Orlando Magic News
Ryan Anderson scores a career-high 30 points as Magic win fourth straight game
By By Josh Robbins
NEW YORK — Ryan Anderson is suffering from a cold.
The Orlando Magic's starting power forward barely slept Sunday night, and as tipoff against the New York Knicks approached Monday afternoon, Anderson skipped his usual pregame shooting routine with assistant coach Steve Clifford.
Anderson looked just fine a few hours later. With Dwight Howard often drawing double-teams, Anderson and the rest of the Magic made one 3-pointer after another and ground out their fourth consecutive win, a 102-93 victory over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
"I think that it shows that we're resilient team," said Anderson, who scored a career-high 30 points.
"We can win big games. We can win against tough teams. I think tonight was just a great show of our character and how we can just keep our composure and play well in the stretch."
Coach Stan Van Gundy called it Orlando's "best win of the season."
The Magic (9-3) overcame some form of adversity throughout its winning streak.
On Monday, they faced Jason Richardson's absence because of an injury, their own poor shooting early on, calls they disliked, a four-point deficit in the final quarter and a big game by Carmelo Anthony.
Howard didn't make a basket until a layup as he was fouled early in the third quarter. He finished with just eight points, 10 rebounds and his second technical foul of the season.
But Howard made a huge contribution before he fouled out in the game's final minute. He drew so much attention from the Knicks (6-7) that all it took was some good ball movement to get Anderson, Hedo Turkoglu and J.J. Redick open shots.
In all, the Magic went 17-for-35 from 3-point range.
Redick scored 21 points.
Turkoglu added 15, including a trey off the glass that put Orlando ahead 87-85 with 5:32 to go. The Magic never trailed again.
Anderson gave them some breathing room on the ensuing possession with a 3 from in front of New York's bench.
"I didn't know he wasn't feeling well," Van Gundy said of Anderson. "We'll try to inject him with a virus or something, then."
Anderson's counterpart at power forward, Amar'e Stoudemire, struggled.
Stoudemire was whistled for two fouls in the first quarter, another in the second and another early in the third. He finished with 10 points and only two rebounds.
"It's definitely a tough loss for us," Stoudemire said. "Basically, my fault out there. I'm taking all the blame for tonight's loss."
Anthony scored a game-high 33 points — 14 of them on foul shots — and he gave the Magic so many problems that Van Gundy took the unusual step of employing a zone defense down the stretch.
The Knicks hit only six of their 18 shots in the final period.
All four victories on Orlando's current winning streak came on the road: in Sacramento, Portland, Oakland and, now, New York.
The Magic faced Howard's foul trouble in Sacramento, a hostile crowd and tough opponent in Portland and Richardson's injury and the second night of a back-to-back in Oakland.
"We've got a long season," Howard said. "We can't get satisfied with where we're at right now. We're playing good basketball, but it is early."
Monday kick-started a stretch in which Orlando will play 10 games in 15 days. The team will hold just one practice during that span.
So it should come as no surprise that Redick would not say the team has proven something in recent days.
"I'm not into proving things," he said. "We'll prove something in May. How about that?"
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
Stan Van Gundy
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