NBA Game Summary - Orlando at Sacramento 01.16.2006
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Sacramento, CA (Basketball News) - Mike Bibby scored a career-high 42 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the floor to lead the Sacramento Kings over the Orlando Magic, 104-100, at ARCO Arena.
Kevin Martin chipped in 22 points with a career-high 10 rebounds for the Kings, who won for only the second time in the last five games. Brad Miller had a solid all-around game with 21 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
Peja Stojakovic did not play for the Kings, as he missed his second straight game with a sore back.
Jameer Nelson led Orlando with 29 points and dished out nine assists as the Magic concluded their four-game road trip with their fourth straight loss. Dwight Howard added 18 points and 19 rebounds in defeat.
"We are out there playing and giving it all that we have," said Nelson. "But we are just getting some tough breaks."
Grant Hill returned to the lineup for Orlando and netted 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting. The forward missed the previous three games with a groin injury.
However, the Magic were again without guard Steve Francis, who remained suspended by the club for conduct detrimental to the team.
"It feels good to get my career-high in points, but that doesn’t really matter," said Bibby. "I’m just glad that we won the game. We need to get as many wins as we can here at home."
The Kings took a 46-42 advantage into the intermission, led by a strong first- half performance by Bibby. The guard had 18 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and was also 8-of-8 from the charity stripe after the first two quarters of play.
"He (Bibby) was terrific," said Kings head coach Rick Adelman. "He made big shot after big shot — we needed it."
Sacramento opened the third quarter with an 8-2 spurt to take a 54-44 advantage. Bibby drained two shots from beyond the arc during the stretch. The Kings went on to outscore the Magic 28-20 for the period to take a 74-62 lead into the fourth quarter.
Orlando went on a 13-3 run to make it a 90-83 game with around 4 1/2 minutes to go, and got even closer down the stretch.
Travis Diener and Hedo Turkoglu hit back-to-back treys to pull the Magic within two at 96-94 with 20 ticks left. The Magic could not pull ahead, though. Martin, Miller and Bibby hit all eight free throw attempts in the final 19 seconds as the Kings held on for the victory.