Nets Fall to Magic 115-111 Despite Late Rally

Arron Afflalo scored 25 points, E'Twaun Moore added 17 and the Orlando Magic held off a late rally to beat the Nets 115-111 on Wednesday night.

Tobias Harris added 16 points and eight rebounds, and Jameer Nelson had 14 points and seven assists for Orlando, which won its second straight.

Joe Johnson scored 31 points and Mirza Teletovic had 17 as the Nets had a three-game winning streak stopped. Mason Plumlee had 16 points and Marcus Thornton 13 off the bench for the Nets, who played without injured starters Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston.

The Magic led 107-101 after a 3-pointer by Afflalo with 1:58 left in the game, but Brooklyn cut it to 110-109 on a layup by Johnson with 14 seconds remaining.

Nelson made two free throws for Orlando, then Kyle O'Quinn blocked a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Johnson with 10 seconds left. Nelson and Afflalo combined for three free throws to put the game away from there.

The Magic led by as many as 16 in the first half and carried an 83-78 lead into the fourth quarter, but had to withstand some sharpshooting by Brooklyn in the second half.

The Nets hit 23 of 37 shots (62 percent) in the final two quarters and got seven 3-pointers and four three-point plays, but it still wasn't enough to overcome Orlando.

The Magic kept pace with a hot-shooting second half of their own, making nearly 57 percent, and got key shots from Afflalo, Moore and Nelson every time Brooklyn got close.

The Nets hit six 3-pointers, four by Teletovic, in the third quarter and Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett added three-point plays to help Brooklyn rally from a 55-43 halftime deficit.

The Nets tied the game at 78 on a dunk by Plumlee with 35 seconds left, but Victor Oladipo countered with a perimeter jumper and Moore hit his fifth straight 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Magic an 83-78 lead going into the final period.

The teams traded baskets for the first 15 minutes of the game before Moore knocked down four 3-pointers to ignite a 20-3 run that helped Orlando to a 55-43 halftime lead.

The reserve guard hit three straight 3s from nearly the exact same spot on the left side of the basket, then crossed to a similar spot on the right side and drained another. In between, he added a fast-break layup for 11 straight points, before being taken out of the game.

Andrew Nicholson took over from there, scoring seven of the Magic's next nine to help Orlando to a 47-31 lead, its biggest of the half.

Johnson scored eight points to help revive the Nets' offense in time to cut the deficit to 12 by halftime. Brooklyn shot just 36 percent (15 of 42) and committed nine turnovers.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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