Seikaly Has Magic Touch in Orlando

While most of state’s attention was focused on the Florida-Florida State football game, the Magic put on quite an NBA show at Orlando.

Center Rony Seikaly made a turnaround jump shot in the lane with less than a second remaining to cap a 31-point performance and give the Magic a 96-94 overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.

Coach Brian Hill’s Magic had lost 12 of its previous 14 games and has three starters sidelined because of injuries.

“It wasn’t a thing of beauty,” Hill said.

Seikaly forced the extra quarter with a free throw in the closing seconds of regulation, then scored all six of the Magic’s points in overtime. He also grabbed 13 rebounds.

Damon Stoudamire scored a career-high 32 for the Raptors, but he made 10 of 28 shots. He missed his last two in regulation and was scoreless in overtime until making two free throws to tie the score, 94-94, with 4.6 seconds remaining.

After a timeout, the Magic inbounded the ball to Derek Strong, who passed to Seikaly. The Orlando center bobbled the ball for an instant before making the winning shot with four-tenths of a seconds to play.

“Four seconds is an eternity, especially at the end of games,” Seikaly said. “There was plenty of time to set myself up and get a good shot at the basket.”

Charlotte 107, Dallas 97--Glenn Rice continued his hot shooting streak, surpassing the 30-point mark for the second consecutive game in Charlotte, N.C.

Rice, who was guarded by Jimmy Jackson most of the night, scored 37 points. On Monday, he scored a season-high 38 points against Washington.

Dallas struggled in its second game since trading Jason Kidd. The Mavericks got 11 points from their starting frontcourt of Jamal Mashburn, Samaki Walker, and Eric Montross.

Cleveland 103, Phoenix 94--The Suns are another team struggling without Jason Kidd.

The Suns, who lost Kidd to a neck injury the first game after the trade, had trouble guarding the Cavaliers’ backcourt.

Terrell Brandon had 14 points and nine assists, Bobby Phills had 11 points and seven assists, and Bob Sura had 18 off the bench as the Cavaliers had six players score in double figures.

Chris Mills led all Cavaliers with 20 points.

San Antonio 83, Utah 80--The injuries have been piling up as fast as the losses, but this time the Spurs managed to win one even with only nine sound players.

Avery Johnson scored 22 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, at San Antonio.

The Spurs not only played without all-star center David Robinson, Chuck Person and Charles Smith, who are on the injured list. But Dominique Wilkins sat out because of a knee injury and Vinny Del Negro couldn’t play because of shoulder injury.

Miami 101, New Jersey 91--The Heat took a 16-point lead after six minutes and never trailed while winning its sixth consecutive game.

Alonzo Mourning, who returned after sitting out one start because of back spasms, led Miami with 28 points. Voshon Lenard made five of eight three-point shots and scored 19 points. Tim Hardaway had 18 points and 12 assists.

New York 92, Washington 80--The Bullets still are not good enough to beat the Knicks.

At Landover, Md., Patrick Ewing scored 22 points and the Knicks held the Bullets to four baskets in the second quarter en route to their 18th victory in 19 games against the Bullets.

Detroit 99, Boston 87--Grant Hill had 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for Detroit, which won its third in a row and improved its home record to 14-3 at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Portland 112, Houston 96--Isaiah Rider scored a season-high 31 points and made two crucial three-point baskets late in the fourth quarter and the Trail Blazers won their third consecutive game.

Seattle 96, Philadelphia 82--Shawn Kemp scored 23 points and Hersey Hawkins and Gary Payton had 21 to help the SuperSonics rally from a dismal second quarter in Seattle.

The SuperSonics won despite trailing by five points in the third quarter and making three of 19 field goals in the second period.