INDIANAPOLIS _ As tipoff approached Monday night, the Indiana Pacers weren't sure if shooting guard Victor Oladipo would play against his former team, the Orlando Magic. Oladipo bruised his right knee in a game Friday night, sat out a game Saturday and still felt lingering discomfort on Monday morning.
But Oladipo did play.
And he looked as good, if not better, than he ever did during his three-year Magic tenure.
With Oladipo making his first 11 shot attempts, the Magic lost their ninth consecutive game, falling to the Pacers 121-109 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Orlando took an 86-85 lead on the opening possession of the fourth quarter, but Indiana's Domantas Sabonis scored as Marreese Speights fouled him, made the ensuing free throw and then scored on a dunk in transition to put Indiana ahead 92-86.
The Magic (8-13) never threatened the Pacers (12-9) again, thanks to Oladipo.
Oladipo provided the dagger, launching a 3-pointer over Nikola Vucevic that hit off the rim and off the backboard before it fell through the hoop. Oladipo's shot _ his 11th make on 11 attempts _ extended the Pacers' lead to 98-91 with 8:13 to go in the game.
Oladipo didn't miss a shot until he misfired on a 3 with 6:26 remaining in the fourth quarter.
He finished with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting, six rebounds, five assists and four blocks.
Before the game, coach Frank Vogel altered the Magic's starting lineup, replacing shooting guard Terrence Ross with Jonathon Simmons.
Ross has struggled most of the season and often fails to assert himself when he plays alongside the Magic's starters. With the lineup change, Vogel hoped to improve the Magic's defense and grit by adding Simmons to the starting five and hoped Ross would feel more free to contribute on offense.
In 25 minutes, Ross scored seven points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Simmons scored a team-high 21 points.
The Magic have struggled against the Pacers in recent years. Orlando has lost six straight games to Indiana and 13 of the teams' last 14 games.
Vogel served as the Pacers' head coach from the midway point of the 2010-11 season through the 2015-16 season.
Now 103 games into his tenure as the Magic's coach, he's 0-6 against his former team.
Vogel's tenure in Orlando barely overlapped with Oladipo's.
In June 2016, a month after Vogel was hired, the Magic traded Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to Sabonis to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Serge Ibaka. The deal turned out to be a disaster for the Magic. Ibaka never fit in with the Magic and with Ibaka's free agency approaching, the team traded him before last season's All-Star break.
On Monday, Sabonis scored 19 points and collected eight rebounds.
Oladipo, meanwhile, has improved since the end of last season.
He entered Monday's game averaging 22.8 points per game on 44.9 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Oladipo continues to provide energy on defense, just like he always did for the Magic. In the third quarter, with the Pacers ahead 65-53, he blocked a corner 3 attempt by Simmons. After the ball went out of bounds, Oladipo blocked a driving shot attempt by Evan Fournier five seconds later.
Simmons cut the Pacers' lead to 65-62 when he sank a 3-pointer midway through the third quarter.
But Oladipo dictated the action again. He drove into the lane and fired a pass into the right corner for Darren Collison, and Collison made a wide-open 3.
After Fournier missed a 3-pointer on the Magic's ensuing possession, Oladipo attempted a 3-pointer from the top of the arc as Vucevic leaped to contest the shot. Oladipo swished his attempt. The basket extended the Pacers' lead to 71-62 and improved Oladipo's shooting line to 10 of 10 for the game.
The Magic trailed 82-70. But with Simmons and D.J. Augustin leading the way, the Magic closed out the third quarter on a 14-3 run to cut their deficit to 85-84.
That set the stage for Sabonis and Oladipo to turn the game back in Indiana's direction.
The Magic's trade in June 2016 keeps looking worse and worse.
