ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Orlando Magic played Saturday night the way they must play if they're going to make the final month and a half of their season respectable.
Employing a small-ball lineup, the Magic generated myriad deflections and steals against the Atlanta Hawks and then sprinted upcourt at every opportunity for easy baskets.
Playing an energetic, aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball, the Magic blew out the Hawks 105-86 at Amway Center.
Almost everything seemed to work for Orlando, which scored 26 points off 18 Atlanta turnovers.
Swingman Terrence Ross, the team's lone addition before the trade deadline, scored a game-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Aaron Gordon added 18 points, while Nikola Vucevic scored 16 points and gathered 14 rebounds.
And Elfrid Payton nearly recorded a triple-double even though he didn't play in the fourth quarter. Payton finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
After Orlando went ahead 21-10, the team faltered when its reserves were in the game, and Atlanta built a 41-32 lead in the second quarter.
But Vucevic provided a key hustle play to snap the Magic out of their doldrums. Evan Fournier missed a wide-open 3 from in front of the Hawks' bench, but Vucevic grabbed the offensive rebound. Vucevic scored on a putback layup as he absorbed a foul by Dwight Howard.
Vucevic made the ensuring free throw to cut the deficit to 41-35 with 3:51 to play in the second quarter.
The sequence gave the Magic some momentum, and it hurt the Hawks because it was Howard's third foul.
Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer decided to leave Howard in the game, and it was a costly decision.
Forty seconds later, Howard picked up his fourth foul as Gordon drove into the lane and scored on a dunk.
The resulting and-one free throw cut Orlando's deficit to 41-38 and forced Howard to the bench.
With Howard out of the game, the Magic picked up their pace and closed the half on an 11-5 run.
Howard, who was booed during the pregame introductions, mustered only 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting and collected 14 rebounds with just one block.
Magic coach Frank Vogel started Payton, Fournier, Ross, Gordon and Vucevic. With the more mobile, more athletic group, the Magic want to generate deflections and push the ball upcourt whenever possible. Vogel also wants Gordon to exploit his speed advantage over most power forwards, and Gordon did that against All-Star Paul Millsap.
Gordon scored eight of the Magic's first 14 points.
The Hawks (32-26), who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back after a blowout loss Friday night in Atlanta, looked sluggish for large segments of the game. The Hawks typically thrive on superb ball movement, but their ball movement was lacking against the Magic (22-38).
Midway through the third quarter, Gordon deflected a lazy pass by Millsap in the Magic's paint, and the Atlanta turnover ignited an Orlando fast break. Payton hurled the ball to Fournier, who sank a wide-open 3 to put the Magic ahead 69-55 and force Budenholzer to call a timeout.
A few sequences later, Payton and Fournier forced Ersan Ilyasova to lose the ball out of bounds for the Hawks' 13th turnover.
Two nights earlier, the Magic took a 91-80 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers with 9:07 remaining in the fourth quarter but lost 112-103.
For a moment Saturday, it looked like Orlando could collapse again after Atlanta's Taurean Prince sank a 3-pointer to draw the Hawks within 80-68 with 10:20 to go.
But D.J. Augustin countered immediately with a 3-pointer of his own. And after Hawks point guard Dennis Schroder missed a bank shot on the Hawks' ensuing possession, the Magic chugged upcourt, finishing with an alley-oop dunk by Mario Hezonja from Augustin.
That's the brand of basketball Orlando must play from now on.
