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Davis tops 30 again as Warriors down Magic

Mar 9, 2008 - 5:14 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- With the Western Conference playoff picture getting murkier by the day, Baron Davis is doing his part to ensure that the Golden State Warriors will have a seat at the party.

Davis finished with 33 points and nine rebounds to lead the Warriors to a 104-95 victory over the Orlando Magic on Saturday night.

Stephen Jackson added 20 points and Monta Ellis chipped in 16 for Golden State, which topped 100 points for the 26th straight game while moving to 18-0 when holding its opponent under the century mark.

"Monta pushed the ball up," Davis said. "(Jackson) pushed the ball up, and we were able to close that gap early. It was just energy and another gear."

The win clinches a 3-1 East Coast road trip which saw the Warriors play four games in five nights. The successful swing helped Golden State (39-23) hang onto eighth place in the West - 1 1/2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets (37-24), who are at the Utah Jazz later Saturday night.

"It's a nice way to finish the trip," Golden State coach Don Nelson said. "Surprises keep happening for us. You would think that a game like this would be more difficult for us. It looked like we were up to the challenge and played a terrific second half. We stayed in it and got stronger as the game went on."

Davis scored 20 of his points in the second half and has put at least 30 on the board in three of the last four games.

Trailing, 55-47, at the half, the Warriors went to work in the third quarter, outscoring the Magic, 33-16. Jackson scored 12 points during a 21-9 spurt over the final 5:09 of the period to give Golden State an 80-71 lead heading into the final quarter.

"We always come in at halftime and figure out we have to come out in the third quarter and make the first hit," Jackson said. "We have been a third quarter team all season. We have a long flight home and we didn't want to go home after a loss because it would make it a longer flight. It is already seven hours.

"We just wanted to get this win because we needed it. With the Western Conference the way it is, we can't afford another loss. It is going to make this trip a lot easier."

Davis scored 10 points in the decisive third, and the Warriors held the Magic to just two field goals in the final 4:34 of the quarter.

"We just came out with a resolve to push the tempo and we didn't like the way we played the game in the first half," Davis said. "We weren't very successful and found ourselves down eight. The second half we got out and wanted to get (Jackson) going.

"We got out in the open court and established him shooting his threes. He has been shooting the ball well on this road trip. We pushed the tempo and forced them to play at our pace."

Orlando climbed to within 82-75 on Keyon Dooling's jumper with 9:38 left, but Golden State responded with a 13-5 run to put the game away. Davis capped the spurt with a three-point play with 4:05 left which pushed the lead to 95-80.

"We played our two guards on him all night," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Davis. "But where he did most of his damage on us was in transition. And a lot of it was off of our turnovers, and then he's out on the fast break going to the basket.

"And we didn't have anybody that was willing to step in front of him. He didn't play bad in the half court, but he killed us in transition."

Ellis kept the Warriors alive in the first half, scoring 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the opening 24 minutes for the Warriors, who outscored the Magic, 27-7, on the fast break.

Dwight Howard scored 26 points - only seven of which came after the half - and added 12 rebounds to lead the Magic, who committed 20 turnovers and had their five-game home winning streak snapped.

"The answer is yes," Nelson said when asked if he double-teamed Howard quicker in the second half. "He was getting the ball in the paint in the first half, and there's nothing you can do about that. You can't help the poor guy that's guarding him.

"When he was posting up, we were coming first dribble and, once we went, we wanted to go fast and look for the steal. Our guys needed some help, there's no question. He's quite a load down there."