to score in double-digits with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Back-up big man Jason Smith came off the bench and scored 10 points with 4 rebounds. Amar’e Stoudemire scored 8 coming off the bench as well with 3 rebounds. J.R. Smith scored 19 off the bench with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Smith missed a go-ahead three pointer when the Knicks were down 2 with 3 seconds to go. Smith received the ball and chucked up a deep three while Carmelo Anthony stood at the elbow and waited for the ball as he was matched up with the slower and inexperienced Magic rookie, Aaron Gordon. Smith’s shot hit the backboard, wasn’t even close to the rim.
Fournier was credited with a basket on a goaltending call with 4:27 left to cap a run of five straight points and gave Orlando an 89-85 lead. He later added another free throw during an 8-2 run that made it 92-87, as the Knicks had just one basket in over 4:30 of play.
The Magic led by 11 points after three quarters in Toronto a night earlier, only to lose 104-100. This time, they trailed 85-84 midway through the final period before taking control. The Knicks were held to 19 points in the fourth and still haven’t reached 100 this season, the only team yet to do so.
Orlando Magic are 3-6. New York Knicks are 2-7.
