Magic Hold on for Big Road Win over Bulls
The Orlando Magic let a nine-point fourth-quarter lead evaporate but toughened up in the waning minutes to claim a 99-94 NBA victory over Chicago that snapped the Bulls' eight-game winning streak.
Dwight Howard finished with 29 points, 18 rebounds and three blocks -- all game-highs.
"We had to commit our whole team to him," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.
The Magic had led by as many as 18 in the second quarter of Thursday's contest.
But Carlos Boozer's jump shot gave Chicago a 91-89 lead with 2:55 remaining.
Orlando then lost Jason Richardson -- who made four of their 11 three-point shots -- to a sprained left ankle suffered in a collision with teammate Jameer Nelson.
Nelson shrugged off the incident to connect with Dwight Howard for an alley-oop dunk to knot the score, and forward Ryan Anderson drained a three-pointer to put the Magic up 94-91.
Anderson added two free-throws with 46.7 seconds left as the Magic finished the game on a 10-3 scoring run.
The Magic rebounded in a big way from their disappointing loss to NBA stragglers Charlotte on Tuesday, beating a Bulls team that came into the contest with the best record in the league.
"We took the loss (to Charlotte) hard," Anderson said. "This was a big win. We wanted to show how good we are."
Boozer led the Bulls with 26 points. NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose added 17 for Chicago but shot just 6-of-22 from the field.
Source: Agence France Presse
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