18-point comeback against Toronto 305 helps claim top spot in G League Eastern Confererence
The Osceola Magic came back from an 18-point second half deficit to beat the Raptors 905 and take control of first place in the NBA G League Eastern Conference. The Magic’s took their first lead of the second half with 16.2 seconds left to finish with an improbable 112-109 win.
It's the start of a two-week, six-game home stand for the Magic (10-3), who returned to the Silver Spurs Arena hardwood Wednesday for a rematch with the Raptors 905 (10-4) for another first-place battle (see AroundOsceola.com for a recap of that) and then play the Westchester Knicks on Thursday at 7 p.m. for Dominican Heritage Night.
“It feels great,” Magic guard Lester Quinones said about moving into first place. “We knew going into the game if we beat them, we would be the No. 1 seed. We got another one on Wednesday. We want to beat them to solidify that.”
The Magic cut the lead to 103-100 after a Javonte Smart 3-pointer with 2:03 left in the game. The Magic got the ball back after a Raptors offensive charge and were down one after a Reece Beekman (16 points) layup. The Raptors’ Tyson Degenhart missed two free throws with 40.8 seconds left. Tyreke Key hit two free throws for the Raptors with 19 seconds left to put The Raptors 905 up 105-102.
Smart (12 points) was fouled as he hit a 3-pointer with 16.2 seconds left. He hit the free throw to put the Magic up 106-105 for their first lead of the second half.
“Coach drew it up for me,” a smiling Smart said of the game-winning basket. “I came off a screen, they threw the ball over, and you know, I go off and catch it and score it. I just shot it and had the confidence it was going in.”
The Raptors Jaron Cumberland stepped on the endline on the ensuing play to turn the ball over. Quinones, who had a game-high 25 points, was fouled and hit both to put the Magic up 3 points with 11.6 seconds left. The Raptors threw away the inbounds pass, and Quinones hit two more free throws. The Raptors scored on a goaltend with 6 seconds left, but Quinones hit two more free throws to ice the game for the Magic
Murphy credited the team’s defense with the win as the Magic held the Raptors to 42 points the second half.
“I don’t want to pretend like we had a great offensive half,” Murphy said. “We did just enough offensively. We executed our end of game plays.”
“I think we have great defenders on this team, one to five,” Smart added. Everyone is willing to guard their man. We help each other. Everyone wants to win, so I think everyone buys into defense.”
The game started out at a blistering pace with both the Magic and Raptors staying within 5 points of each other. The Magic had a balanced scoring attack with four of their five starters scoring at least 5 points in the opening stanza, led by Quinones’ 9 points. Still, Osceola was down 33-31 at the end of the first quarter.
The Raptors started playing a zone defense and went on a 14-4 run between the first and second quarters to take a 45-35 lead before an Osceola timeout. After play resumed, a Justin Minaya bad pass turned into another Raptors basket and before long the Raptors 905 was up 14 points – a lead they mostly kept the rest of the first half. The Magic trailed 67-54 at the half.
“Offensively we were in a good rhythm in the first quarter, Murphy said. “And then we just could not figure out their zone offensively. We thought we were ready for it, but they played it way more than we have seen in previous games. We’ll be ready for it in two days.”
It just kept getting worse. The Raptors hit two 3-points to start the second half to go up 18 points and continue the onslaught. Early on during a Magic 14-2 run Raptors' leading scorer Quincy Guerrier went down with a knee injury to allow Osceola to cut the lead to 86-80. Guerrier, who was limping, returned to the game at the end of the third quarter but couldn’t stop the Magic momentum.
Alex Morales and Phillip Wheeler both added 17 points for the Magic.
