ORLANDO, Fla. _ Orlando Magic players should've been the exhausted people on Amway Center's court Wednesday night, not the Los Angeles Lakers.
The night before, the Magic suffered an excruciating loss in Houston. They matched the Rockets, the team with the NBA's second-best record, basket-for-basket and played superbly until the final two minutes. Picked apart by superstar James Harden _ who scored 60 points, gathered 10 rebounds and distributed 11 assists _ the Magic lost to the Rockets, 114-107.
The Lakers hadn't played since Sunday.
Yet the Magic looked fresh Wednesday. The Lakers seemed lethargic.
Pushing the ball upcourt at every opportunity and draining their 3-point tries, the Magic played as if they were furious over their loss to the Rockets. And then the Magic beat the Lakers, 127-105.
Marreese Speights scored a game-high 21 points while Evan Fournier added 20 points.
Elfrid Payton, who had played just 18 minutes against the Rockets, tallied 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes against the Lakers and set the tone for the night by pushing the pace early in the game.
Orlando made 18 of its 32 attempts from 3-point range _ tying a season high for 3s made and setting a season high for 3-point percentage.
Seven Magic players scored in double figures, and the team recorded 28 assists on its 44 baskets.
The Lakers entered Wednesday second in the NBA in fast-break points, averaging 17.2 points per game. But the Magic outscored the Lakers on the break, 20-18.
Orlando carried a 58-51 lead into halftime and then broke the game open in the third period by scoring 43 points (a season-high for any quarter) and by making nine 3-point tries (a franchise record 3s made in any quarter).
Fournier led the onslaught, going 4 for 5 from beyond the arc in the quarter.
Lakers coach Luke Walton disliked what he saw, and for good reason.
When the Magic scored on three consecutive possessions early in the quarter _ a trey by Fournier, a step-back 19-foot jumper by Fournier and a layup by Payton _ to push their lead to 65-53, Walton called a timeout. Then Walton replaced starters Tyler Ennis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle and Brook Lopez en masse with reserves Alex Caruso, Jordan Clarkson, Corey Brewer, Larry Nance Jr. and Kyle Kuzma.
The Magic (15-35) then accelerated their rout.
The late return from Houston, coupled with losing a game in which they had played so well, figured to make the matchup against the Lakers extra difficult.
But Magic coach Frank Vogel disagreed.
"I honestly believe that the second night of a back-to-back isn't what it used to be with the schedule spaced out the way it is," Vogel said before tipoff. "We've played two times in the last five days or something like that. So I expect the guys to have plenty of energy."
The Lakers (19-31) had won four of their prior five games and eight of their prior 11 games.
Walton wants his team to push the ball upcourt in all games, not just when opponents play on the second nights of back-to-backs.
"Hopefully, by the fourth (quarter) they start to fatigue a little bit," Walton said before tipoff.
In theory, it should've worked.
Instead, the Magic recovered from one of their most painful losses of the season with one of their most emphatic wins of the season.
