Hornets beat Magic 106-99 for seventh win in eight games
By Ashley Garner
Terry Rozier scored 27 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. came off the bench with 21 points and six rebounds Wednesday night to help the Charlotte Hornets overcome poor shooting in a 106-99 victory over the Orlando Magic.
LaMelo Ball had 22 points for the Hornets, who won for the seventh time in eight games.
The Hornets shot only 42% and played from behind for most of the game until the bench sparked a 15-0 run near the conclusion of the third quarter.
Mo Bamba had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Orlando. Rookie Jalen Suggs had 17 points and six assists in the Magic's fourth straight loss. Wendell Carter Jr. added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
"Orlando Magic" by Andre Fran is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
Rozier, coming of a 32-point game at Washington on Monday night in which he shot 8 of 11 from 3-point range, hit only 3 of 11 from behind the arc in this one. The Hornets, who came into the game as the No. 2 3-point shooting team in the NBA, made only 12 of 41 (29%).
The Hornets fell behind while missing 12 of their first 13 shots, but rallied behind Ball, Rozier and Oubre to lead 52-49 at halftime.
Orlando had regained a seven-point lead before Oubre and Martin sparked the run of 15 straight points that put the Hornets back in charge for keeps. Martin blocked Bamba's 3-point attempt and set up Oubre for a dunk, then completed Charlotte's spurt with a driving dunk for an 82-74 lead.
The Magic, who shot 41% overall, went scoreless for more than four minutes before Franz Wagner beat the third-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer.
Martin contributed five rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocked in 28 minutes.