ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Orlando Magic finally safeguarded a fourth-quarter lead.
Led by Elfrid Payton, who recorded his second triple-double in a row, the Magic defeated the Chicago Bulls, 98-91, Wednesday night at Amway Center.
Payton scored 22 points, gathered a career-high 14 rebounds and tied a career-high with 14 assists. But more importantly, he gave the Magic energy all game long.
Evan Fournier added 20 points.
Bulls star Jimmy Butler struggled. Although he scored 21 points and dished out nine assists, he made only seven of his 21 shot attempts, including some costly late-game misses.
The Magic bench put their team ahead 88-81 on a three-point play by C.J. Watson with 7:04 remaining.
Chicago cut the lead to 91-89 after Orlando's starters returned to the game, and it looked like Orlando would collapse again, just as it did in recent losses to the Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards and New York Knicks.
But with 3:09 left and 0.7 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Fournier tossed a soft inbounds pass from the baseline into the lane, where Aaron Gordon elevated, caught the ball and made a shot from 4 feet.
After the Bulls once again cut the Magic lead to two points, the Magic gathered two offensive rebounds on the same trip down the court. Terrence Ross went for a driving dunk and flubbed the attempt. But Payton collected his 13th rebound and scored on a putback layup to put the Magic ahead 95-91 with 1:16 to play.
The Magic bench played poorly in the first half.
Orlando trailed 22-19 to begin the second quarter, and then Chicago opened the quarter on a 12-5 run with D.J. Augustin, Watson, Mario Hezonja, Jeff Green and Stephen Zimmerman in the game. Coach Frank Vogel called a timeout and put Payton, Ross and Bismack Biyombo into the game for Augustin, Watson and Zimmerman.
Biyombo had a rough night. In 36 minutes, he tallied six points on 3-of-11 shooting _ too many attempts for him. He also gathered just six rebounds, and referees whistled him for two offensive fouls on illegal screens.
The Magic offense struggled against the Bulls in the teams' previous two games this season. Orlando lost to Chicago 112-80 in early November and 100-92 in late January. The Magic just couldn't get their offense going. In those two games, they combined to shoot just 40.0 percent from the field overall and 30.8 percent from 3-point range.
On Wednesday night, the Magic sank only 41.6 percent of their shot attempts overall and 28.0 percent of their 3s.
The Magic showed life in the third quarter, though. Trailing 62-49, they went on a 9-1 run fueled by a Fournier 3, two made free throws by Ross, a running layup by Payton and a layup by Fournier.
The outburst cut Orlando's deficit to 63-58.
The Magic tied the score at 77 late in the quarter on a 3-pointer by Fournier.
Payton clinched his triple-double with 33.9 seconds left in the third quarter, when he gathered a rebound following a missed layup by Green. The play gave Payton 20 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists and prompted fans in Section 112 of Amway Center to chant his name and clap rhythmically.
The Bulls (31-33) and the Magic (24-41) entered the game short-handed. Chicago shooting guard Dwyane Wade missed his second game in a row because of a quadriceps strain. Orlando center Nikola Vucevic sat out his third consecutive game due to a sore right Achilles.
The Magic didn't need Vucevic.
They had Payton.
