Magic, the Knicks are going in opposite directions since the last meeting

A week ago at Madison Square Garden, the Orlando Magic scored the first 10 points, led by 20 points after the first quarter, out of 34 and surpassed the New York Knicks for their most unbalanced win of the season.

The venue will be different this time when Orlando hosts New York on Sunday and the team management will be too.

Orlando is 6-2 in his last eight games since he's absorbed a 120-95 home defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 2. The Magic won their second straight game on Saturday night beating 53.8 percent, the 117-year win record for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Nikola Vucevic scored the highest score of the season with 36 points and 66 points in his last two games. He was 15 on 23 Saturday, he shot 56.8% (25 of 44) in his last two games and is the first Orlando player with 30 points in a row since Victor Oladipo from 4 to 6 March 2015.

"It's a lot of fun," Vucevic told Fox Sports Orlando during a field interview. "It's great to play better, we get better, we need to reach .500, so it's not like we've done anything great at the moment, but we're getting better. positive, we just have to continue. "

In the last eight games of Orlando he has averaged 112.1 points in 48.7 points. When the Magic started with six defeats in eight games, it averaged 99.9 points on a 41.4% shot.

"We are improving every day," goalie D.J. Augustin told Fox Sports Orlando after contributing 22 points on Saturday. "If that's the practice, if it's a shootout, we take everything seriously."

Aaron Gordon played with a sprained left ankle and scored 12 points. It's possible that he stays on the outside after not playing last Sunday in New York.

The Magic will try to surpass .500 for the first time since their first win and for the first time in 17 games since the 2015-16 campaign.

The 115-89 loss to Orlando in New York is part of its 4-12 start and second defeat in four games. The first three defeats were double-digit and the most recent defeat was recorded 129-124 on Friday night in New Orleans.

In the last defeat of the Knicks, they led with 16 points after the first quarter time to fade in the final minutes. New York was up 114-103 after a dive by Tim Hardaway Jr. with a score of 6:53 to go and eventually outclassed 26-10 while allowing Anthony Davis to finish with 43 points.

Hardaway scored 30 points and produced his fourth game with at least 30 points. He is also the most experienced member of the top five New York teams. Rookies Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier started with third-year guard Emmanuel Mudiay.

"I just wanted to keep the mind open to everything and see how that would unfold," said Knicks coach David Fizdale. "All those guys who have the credit really had great moments in the NBA so I decided not to watch them all together with Timmy and our best smuggler and see what it looks like." they move up and down, short fast. "

Trey Burke added 24 points to the Knicks, but was even more frustrated by the fifth-place New York loss.

"I think when guys drop and when a team goes to the race, it shows a lot in our team," Burke said. "A team hits a shot or two times, we bend our heads in. It's not time to lower our head, we have to take the ball out and come back to them while they celebrate."

The Knicks are in their second game of four games of the season. During the current slide, they award 125 points per game.

Damyean Dotson, Noah Vonleh and Frank Ntilikina won the Magic Match last week, but this trio got nine points on 4 out of 13 shots and was replaced for Wednesday's 128-103 loss to Oklahoma City.

Considering last week's rout in New York, Orlando has won four of the past five meetings.