Warriors 109, Magic 95: Late run stifles Orlando comeback

The Orlando Magic had rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to take the lead, but 14 straight points for the Golden State Warriors in crunch time was the difference as Orlando fell on Saturday night at the Chase Center, 109-95.

A three-point play by Damion Lee with less than four minutes to play sparked the big final run for the Warriors (10-34). After baskets by Alec Burks and Willie Cauley-Stein pushed the lead to six, D’Angelo Russell scored eight of the final 10 Golden State points in the victory.

Things couldn’t have started much better for Orlando (20-23) as it raced to a 13-0 lead behind four quick points from Aaron Gordon and two three-pointers by Evan Fournier. The Warriors responded with a 21-4 run and used three free throws by Burks to take a lead into the second period. The shots came after a shooting foul was called on Michael Carter-Williams from about 35 feet away with a second left in the first quarter.

Golden State led 53-52 at halftime, but watched that lead balloon when it outscored Orlando 29-19 in the third quarter. After a pair of free throws from Gordon early in the third, the Warriors scored eight straight points to push the lead to double digits.

The fourth quarter run that got Orlando back in the game was sparked by the bench as Mo Bamba and Carter-Williams combined for the first four Orlando field goals of the final period. Nikola Vucevic gave the Magic their first lead of the second half with a dunk after a nice feed from Markelle Fultz with less than five minutes to play.

Fultz answered a basket from Eric Paschall with a layup of his own with less than four minutes to play to put the Magic up 93-92, but Orlando would score just once more. The Magic were held scoreless for about three and a half minutes before Fultz scored again with less than 40 seconds remaining.

Fultz finished with 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting, but the Magic were -20 with him on the floor. Vucevic tallied 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, but shot just 6 of 19 from the field in the loss. Fournier and Gordon added 12 and 11 points, respectively, in the loss.

Golden State shot 46 percent from the field to 45 for Orlando, but the Magic had five more turnovers, three fewer three-pointers and finished just 8-for-13 from the foul line. Golden State made all 11 of its free throw attempts.

Russell finished with a game-high 26 points to lead the Warriors. Jordan Poole added 21 points and Pascall finished with 20 in the win. Russell and Poole each made four treys in the victory.

With the loss, Orlando falls to 2-3 on its current six-game road trip. The Magic won’t return home, but they will return to the eastern time zone on Monday when they visit the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte comes in as losers of six straight.