ORLANDO, Fla. _ On Tuesday night, the Orlando Magic looked lifeless, soft and uninspired. The San Antonio Spurs flat-out dominated them in San Antonio, and the Magic lost by 36 points.
On Wednesday night, the Magic turned that narrative on its ear.
They put together one of their grittiest performances of the season.
Fueled by 3-point shooting and a toughness absent less than 24 hours earlier, the Magic stunned the better-rested Milwaukee Bucks, 126-117, at Amway Center.
Jonathon Simmons scored a career-high 35 points, D.J. Augustin added a season-high 32 points and Nikola Vucevic flirted with a triple-double, chipping in with 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
The Bucks took an 80-77 lead on a John Henson dunk with 3:57 remaining in the third quarter, and it looked as if the Magic had run out of steam.
But they recovered.
They closed the quarter on a 14-0 run, including a 3-pointer by Jonathan Isaac.
At the end of the period, Giannis Antetokounmpo drove to the rim and elevated but had his dunk blocked by Bismack Biyombo.
And when Milwaukee threatened to go on a fourth-quarter run, Augustin sank a 3-pointer to extend Orlando's lead to 111-99 with 4:14 remaining.
In their victory, the Magic withstood Antetokounmpo, the Bucks' dynamic MVP candidate, who scored 38 points on 16-of-29 shooting.
It helped that the Magic made 18 of their 34 attempts from 3-point range.
The end result _ an Orlando win _ seemed improbable before tipoff.
On Wednesday, the Magic completed one of the toughest back-to-backs an NBA team can face.
The night before, the Magic ended a 10-day road trip that featured games in three different time zones.
Orlando (21-48) lost all five games on its road trip, which consisted of games against the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers and Spurs.
Making matters worse, the team lost its two leading scorers _ Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier _ to injuries on March 7, in its second game of the trip.
Gordon and Fournier did not play Wednesday.
Gordon and Fournier combine to average 36.1 points per game, which accounts for 34.5 percent of the Magic's scoring per game.
The Magic have struggled terribly without them. They scored a season-worst 72 points in Wednesday's loss to the Spurs.
Orlando shot much better against Milwaukee (37-31).
Fueled by Simmons' and Augustin's sharp long-range shooting, the Magic dominated much of the first quarter to take a 36-20 lead.
The game started to turn at the start of the second quarter when the Magic put Rodney Purvis, Wes Iwundu and Biyombo on the court to supplement Shelvin Mack and Khem Birch.
That quintet, which featured three rookies, matched up poorly against the Bucks, who had Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and Jason Terry on the floor.
Milwaukee opened the period on a 17-7 run, and Orlando didn't steady itself until coach Frank Vogel put some more experienced players on the floor.
Before tipoff, Vogel told a group of reporters that, despite the loss in San Antonio, the Magic had made gains in improving the lax, undisciplined culture he inherited when he was hired in May 2016.
A few hours later, his players seemed to prove him right.
