Poor shooting dooms Hawks against Magic
Nikola Vucevic had 27 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Orlando Magic to a 101-91 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night.
Aaron Gordon added 22 points and eight rebounds for the Magic, who remained a game behind Miami in the chase for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Wes Iwundu helped Orlando overcome 38.8 percent shooting with a career-high 14 points and seven rebounds.
Trae Young led the Hawks with 20 points.
Vucevic scored Orlando’s first 13 points and sparked an early nine-point Magic lead.
When the Hawks called timeout with 6:51 left in the first quarter, Vucevic had made six of eight shots while every other starter in the game was 2 of 16 from the field.
The Hawks never caught up, but were down by only five in the closing minutes when Terrence Ross came up with a steal and fed D.J. Augustin for a short jumper.
After averaging 123.1 points in their first 12 games after the All-Star break, the Hawks shot 42 percent and compiled their lowest scoring output since a 106-91 loss to the New York Knicks on Feb. 14.
The Hawks missed their first 11 3-point attempts and finished 8 for 35.
Hawks forward John Collins, coming off five straight games of 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds, went to the bench with three fouls early in the second quarter and fouled out with 2:21 left in the game.
Atlanta hosts Houston on Tuesday night.
