With the fourth quarter approaching its ending and the San Antonio Spurs leading the Orlando Magic 71-69 with 2:30 left in the ball game, Spurs 
guard Tony Parker hit a jump shot that gave the Spurs a 73-69 lead with 2:17 remaining.
At this point, you’d think the Spurs were well on their way to winning their first road game of the season. How hard could it be for the Spurs to lose this game on the road?
Well, the Spurs made it hard on themselves as they turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions with Tim Duncan losing the ball first, and Parker being the second to turnover the ball.
The Magic would tie the game behind crunch plays from guard J.J. Redick and overtime was underway in Orlando.
In overtime, Richard Jefferson, who bounced back after struggling in his past three games and a critical three pointer by guard Gary Neal, led the Spurs to a 85-83 win. Keep in mind, before Neal’s three pointer, the Spurs were 1-of-16 through four quarters of play.
The first half looked like a game featuring two tired teams, as the Magic were playing their third game on the last night of a back-to-back-to-back series and the Spurs were playing a back-to-back as well. The Magic shot 30% from the field and took a 40-37 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was another close quarter between both teams as the Spurs barely outscored the Magic 20-18 in the third quarter, but the Magic still lead going into the fourth quarter leading 58-57.
The fourth quarter was all about Tony Parker who had 14 of the Spurs’ 16 points in the quarter with two minutes remaining in the game. Danny Green provided a big play to Duncan in crunch time to help the Spurs go to overtime and win the game.
With the win, the bleeding is finally stopped on the road (1-5) and the team moves to 10-5 overall on the season. The Spurs will fly back to San Antonio, get Thursday off, and prepare to face the Sacramento Kings in the AT&T Center on Friday night.
Game notes
- After struggling in his previous three games, Richard Jefferson finished with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Though the numbers don’t look great, Jefferson has to be given credit for stepping up when it mattered most, overtime.
- Kawhi Leonard’s six straight double-digit scoring streak was snapped as the rookie scored two points on 1-of-4 shooting against the Magic. The rookie did play less minutes against the Magic and even made a great block by following Magic guard Jameer Nelson to the baseline and then blocking his shot as Nelson thought he got passed Leonard.
- Parker led the Spurs with 25 points and nine assists, although he logged a heavy 44 minutes in the game.
- Duncan finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and one block. But, his counterpart Dwight Howard finished with 24 points, 25 rebounds, and three blocks.
- After only logging 10 minutes against the Miami Heat on Tuesday, Tiago Splitter was unleashed against the smaller second unit of the Magic as Splitter scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, and had one block in 17 minutes of action.
(Photo: Sacbee.com)
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