Welcome to your Daily NBA Fix for Monday, Jan. 20. The Orlando Magic were desperate, entering Sunday as one of just two teams in the NBA to not win in 2014.
Orlando was 0-9 in the New Year and had lost 10 in a row overall when the Boston Celtics rolled into the Amway Center Sunday. As is often said, desperate times call for desperate measures and Orlando coach Jacque Vaughn dialed one of those desperate measures up.
He shortened the rotation to just seven players, his five starters and reserves Kyle O’Quinn up front and E’Twaun Moore in the backcourt, with every player logging at least 22 minutes.
For one night, anyway, it worked, at least long enough for Orlando to get its first victory since Dec. 29.
The Los Angeles Lakers have a streak they like, winning their second in a row by beating Toronto, Oklahoma City rolled the Kings despite Isaiah Thomas’ career night, the Spurs squashed the Bucks and the Suns beat Denver.
The Daily NBA Fix will still deliver highlights, game capsules, the top and bottom five players, the dreaded Goose Egg, Clean and Sober and Ironman awards, we’ll recap who’s circling the drain, there will be some interesting pieces of relevant (and not-so-relevant) information and we’ll look at today’s daily lines for those people who like to wager a buck or two.
Check out the highlights below from the night that was, then get into the game capsules (home teams in CAPS).