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Granger, Tinsley help Pacers rally past Magic

Dec 8, 2007 - 5:14 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- The 3-pointers fell early and often in the first half for Rashard Lewis and the Orlando Magic. But once they cooled off, Danny Granger and the Indiana Pacers heated up.

Granger scored 27 points and Jamaal Tinsley added 20 as the Pacers rallied for a 115-109 victory over the Magic on Friday.

A three-year veteran, Granger shot 9-of-19 from the floor - including 6-of-7 from the arc - for Indiana, which had seven players score in double figures.

Tinsley nearly recorded a triple-double as he added 10 assists and seven rebounds for the Pacers, who shot 55 percent (11-of-20) from the arc and took advantage of 24 turnovers by Orlando to rally from a 14-point third-quarter deficit.

"We just got on a roll," Granger said. "They missed a few and we made two or three in a row and made some threes. When we looked up at the scoreboard, it was a tie game. They got a little rattled.

"We were coming back for most of the game and, finally, went up in the fourth. We were into it, and it was just a matter of closing it out."

It was a rare loss for the Magic, who finished off a 4-1 road trip and had won six of their last seven games entering Friday's play.

"You cannot be a good team in this league unless you can learn to win without losing," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "If it takes a loss to get you re-focused, then you are going to be at best a win one, lose one type of team. We've got to get re-focused on what we are going to do to win games. We didn't have that tonight, and Indiana did."

Lewis scored 24 points and Dwight Howard added 30 and 15 rebounds for Orlando, which hit seven 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 62-54 lead. But the Magic went cold in the second and shot just 5-of-18 from the arc the rest of the way.

"We got totally outplayed, really, the whole night," Van Gundy said. "The first half our guys got a false sense of security. We didn't really play that well, particularly on the defensive end. We just made enough shots that we had the lead. We got lulled into thinking we were going to win the game that way."

The 6-10 Lewis, who shot 7-of-16 from the floor, nailed five 3-pointers in the losing effort for Orlando.

The Magic missed eight straight shots from the arc at one point in the third quarter, and the Pacers used a 21-10 run in the final 7:50 to pull within 87-84 heading into the final period.

"We knocked down a lot of shots in the first half," Lewis said. "But in the second half, we obviously weren't in a good rhythm on the offensive end, and they knocked down a lot of shots. We didn't execute our offense like we should have and we couldn't stop them on the defensive end."

Troy Murphy, who scored 12 points, then opened the fourth by scoring five straight points to give the Pacers their first lead since the first quarter. Murphy's spurt triggered a 19-7 run that helped Indiana take a 103-94 lead with 5:45 remaining on a 3-pointer by Tinsley.

With the Pacers leading, 104-96, Jermaine O'Neal hit a jumper to make it a 10-point lead with 3:47 left. After a three-point play by Howard, Granger hit a 3-pointer and Marquis Daniels hit a layup to stretch the lead to 111-99 with 2:42 to play.

Orlando could get no closer than seven points when time was still on its side but did cut its deficit to five at 111-106 with 37.8 to play. By that time, it was too little, too late as Tinsley hit four straight free throws to seal the win.

"We didn't play good enough team defense," Howard said. "We relied too much on shooting and we couldn't hit shots down the stretch."