It was a hard-fought night of basketball at Amway Arena on Monday, as the Orlando Magic (21–7) overpowered the Utah Jazz (16–12) in the last minutes of the fourth quarter to win 104–99.
Nineteen lead changes in the game must have had Orlando fans sweating in their seats, that is, if they even had time to sit in them during the non-stop end-to-end action.
Neither team managed to pull ahead by more than 10 points at any time in the game, with every quarter but the fourth finishing with two points or less separating the teams.
The Jazz threatened to break it open in middle of the fourth quarter, taking their biggest lead of the night at 84–79 after Mehmet Okur and Russian Andrei Kirilenko hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Orlando was forced to take a timeout.
But Orlando’s “Superman” Dwight Howard and sixth man J.J. Redick got down to business to help tie the score at 86 with five minutes to go. The Magic then pulled ahead and maintained the lead for the final minutes after Utah made some poor shot selections.
Orlando was led by Howard with 21 points and nine rebounds. Fourteen of Howard’s points came in the second half as the big man stepped it up to shut down Okur in the paint.
Redick had another stellar performance and followed Howard with 20 points—11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Redick was the team’s high-scorer going into the halftime with nine points.
“Redick is playing with good confidence and for good reason. Success breeds confidence and he’s playing very, very well,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said of Redick’s play in the post-game news conference.
“The guy is just so focused and tough. He’s on top of everything. He’s a guy you can trust defensively and he plays with great energy offensively. He runs harder and gets down the floor better than anybody we have,” Van Gundy said.
The Jazz put up a valiant effort with sixth man Paul Millsap leading the team with 20 points.
Kirilenko—also off the Jazz bench—played a major role for the team as well, scoring 14 points including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that nearly broke Orlando’s spirit.
Jazz leaders were Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and C.J. Miles with 18 points, 17 points, and 10 points respectively. Those were solid efforts but not sufficient to down the Southeast Conference leaders like they did two weeks ago in Utah 120–111.
Williams, Boozer, and Miles had combined for 74 points in that game to get the “W” despite a Vince Carter 34-point explosion.
The big unknown for the night was whether it would have been such a close game for Orlando if their starting guard Jason Williams hadn’t been thrown out of the game midway through the third quarter.
Williams picked up a technical foul and was then rebuked by the referee after he approached to get clarification on the call. After a few seconds Williams was sent packing when he pressured the ref further.
Jameer Nelson was called in for Williams in his first game back after a knee injury, but was on a strict time limit, which invariably hurt Orlando’s ability to control the offensive tempo in the latter stages of the game.
Nineteen lead changes in the game must have had Orlando fans sweating in their seats, that is, if they even had time to sit in them during the non-stop end-to-end action.
Neither team managed to pull ahead by more than 10 points at any time in the game, with every quarter but the fourth finishing with two points or less separating the teams.
The Jazz threatened to break it open in middle of the fourth quarter, taking their biggest lead of the night at 84–79 after Mehmet Okur and Russian Andrei Kirilenko hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Orlando was forced to take a timeout.
But Orlando’s “Superman” Dwight Howard and sixth man J.J. Redick got down to business to help tie the score at 86 with five minutes to go. The Magic then pulled ahead and maintained the lead for the final minutes after Utah made some poor shot selections.
Orlando was led by Howard with 21 points and nine rebounds. Fourteen of Howard’s points came in the second half as the big man stepped it up to shut down Okur in the paint.
Redick had another stellar performance and followed Howard with 20 points—11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Redick was the team’s high-scorer going into the halftime with nine points.
“Redick is playing with good confidence and for good reason. Success breeds confidence and he’s playing very, very well,” Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said of Redick’s play in the post-game news conference.
“The guy is just so focused and tough. He’s on top of everything. He’s a guy you can trust defensively and he plays with great energy offensively. He runs harder and gets down the floor better than anybody we have,” Van Gundy said.
The Jazz put up a valiant effort with sixth man Paul Millsap leading the team with 20 points.
Kirilenko—also off the Jazz bench—played a major role for the team as well, scoring 14 points including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that nearly broke Orlando’s spirit.
Jazz leaders were Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and C.J. Miles with 18 points, 17 points, and 10 points respectively. Those were solid efforts but not sufficient to down the Southeast Conference leaders like they did two weeks ago in Utah 120–111.
Williams, Boozer, and Miles had combined for 74 points in that game to get the “W” despite a Vince Carter 34-point explosion.
The big unknown for the night was whether it would have been such a close game for Orlando if their starting guard Jason Williams hadn’t been thrown out of the game midway through the third quarter.
Williams picked up a technical foul and was then rebuked by the referee after he approached to get clarification on the call. After a few seconds Williams was sent packing when he pressured the ref further.
Jameer Nelson was called in for Williams in his first game back after a knee injury, but was on a strict time limit, which invariably hurt Orlando’s ability to control the offensive tempo in the latter stages of the game.
