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Arroyo sparks big bench effort as Magic outlast Wizards

Nov 7, 2006 - 3:11 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- Seemingly every time the Orlando Magic needed a score, Carlos Arroyo was there to provide it.

Arroyo sparked a strong showing by the Magic reserves en route to a 106-103 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Orlando held a 50-16 advantage in bench points thanks to 23 from Arroyo. Keyon Dooling also reached double digits off the bench for Orlando with 15.

"Every time our effort is there, great things are going to happen," Arroyo said. "I took what they gave me. Coach ran some plays for me but my job is to look for my teammates and run the team."

"Their bench is what won it for them," Washington guard Gilbert Arenas said. "Orlando stuck with that pick-and-roll. That is what Arroyo likes to do."

The Magic came into the game off a 13-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday and had committed at least 21 turnovers in each of their first three games.

Orlando kept the turnovers to 15, while Washington had trouble protecting the ball down the stretch, committing five turnovers in the fourth quarter that led to six points for Orlando.

Arroyo scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter and got the bulk of the minutes in crunch time in relief of starting point guard Jameer Nelson, who again struggled. Nelson committed five of Orlando's 15 turnovers and has 19 in four games.

"I played (Arroyo) a lot of minutes because he was playing well and because he deserved to be playing," Magic coach Brian Hill said. "He was really good and is playing with a lot of confidence right now."

Arroyo started a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws that gave the Magic a 101-99 lead with 3:04 to play. He capped the run with a jumper to make it 105-99 with 2:02 remaining, but he missed a shot in the lane with 31 seconds to play and the Wizards had a chance to tie.

Etan Thomas, who had 14 points and 15 rebounds, grabbed an offensive rebound but threw up a wild shot and Orlando rebounded with 13 seconds left.

Orlando guard Keith Bogans split a pair of free throws to make it 106-103 and Arenas back-rimmed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Antawn Jamison scored 29 points and had 10 rebounds for the Wizards, and Arenas had 24 points but shot just 6-of-20 from the field.

Hedo Turkoglu scored 18 points for Orlando, 14 of them in the first quarter when he made 4-of-5 shots from the arc.

Thomas also added a career high six blocks and helped limit Dwight Howard to seven points.