The Magic played for the fourth time this season without All-Stars Vince Carter (ankle) and Rashard Lewis (suspension), and also added Ryan Anderson (ankle) to their injured list. After a strong start, Orlando fell behind midway through the second quarter and never mounted a comeback.
“That’s a team that plays with great intensity. I would like to see our team play with that,’’ Van Gundy said. “We’ve had teams in the past the last couple years that have played with that. We don’t now. We play very soft and not with much intensity. Quite honestly, until that changes, we’re going to have a lot more games like that.’’
Oklahoma City raced out of halftime to score the first 8 points, and then added a 9-0 spurt shortly thereafter to push its lead to 72-49 midway through the third quarter.
The Thunder removed any doubt with a 10-point run in the fourth quarter. Coach Scott Brooks pulled the last of his starters after Durant’s 3-point play pushed the lead to 96-63 with just under five minutes left.
Suns 102, Wizards 90 - Phoenix came out in the daytime for the first time this season and proceeded to commit 16 first-half turnovers.
The Suns settled down, giving the ball away only five times in the second half to beat host Washington. The Suns improved to 6-1, matching the best seven-game start in franchise history.
“We just weren’t really fresh today,’’ point guard Steve Nash said. “Maybe it was the first day game of the season. We really didn’t have a great bounce to us, we didn’t really push the ball, we weren’t really aggressive to start. That was the difference.
Phoenix wraps up a five-game trip tonight at Philadelphia.
Pistons 88, 76ers 81 - Ben Gordon scored 23 points and Ben Wallace added 16 rebounds for Detroit, which held visiting Philadelphia without a field goal the final six minutes.
Wallace had seven of Detroit’s 21 offensive rebounds, and added three blocks and three steals. Charlie Villanueva added 16 points.
