Elfrid Payton scored 22 of his season-high 25 points in the first half and the Orlando Magic overcame John Wall’s 52-point performance to beat the Washington Wizards, 124-116 on Tuesday night.
Wall had the highest-scoring game of his career and kept Washington in it with 33 points in the second half as the Wizards cut the lead below 10 in the fourth quarter. The guard made 18 of 31 from the field and added eight assists.
Payton went 8 for 8 from the field and 3 for 3 from the line off the bench in that first half, nearly matching his previous season best of 23 points in the first two quarters alone. Payton finished 9 for 12 and handed out nine assists.
Orlando won its third straight game and its 124 points were a season high.
Jeff Green scored 13 of his 20 in the first half for Orlando. Green went to Georgetown and played his college basketball at the Verizon Center, and he made a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter that stopped a Washington rally.
The Magic scored the game’s first seven points and the lead went back and forth until they took command in the second quarter.
Orlando (10-12) slowly pulled away, making 13 of its first 18 shots in the second quarter to take a 62-48 lead with just under 3 minutes left. The Magic scored 40 points in the period en route to a 65-52 halftime edge.
Orlando stretched to lead to 78-58 midway through the third quarter. The Magic averaged 93.2 points before this contest but made it over 100 early in the fourth quarter.
Seven Orlando players scored in double figures. The Wizards had only three.
Washington missed a number of wide-open shots, especially in the first half, as Orlando took over. The Wizards have lost three of their last four games.
This was the sixth time Orlando has scored over 100 points. The Magic are 5-1 in those contests.
Orlando coach Frank Vogel called off practice Monday, and his team took a trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.
The Wizards’ Ian Mahinmi remains out with a sore knee — the non-surgically repaired one is the problem now. Coach Scott Brooks said the center had an MRI last week.
Brooks also said Sheldon McClellan has been assigned to Delaware of the D-League and will play three or four games there.
The Nuggets come to town on Thursday for their first meeting of the season. Denver won both meetings last year, and it’s a bit of a homecoming for forward Will Barton, who went to high school in nearby Baltimore.
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