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Lewis 3-pointer lifts Magic over 76ers

Nov 27, 2008 - 5:14 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Rashard Lewis hit a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining to lift the Orlando Magic over the Philadelphia 76ers, 96-94, on Wednesday.

After Andre Iguodala hit a pair of free throws to give the Sixers a 94-93 lead with 14 seconds to play, the Magic advanced the ball on a timeout.

With the Philadelphia defense keying on Hedo Turkoglu, Lewis found himself open in the left corner. Turkoglu drove from the wing and dished to Lewis, who drained his fourth 3-pointer of the contest to provide the winning margin.

"It was a design play off the inbounds for a double screen for Turk to come up," Lewis said. "They switched it and they stuck with him and my man came with me to the corner.

"There was a lot of time on the clock and Turk and Dwight had a pick and roll. My man stayed with me for while but he collapsed in at the last second. As Turk went to the basket, he kicked it out to me and I just got a good look at the basket."

Lewis finished with 19 points and Dwight Howard added 21 points and 14 rebounds for Orlando.

"Every once in a while you have to get lucky and we got lucky to win this," Lewis said. "We stuck with it, we hung there, we was able to knock down some big shots towards the end and were able to steal the win."

The Sixers trailed by as much as 57-47 in the third quarter before storming back to take a 72-71 lead entering the final quarter. They led by as many as six points in the fourth quarter before the Magic began to climb back.

"The first half we played good as a unit," Lewis said. "We played well at the defensive end and we built an early lead. The second half, they came out with more energy than we did. We kind of went through the motions. We didn't rebound the ball well and they got a lot of second chance points. They were more of aggressive team in the second half than we were."

Lewis, who hit three of his 3-pointers in the final quarter, pulled Orlando even, 82-82, with a shot from beyond the arc with 7:05 remaining.

Philadelphia refused to roll over, and a pair of jumpers from Elton Brand had the 76ers up, 92-88, with 1:15 to play.

"It was a difficult game," Brand said. "That is a very good team and we had them and we had them beat. They stepped up and it some big shot after big shot in the fourth quarter. We got behind early and that is what hurt us. We came back and put ourselves in a position to win the game."

Veteran point guard Anthony Johnson drained a 3-pointer and Turkoglu hit a pair of free throws to put the Magic on top, 93-92, before Iguodala's free throws and Lewis' heroics.

"I don't like the way we're playing in the second half," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We had big turnovers and missed a ton of open shots at one stretch. We defended better down the stretch."

"There are no moral victories," Sixers point guard Andre Miller said. "You look at the tape and there were a few play where we didn't finish it off and we didn't get the rebound. Guys hit big shots in this league all the time. It was a tough shot."

Brand scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half and Iguodala collected 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds.