Keldon Johnson led San Antonio with 17, and Jeremy Sochan followed up a career night with another near double double.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs (10-22) fell to the red-hot Orlando Magic Friday night on the road.
The Magic couldn’t miss from three late in the game, and they ran away with it in the fourth quarter. Five Spurs finished with double-figure scoring, led by Keldon Johnson with 17. Rookie Jeremy Sochan followed up a career night with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, just shy of his first double double.
Johnson returned from a two-game absence and hit a three in the first minute of the game. Tre Jones had some turnover trouble in the early going, but also got off to a hot start scoring the ball. He knocked down a three off a feed from Devin Vassell, then got it right back to Vassell for another triple. Keldon crammed a powerful dunk off a handoff from Jeremy Sochan, who put together another nice game coming off his career high the previous night.
Sochan scored inside, then assisted, then finished an and-1 with one of those funky one-handed free throws that have been working for him lately. San Antonio trailed heading to the second quarter, but surged ahead. Stanley Johnson played a part, and Doug McDermott did his thing from long range.
Keldon hit a three, then got free throws, then got it to Sochan for a dunk, then laid it up himself and got the and-1. The Spurs pushed their lead to 9, but the Magic tied it at 61 by halftime.
The Spurs built a 7-point lead midway through the third quarter, but gave up a 15-6 run in the last four minutes. Orlando carried that momentum into the fourth, hitting 8 of their first 9 shots as the lead ballooned to 26. That about did it for San Antonio. Now 10-22, they’ll head home to face the Jazz on Monday.
PREVIOUS GAME
The Spurs are coming off a 126-117 road loss versus the New Orleans Pelicans.
Jeremy Sochan had 23 points and nine rebounds to lead the team while Tre Jones added 19 points. Devin Vassell finished with 10 points and five assists while Stanley Johnson recorded 12 points off the bench.
San Antonio’s reserves outscored New Orleans’ bench 50-36. Pelicans guard CJ McCollum scored a season-high 40 points in the win over the Spurs.
“We can’t give away a quarter the way we did. We played them [Pelicans] pretty even after that first quarter but we do that too often where we’re just following people around, we’re not touching them, we’re not physical, they do whatever they want and we just take it,” Gregg Popovich said.
“I think we just have to be ready to play from the get-go,” Sochan said. “It’s tough when you get down by that much. It’s hard to get back. We have to show resilience from the start.”
INJURY REPORT
THE UNIFORMS
The Spurs will be in their Classic Edition jerseys today.
LOCKED ON SPURS PREVIEWS SPURS-MAGIC
FIVE THINGS TO WATCH
1. The Magic are on a four-game home winning streak.
2. The Magic have recorded more steals than their opponents in three-straight games.
3. The Magic are 5-0 at home when leading after the third period.
4. The Spurs have allowed 120-plus points in two-straight games.
5. The Spurs are 1-4 in the second game of a back-to-back.
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