ORLANDO, Fla. — Darius Bazley scored a season-high 19 points in a double-double performance, and the Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the second half to secure a 108-99 win at the Orlando Magic on Saturday. Complete Box Score
The defeat was the second in a row for the Magic (4-2), who had won their opening four games to start the season. Saturday’s loss followed the 116-92 defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.
Bazley shot 7 of 10 from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds for Oklahoma City (2-3), while George Hill scored 13 of his 18 points in the third quarter.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 16 points, seven assists, and five rebounds, while Al Horford, Hamidou Diallo, and rookie Theo Maledon each scored 12 points for the Thunder, who shot 48.8% in the second half and 44.2% from the field for the entire game.
Better Job From Oklahoma City Thunder
“Our coaches really harped on what we needed to improve upon from last game and we carried it over,” Horford said. “We did much better job of setting the tone early in the game.”
Diallo also finished with eight rebounds and Horford contributed six rebounds and four assists in the win as well.
“I just thought it was a good, resilient game for us because we carried a lot of stuff over from the New Orleans game that we wanted to address and from the last time we played Orlando,” OKC coach Mark Daigneault said.
“Orlando is a good team that makes you play a clean game to win and I was pleased with how we did that.”
Nikola Vucevic scored a season-high 30 points on 13 of 21 shots, including four 3-pointers.
He completed the night with his fifth double-double of the season after grabbing 13 rebounds, but missed four of his six attempts in the final quarter.
“We struggled a little offensively, especially toward the end, because we didn’t work the offense enough and we could have gotten some better shots,” said Vucevic.
Terrence Ross added 26 points and made four 3-pointers with six rebounds off the bench, while Aaron Gordon had 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists for Orlando, which had defeated Oklahoma City 118-107 away on Dec. 29.
Markelle Fultz chipped in with 12 points and eight assists for the Magic, who shot 37% after going 40 of 108 from the field.
“It started with one-on-one defense and we weren’t getting stops,” said Magic forward Gordon. “It’s just one-on-one defense and that just comes down to pride, technique and energy.”
SCORE BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 FINAL
THUNDER: 28 24 32 24 108
MAGIC: 33 18 31 17 99
