By SAM
GARDNER
FOXSportsFlorida.com
Magic writer
Another night, another heartbreaker for the Orlando Magic.
Just 24 hours after a crushing 92-89 overtime loss in New Orleans, the Magic came up on the losing end of a 125-124 shootout in Oklahoma City, and just like that, Orlando has gone from a team on a roll to a team on the skids.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were nothing short of unstoppable for the Thunder in the win. Westbrook recorded a triple-double with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, and Durant, the NBA's scoring leader, poured in 36 points on 13-of-17 shooting.
Among Durant's points were four clutch free throws in the final minute and a running floater that narrowly beat the shot clock to seal the Oklahoma City win.
"We just couldn't stop them at all, Durant and Westbrook in particular," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "They're great players, they average 50 (points) between them, but we gave them 68. We obviously didn't have any impact on them."
The dominant night from Durant and Westbrook knocked some of the luster off of another tremendous performance from Magic center Dwight Howard.
Howard scored 39 points, including 14 points in the fourth quarter, and grabbed 18 rebounds. It was the second straight outstanding game for the Eastern Conference's leading All-Star vote getter after Howard had 29 points and 20 rebounds in the Crescent City on Wednesday.
Unfortunately for Orlando, there was a severe dropoff after Howard -- especially from the starting lineup. Jason Richardson scored 19 points, including a three-pointer as time expired that made the score look closer than it really was, but Hedo Turkoglu, Brandon Bass and Jameer Nelson combined for just 24 points on 31 percent (9-of-29) shooting in the loss.
It was the second straight night that the Orlando starters left Howard to carry the load. In New Orleans, Nelson, Turkoglu and Bass combined for just 16 points on 18.8 percent (6-of-32) shooting.
But after the game, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said that Howard's inflated numbers weren't a result of a shift in balance from the NBA's most balanced team.
"He had 19 shots, I think that's pretty good," Van Gundy said of Howard. "Everybody else is between eight and 12, 13 shots. You can't just look at points.
"It's not going to look balanced the way Turk and Jameer are shooting the ball right now."
Van Gundy noted that Howard shot 20 free throws (of which he made a career-high 17) and scored a number of points off of offensive rebounds (he had six offensive boards).
Van Gundy said the problem lies in the way Orlando is starting games.
"We scored the ball well ourselves, but (it was) another game where were off to a bad start and we're playing out of a hole all night," he said.
Perhaps is the answer is a shakeup to the starting lineup. Ryan Anderson, who had 15 points Thursday after scoring 14 on Wednesday, and J.J. Redick, who added 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting (4-of-5 from three), have both been playing off the charts lately.
"Maybe we've got the wrong group playing, I don't know," Van Gundy said. "Or maybe they need to do something to get off to better starts, but it seems like we're down by 10 every night."
Oklahoma City led by as many as 12 in the first quarter -- this after New Orleans started Wednesday's game on a 6-0 run -- and despite a valiant effort, Orlando never held the lead in the game.
"The positive part for me looking at it is that it's a game where it would have been easy to lose heart, but our guys hung in there and we had chances down the stretch," an unusually positive Van Gundy said. "In the fourth quarter we had four shots -- at least three -- where we had chances to tie or go ahead, but we couldn't knock them down."
A little luck didn't hurt the Thunder, either.
"Jeff Green's a 27 percent three point shooter and he knocks down three of them," Van Gundy said, calling Green's shot-clock-beating triple from the top of the key with 2:50 to go the game's turning point. "Durant's a 33 percent three point shooter (he was 2-of-3 from deep on Thursday). It was one of those nights where they had it all rolling."
Orlando has a good shot to get rolling themselves against the Timberwolves on Saturday. Minnesota broke a five-game losing streak with a 109-97 victory over Washington on Thursday, but Minnesota is still just 10-30 on the season and 2-21 against teams above .500.
When Minnesota visited Orlando in November, the Magic walked away with a 42-point laugher. Another laugher this weekend could prove invaluable against the Boston Celtics when the Magic conclude their five-game road trip at TD Garden on Monday.
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