The Los Angeles Lakers had their hands full on Wednesday night against the visiting Magic, as Anthony Davis missed his fourth straight game with a gluteus contusion. And despite staging a fourth-quarter rally, they were unable to fend off a scrappy Orlando team that gutted out the 119-118 victory.
Markelle Fultz had one of his best performances as a pro as he logged the second triple double of his career with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in the win. The Magic were able to stave off a big fourth-quarter comeback from the Lakers, who trailed by double digits going into the fourth behind LeBron James, who led L.A. with 19 points and 19 assists on the night.
Fultz had some help from teammate Aaron Gordon, who had a pair of huge dunks in the game, including a ridiculous alley-oop off the glass to himself worthy of his dunk contest days, as well as a crunch-time and-one jam late in the fourth to put the Magic up four.
Aaron Gordon out here pulling off dunk contest moves in real games. 😮💪 #MagicAboveAll pic.twitter.com/nKWMsy2KM0
— Monkey Knife Fight 🐵🔪👊💰 (@mkf) January 16, 2020
Aaron Gordon brings the thunder 😳 pic.twitter.com/Lg8vqbtFNd
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) January 16, 2020
Quin Cook, who finished with 22 points on 4-of-7 from downtown, answered with a big three to pull the Lakers within one with just over a minute to go. But Nikola Vucevic followed that with a huge three-pointer of his own on his way to 19 points. From there, LeBron and Fultz traded clutch baskets in the final two minutes, including this beautiful up-and-under from Fultz, followed by another nice spin move on LeBron the following possession.
Nice way to cap off a triple-double for Markelle Fultz pic.twitter.com/xTgJkb3N28
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) January 16, 2020
Markelle Fultz put LeBron in a blender pic.twitter.com/OdXg4f0KDb
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 16, 2020
Fultz wasn’t able to stay on the floor on the final two possessions because of a calf cramp, but no matter, the Magic were still able to put it away, ruining the Lakers’ unblemished record against sub-.500 teams as they are now 22-1 in that department.
