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The Orlando Magic dropped their fourth straight game Friday by a 121-83 final against a slumping New York Knicks team which entered the game with a 4-13 record. The loss is the Magic's 20th in their last 21 road games, dating back to the 2012/13 season.
Arron Afflalo led the Magic with an efficient 20 points, but he simply didn't have enough help from his teammates to combat a hot-shooting Knicks squad: New York converted 17 of its 34 three-point tries, including 5-of-5 in the opening four minutes of the second quarter. The fifth of those triples gave New York an eight-point lead, and indeed Orlando trailed by just five points at halftime.
The Knicks put the game away in the third quarter as the Magic struggled to match up against Carmelo Anthony, who led the Knicks with 20 points. Playing center in a super-small lineup, Anthony thrived in the low post, and nothing Orlando tried defensively could both check him and stay close to the shooters around him.
Playing without Nik Vučević, the league's seventh-leading rebounder, for the second straight game, the Magic struggled to keep the Knicks off the glass. New York owned a 45-31 rebounding advantage. Indeed, the Knicks dominated Orlando inside and out.
A three-pointer by Victor Oladipo at the 7:54 mark of the first quarter gave the Magic a 10-point lead. About 42 minutes of game time later, the Knicks pushed their lead to 40 points on Tim Hardaway Jr.'s fourth three-pointer of the night.
In his first start of the season, Andrew Nicholson tallied eight points and three rebounds on 4-of-6 shooting. Jameer Nelson had nine assists and no turnovers in his return from a sprained left foot, but he missed eight of his 12 shot attempts.
Anthony led seven Knicks in double-figure scoring. Andrea Bargnani and J.R. Smith had 17 apiece, while Hardaway scored all 15 of his points from three-point distance.
