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Victor Oladipo Magical in New Role, Defeating Knicks 100-91

By William Lee

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38. 91. 27. Final. 100

Wednesday night the New York Knicks took on the Orlando Magic.

Orlando has recently been on a slump, losing three out of their last four games and decided to replace Victor Oladipo in the starting lineup with former-Knick first pick Channing Frye.

The first quarter was some ugly basketball with both teams shooting sub-30% from the field. Knicks’ superstar Carmelo Anthony compounded the problem by getting into early foul trouble, picking up his second personal foul midway through the opening quarter.

The Knicks and Kristaps Porzingis threw Orlando a block party, rejecting six shots in the first quarter. Porzingis looked like he was on his way to surpassing his recent career high seven blocks against the Houston Rockets a couple of games back, rejecting three shots in the first six minutes of play.

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The Magic went on a 8-0 run to start the second quarter and took a double digit lead over the Knicks, 28-17. New York’s shooting struggles continued in the second quarter… In fact the Knicks did not convert on a field goal for almost eight minutes, stretching back from late in the first quarter… to the 7:21 mark of the second quarter. Anthony was the only Knick that seemed like he could even score against the Magic’s defense… scoring nine straight points in the middle of the period to help keep the lead from blowing up on New York.

Both teams continued to shoot poorly from the field, with Orlando shooting 32.7% and New York shooting 29.3% at halftime The Magic held a 46-35 lead heading into intermission.

New York came out the second half strong, scoring seven straight points to cut the deficit to four points 46-42. The Knicks got as close as one possession but Oladipo scored eight points that led a 10-2 Magic run to give Orlando 70-59 lead with a minute left in the third quarter.

Oladipo continued to torture the Knicks in the fourth quarter, scoring ten points in the final period for a season high total of 24 points. Oladipo was aggressive and got to the charity stripe all night long, attempting a career high 15 free-throws Wednesday night. Looks like it was a good move to bring Oladipo off the bench…

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However, Porzingis was able to win one battle against Oladipo late in the fourth quarter. Although it was not enough, despite Porzingis collecting his sixth block of the night on the play. Porzingis finished one block shy of tying his career high, and had ten points and 8 rebounds to go along with those blocks.

New York could get no closer than six points, never being able to get over that hump as they fell to the Magic 100-91 on Thanksgiving eve.

Jose Calderon had by far his best game of the season, scoring a season high 23 points. Anthony also played well, finishing the game with 28 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season.

Just as well as the starters played in the game, the bench was just as atrocious. The Knicks’ bench scored just a pathetic 12 points Wednesday night, no team can win a game with such low output. This is becoming a trend as New York’s bench scored only ten points against the Heat Monday night…

Next: Carmelo Anthony Talks Titles with Porzingis

We will see if the Knicks can break that trend Friday night with a quick rematch against the Heat after all the Turkey and stuffing has been eaten.

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