Thornton the latest unexpected hero to burn Magic

By SAM GARDNER
FOXSportsFlorida.com Magic writer

It seems like every team finds an unexpected hero when it faces off with the Orlando Magic, and the New Orleans Hornets were no exception on Wednesday night.

This time around, the savior was Marcus Thornton, the second-year guard out of LSU who took advantage of an untimely injury to Marco Belinelli and helped the Hornets end the Magic's nine-game winning streak.

Thornton, who hadn't scored a point since New Year's Day and hadn't played more than 10 minutes or hit a field goal since December, had his best game of the season, scoring 22 points and pulling down nine rebounds in the 92-89 overtime victory.

Belinelli left the game early in the first quarter after spraining his right ankle going for a rebound, but Thornton picked up the slack and then some. Thornton got started early, and his play in the middle part of the second quarter kept the game from getting ugly before the half.

After Ryan Anderson's three-pointer gave Orlando a 24-17 lead, Thornton hit a running layup to cut the lead to five, and when Hedo Turkoglu's three-pointer pushed the lead to eight, Thornton responded with another timely bucket.

Gilbert Arenas' layup gave Orlando a 29-21 lead, but Thornton's mid-range jumper and his assist on an Aaron Gray layup whittled the gap to four and led to a Stan Van Gundy timeout. Later in the quarter, Thornton scored four straight points to give New Orleans a 38-37 lead.

He was equally impressive in the fourth quarter and -- perhaps most importantly -- overtime. Thornton's three-pointer with 9:11 to go in regulation put the Hornets firmly in control, 72-63, and his two free throws with 3:15 to play temporarily held off the charging Magic and gave New Orleans a 76-72 lead.

Then all hell broke loose.

After Chris Paul's technical free throw and short jumper put the Hornets up by 79-72, Magic wing man Jason Richardson's clutch three-pointer cut the lead to four with 57 seconds to play. After Emeka Okafor split a pair of free throws, Richardson responded with another three that cut the lead to two with 43 ticks to go.

An Orlando foul sent Paul -- a 90 percent free-throw shooter -- to the line, where he missed the first before knocking down the second, but Hedo Turkoglu hit the third three in as many possessions for the Magic to send the game in overtime.

Then back came Thornton.

Dwight Howard hit a running hook shot to give the Magic an early OT lead before Thornton responded with a long three-pointer to take the advantage right back. It was another Thornton basket -- this one a mid-range jumper -- that gave New Orleans the lead for good, and his two free throws with eight seconds left to go forced J.J. Redick to take a potential game-tying three that came up well short.

The breakout performance isn't completely unheard of from Thornton, who averaged 14.5 points in 73 games during his rookie season. Thornton had three 30-point games for New Orleans last season, including a 37-point performance in a February game against Cleveland, but Wednesday night's outburst was certainly unexpected.

Thornton had fallen out of favor with new Hornets coach Monty Williams and had more DNP-CDs (11) than he had double-figure scoring nights (six) coming into the game.

Thornton was hardly the first bench player to break out against the Magic this season.

Jazz forward C.J. Miles scored a season-high 26 points in a November win over Orlando, 76ers backup point guard Lou Williams scored 24 points in a Philadelphia win at the Amway Center and Matt Bonner scored 15 points (including 4-of-4 shooting from three-point range) in a victory over the Magic -- just to name a few.

But in the Magic's defense, it was their terrible shooting, not Thornton's clutch play, that cost them a chance at a franchise record 10th consecutive win on Wednesday.

Turkoglu, Redick, Jameer Nelson and Brandon Bass combined to shoot just 8 of 43 from the field on the night in a game that the Magic ordinarily would have won.

Now the key for Orlando is to rebound from its first loss in a long time before Thursday night's game in Oklahoma City. And they had better be prepared to defend everyone -- not just Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook -- because history says that there's an Eric Maynor or a Nick Collison just waiting to break out if they don't.

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