Magic 127, Wizards 120: Orlando Magic have best offensive performance of season

It was a night of season and career highs for the Orlando Magic.

Markelle Fultz reached the 20-point milestone for the first time in his young career. D.J. Augustin scored a season-high 24 points off the bench. Evan Fournier, coming off a game where he scored a career-high matching 32 points, nearly eclipsed that by scoring 31. Add it all up and the Magic offense set a new season-high in their 127-120 win over the Wizards.

Nothing like a match-up against the league’s worst defense for the offensively struggling Magic, whose previous season high was 125 points against these same Wizards.

The Magic, with strong ball movement and off-the-ball motion, took advantage of that match-up from the get-go, scoring a season-high 68 first-half points on 58.8 percent shooting.

Orlando, despite allowing the Wizards to score 20 points in the paint and to get easy points in transition off turnovers in the first, established a nine-point lead in the quarter. Fultz, playing in his hometown, aggressively attacked the basket early and led the way in the first with eight points. The Magic, who shot 55 percent in the first, led 32-26 heading into the second.

Fournier heated up in the second. He scored 12 points in the quarter, including a three that opened a 68-50 Magic lead with 1:14 left in the half.

D.J. Augustin added eight points in the second as the Magic led 68-54 at the half. That lead, though, would not last very long.

The Wizards, who entered with the league’s fourth best offensive rating, opened the second half by knocking down their first eight shots during a 19-6 run that allowed Washington to take a 75-74 advantage. The Magic responded immediately with the deep ball as Aaron Gordon hit a pair of threes and Fournier added another to put the Magic back in front, 83-77. The Wizards pulled with two before the Magic answered with an 11-3 run and headed into the fourth with a 97-88 lead.

Augustin scored the first seven points of the fourth, and the first 10 for the Magic overall, to increase the lead to 107-93. Augustin would go on to score 17 points in the fourth quarter en route to a season-high performance.

Augustin shot 7-for-9 from the field, including 4 of 5 from three, and also added six assists. Fournier continued his dominant stretch, shooting 11-for-18 from the field (6 of 8 from three) to eclipse the 30-point mark for the third time in his last four games. Gordon, who has struggled mightily since returning from an ankle sprain, had a strong game with 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 11 rebounds. Terrence Ross added 14 points. Fultz shot 9-for-17 to eclipse his previous career-best of 19 points set a few weeks back against these same Wizards.

Orlando shot 51.1 percent from the field and connected on 15 of 31 three-point attempts (48.4). That allowed the Magic to overcome a 42-point performance by Bradley Beal and an efficient shooting night from the Wizards, who also shot 51.1 percent.

The Magic head home to complete the back-to-back with a match-up against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night.