Cole Anthony's Near Triple-Double Leads Magic Over Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs lost their second consecutive game after a near triple-double from Cole Anthony off the Orlando Magic bench was key in their defeat.

The Orlando Magic has found its stride as of late and continued to do so with a 133-113 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday. The team has now won eight of its last nine games. Meanwhile, the Spurs fall to 10-22 on the season. 

At halftime, the Spurs and Magic were tied 51-51, and it appeared as though San Antonio had a strong chance of competing for a victory. There was a hot second-half offensive outburst from the Magic, scoring 39 of their 72 second-half points in the fourth quarter for a 15-point scoring differential in the period. 

“We played two and three quarters quarters well," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, said, “but we have a hard time putting together a 48-minute game. We saw that when the defense collapsed at the end of the third quarter into the fourth when they outscored us in a 10-minute period 46-20. So we’ve seen it before and we saw it tonight.”

The Magic was led by a strong performance from Cole Anthony, who tallied 23 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists off the bench in 31 minutes. He was just one assist shy of a triple-double and he managed to lead the game in scoring, rebounding, and assists overall. 

“When it happens, it’s going to happen naturally. I wasn’t going to force it,” Anthony said. “I tried to distribute the ball and they made the shots. But all the credit goes to the team. They got me a lot of easy shots and they put me in position to get those rebounds.”

No member of the Spurs managed to reach the 20-point threshold. When the Spurs manage to win a game, it tends to happen when either Keldon Johnson or Devin Vassell set the tone with a big scoring display, or they both do. An inability to get stops defensively transcended even that possibility. 

Johnson still ended up leading the Spurs in scoring with 17 points, but he shot just 5-14 overall, 2-7 from deep, and 5-9 on free throws. Vassell finished with 14 points while shooting 6-15 from the floor and 2-7 from beyond the arc. Neither player performed up to their usual standard. 

The Spurs return to action on Monday when they take on the Utah Jazz at AT&T Center. No NBA action will occur on Christmas Eve and with San Antonio not participating on Christmas Day, it affords them a two-day break in play.

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