NBA Scores And More: Magic Turns Fortune Around, Smacks Spurs

The Orlando Magic reversed their slide and sent the San Antonio Spurs to only their fourth loss of the season on Thursday night, winning 123-101. The Magic had lost nine of 10 before the big win, with the Spurs had won 10 straight. It didn't matter, as Orlando's offense exploded for 123 points and its defense forced the sweet-shooting Spurs into a 42-percent night.

Dwight Howard was, of course, the Magic's driving force, with 29 points and 14 rebounds. But it wasn't just Howard abusing the typically brilliant San Antonio frontcourt, as power forward Brandon Bass added 14 points on 8-11 shooting.

The Magic's three major newcomers also put together strong nights for the first time since last weekend's ground-shaking trades. Jason Richardson scored 15 on 7-14 shooting. Hedo Turkoglu scored 11 and tallied six assists. And perhaps most importantly for Orlando, Gilbert Arenas -- he with $80 million remaining on his contract -- slid in off the bench for 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds.

Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post credits the Magic's new fast-break offense, which earned the team 18 fast-break points in the first half -- one shy of Orlando's season-high. The Magic have typically played middle-of-the-pack in terms of pace, but Stan Van Gundy wants to use his influx of ball-handlers to help push the team up the floor. San Antonio likes to run, and those philosophies meshed to make for a perfect test game for SVG's theory. It worked.

Now the test will be trying to do the same to the Boston Celtics, who the Magic will face Saturday in a high-attention Christmas matinee. The Celtics' defense is tougher than the Spurs' right now, but Orlando won't have to be so stingy on defense, especially with Rajon Rondo potentially out.

You'd think Orlando-San Antonio would be the slugfest and Heat-Suns would be the track meet, right? Wrong. Dwyane Wade sat the late game out, but LeBron James and Co. had no problem running out a big third quarter lead and closing the deal. James had 36 points, and Chris Bosh added 23.

The story on the Suns side was an unsurprising loss first of all, but also a break-out performance from Jared "Air" Dudley, who racked up a career-high 33 points thanks to seven three-pointers. Steve Nash earned the assist on four of them, and 18 assists on the night. But the Heat kept the point guard to just four points on four field goal attempts. Such a light shooting load night isn't unprecedented -- last Wednesday, Nash had a four-attempt, 19-assist game against the Wolves.

Would you believe the Kings lost another fourth-quarter lead? This time, the Kings led by six a few minutes into the final frame before Milwaukee stormed back and won rather comfortably. (Trust me: it was the safest five-point lead ever.) More notable is the hailstorm that followed the game. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported that the Kings were prepared to fire both coach Paul Westphal and general manager Geoff Petrie. Team owner Joe Maloof quickly shot down the report.

Meanwhile, Westphal was telling the press that Tyreke Evans had such a poor performance because something in his personal life has been bothering him for three months, and DeMarcus Cousins apparently refused to give Westphal a high-five. Fun times in Sacramento!