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Jay Magic

GAMETHREAD: Orlando Magic @ Atlanta Hawks

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Vooch will miss his 6th consecutive game tonight. He has a sprained lower back.

 

Projected Starters

 

Oladipo

Fournier

Harris

Frye

O'Quinn

 

Teague

Korver

Carroll

Millsap

Horford

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The Atlanta Hawks are enjoying their longest winning streak in 17 seasons after getting by one of the worst teams in the NBA last time out.

They would appear to have another favorable matchup with the lowly Orlando Magic coming to town. Atlanta tries to make it nine in a row when it opens a home-and-home series against the Magic on Friday night.

 

The Hawks (15-6) have outscored opponents by an average of 15.0 points during their run, their longest since opening 11-0 in 1997-98. Atlanta has also held teams to 87.9 points per game in that span, significantly lower than its season mark of 98.0. The Hawks clamped down again in Wednesday's 95-79 victory over two-win Philadelphia. They shot 41.8 percent but outrebounded the 76ers 52-39 - including 16-7 on the offensive glass - with DeMarre Carroll grabbing a season-high 11 boards.

 

"It was kind of ugly, not the best basketball game for us," coach Mike Budenholzer said. "We were good enough to get the win. We've got to get better."

All five Hawks starters are averaging double figures in points, and Dennis Schroder is at 9.0 per game.

 

"I think we all feel good," said guard Kyle Korver, who scored 17 points. "It's fun playing basketball when we're winning."

 

Atlanta split four meetings with Orlando last season and has won 12 of 14 matchups. The Hawks had given up an average of 82.7 points in taking seven straight from the Magic at home before falling 109-92 on Nov. 26, 2013.

 

Orlando (9-15) closed a 3-3 road trip with back-to-back wins over Utah and Sacramento, then suffered a heartbreaking 91-89 loss to Washington on Wednesday. The Magic were outscored 7-0 over the final 56 seconds and gave up the winning basket on an inbounds alley oop with 0.8 seconds remaining.

 

"It's a tough one to take and it's a bad loss for us," forward Tobias Harris told the team's official website. "Everybody in this locker room is disappointed and upset with the way we lost the game today. You can't get that one back. It's over with and you've got to grow from it. ... We've just got to be mentally stronger, learn from this and get back going again."

 

Orlando was outscored 24-14 in the fourth quarter. "We've just got to execute down the stretch and make plays down the stretch," rookie guard Elfrid Payton said. "We just had to make plays and we didn't make them. ... It hurts because this is one we should have had."

 

Nikola Vucevic missed his fifth straight game with a back injury, leaving his status for Friday unclear. He's averaging 18.6 points and a team-leading 11.7 rebounds.

 

The Magic haven't won three straight on the road since a four-game run Jan. 8-16, 2012. They'll try to contain Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, who has scored a combined 45 points in the last two matchups.

 

However, Teague managed four points Wednesday and has averaged 7.0 and 32.4 percent shooting over the last four home games, down from his season marks of 16.9 and 48.4. He's averaged 20.7 points and shot 67.7 percent in his previous three on the road.

 

Paul Millsap's average of 18.7 points against Orlando since the start of 2009-10 is his highest against any team he's faced more than three times in that span.

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My head hurts. This vuc injury is annoying. We still have yet to hear about news on Aaron Gordon.

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