ORLANDO, Fla. _ As Monday's tipoff approached, Frank Vogel worried that he made a mistake by giving the Orlando Magic both Christmas Eve and Christmas off. Vogel rarely gives his teams two consecutive days off during the season, and he was concerned his players would be rusty or sluggish against the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night.
Nothing could have been more inaccurate.
The Magic played one of their best games of the season and defeated the Grizzlies 112-102 at Amway Center.
Aaron Gordon scored 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half.
Six other Magic players scored in double figures, including point guard Elfrid Payton, who added 16 points and seven assists off the bench.
Bismack Biyombo scored 10 points and collected a game-high 12 rebounds.
The Magic made 51 percent of their shots.
Orlando won its second game in a row _ the first time it has won consecutive games since it won three games in a row from Dec. 2 through Dec. 6.
The Magic (15-18) had reason to feel motivated against the Grizzlies (20-13).
On Dec. 1, the Magic played one of their best games of the season as they took a 14-point lead over the Grizzlies with 6:12 left in the fourth quarter. But with Tony Allen and Marc Gasol leading the way, Memphis rallied to win 95-94 and hand Orlando one of its most heartbreaking losses in years.
Mike Conley, Chandler Parsons, Vince Carter, Zach Randolph, Brandan Wright and James Ennis III did not play that night for Memphis, adding salt in the wound.
All of them except for Wright played on Monday, but the Magic still controlled the game from the outset.
Orlando made 10 of its first 13 shots.
Jodie Meeks, who started at shooting guard in place of injured Evan Fournier, sank 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put the Magic ahead 34-15.
The Magic just kept going.
Late in the second quarter, Gordon held the ball late in the shot clock, dribbled between his legs and drove forward. He stopped suddenly and sank a fadeaway jumper from 11 feet as he absorbed a foul by Allen. Gordon made the subsequent free throw to put Orlando ahead 64-35 for its largest lead of the game.
The Grizzlies made only 40 percent of their shots in the first half, and the Magic limited them to only one offensive rebound.
The Magic led 68-43 at halftime. The 25-point advantage was Orlando's largest halftime lead of the season.
Orlando's success almost defied belief at times.
Early in the third quarter, Biyombo drove right to left across the lane, faded away for a jumper and swished it.
A few minutes later, Gordon dribbled around the far left edge of the 3-point arc, crossed his defender over and launched a step-back 3-pointer just before the shot clock expired. He made the shot to give the Magic an 80-53 lead.
Gordon's trey ignited a stretch in which he scored 15 of 17 Magic points. The stretch ended when he made a pull-up jumper from 11 feet, extending the Magic's advantage to 94-69.
Memphis opened the fourth quarter by scoring eight consecutive points, which prompted Vogel to call a timeout.
But there wasn't a repeat of what happened on Dec. 1.
Nikola Vucevic knocked down a jumper coming out of the timeout.
One possession later, Payton missed a 3, but Gordon punched the loose ball out to the perimeter. A short while later, Vucevic sank a 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
The Magic led 101-79 with 9:18 remaining.
Soon, the Magic cruised to their most convincing win of the season.
