One night after an exciting win at home against the Grizzlies, the Spurs found themselves right back out on the road for another four-game road trip. They didn’t land in Orlando until 4 AM and are already shorthanded, so anyone who saw this as a scheduled loss could be excused. However, this Spurs team is just different than previous iterations. They’re young, energetic and deep, and they used all that to outlast a rising Magic team that was well rested and had won 9 of their last 11.
The Spurs picked up where they left off by relying on threes to get them going early, hitting 4 of their first 7. However, they also found a good balance on offense sooner than the night before. [As predicted](/spurs-game-previews/90806/game-preview-san-antonio-spurs-at-orlando-magic), the Magic’s biggest strength of scoring in the paint came to fruition with a brief stretch of too-easy layups that briefly gave them the lead, but the Spurs’ balanced attack still prevailed with them leading 31-29 after 12 minutes.
The wait for the Spurs to tire out continued as they looked anything-but in the second quarter, outscoring the Magic 27-20. After things were tied up at 35 apiece three minutes in, Spurs used an extended 18-7 run to get the lead out to 11 with just over 3 minutes left. A slew of turnovers led to a 7-0 run from the Magic and looked like they might steal the momentum heading into halftime, but the Spurs regrouped, and a tough layup from Keldon Johnson and three from Carter Bryant (they’re starting to fall for him) helped get things right again as they led 58-49 at the half.
There was no letdown to start the second half either, with De’Aaron Fox and Devin Vassell scoring the first six points to get the lead out to 13, but Jalen Suggs came alive on offense to get the Magic going again, and they got the lead back down to 8 and forced a timeout. Both teams continued to have responses to each other in a streaky, physical quarter in which the Spurs led by as much as 15 before the Magic got back within five, and the Spurs led 86-79 with 12 minutes left.
The fourth quarter is when the legs start getting tired on a back-to-back, but Dylan Harper kept the Spurs ahead, even as the Magic kept making pushes. Harper’s play allowed Fox to rest until there was 3:46 left, and it seemed like Fourth Quarter Fox would lead them to victory again with a few huge shots, but a couple of turnovers kept the Magic in it. Jeremy Sochan had a chance to put it away with the Spurs up three with 16 seconds left, but he missed both free throws. Harrison Barnes then fouled Franz Wagner on a three on the other end, and he hit all three FT’s to tie things up with 7.7 seconds left.
It looked like they were headed to OT, but Jonathan Isaac reached and fouled Fox on his last ditch effort. He hit both free throws with 1.4 left, and Luke Kornet blocked a Wagner lay-up attempt at the buzzer to seal the deal at 114-112. It was probably a good thing they pulled it out in regulation, because it finally felt like they were out of gas and wouldn’t have had the stamina for another five minutes of play.
* Mitch Johnson predictably went deep into the bench with the short turnaround from last night, with 10 players getting minutes in the first quarter, including David Jones Garcia. At one point, they even had three rookies in, with DJG, Harper and Bryant alongside Johnson and Sochan. The player count was up to 11 to start the second quarter with Lindy Waters coming in for Jones Garcia, who had a rough few minutes with a couple of careless turnovers. Waters also got those bit minutes to start the fourth quarter, and in the end, everyone but Kelly Olynyk and Bismack Biyombo played.
* This was a very physical game in the second half, much more in line with what was expected from these two clubs. The refs let them play for the most part (which I’ll never complain about), but it sure felt like Orlando was getting away with a lot of shoves on rebounds in particular. Neither Kornet or Sochan are pushovers or floppers, but they both ended up on the ground on multiple occasions, sometimes with blatant two-handed shoves in the back, and that would open up fast break opportunities for the Magic.
* Despite the late game heroics, the Spurs made things harder on themselves than it had to be. They were nearly done in by poor free throw shooting, and not just on the two missed by Sochan, but they were 17-24 overall. Even Fox missed his first three and said after the game he felt like he owed it to his teammates to make those last two. Turnovers also reared their ugly head again, with the Spurs committing 19 of them for 23 extra Magic points, as opposed to just 13 points conceded off 10 Orlando turnovers.
* Even though the stats of 16 points on 5-11 shooting don’t jump off the page, this was a big game for Harper. As previously mentioned, he was a huge reason why Fox was able to rest so long and be as fresh as possible to close the game, and his 5 rebounds and 5 assists were also massive. He wasn’t perfect with 5 turnovers, including a couple of uncharacteristic ones that him shaking his head at himself, but this kid has no fear for a rookie and is going to be special.
There were several candidates down the stretch, but it has to be the game-winning block by Kornet, and his celebration makes it even better.
6:30 PM CT on FanDuel Sports
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