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McGrady misses at the buzzer and Orlando drops five games below .500.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001
ATLANTA -- Lorenzen Wright was surprised Tracy McGrady took so long to try to beat the Hawks on Saturday night.
"I didn't care what he did," Wright said. "I was just happy he missed and that the game was over."
Wright scored 22 and Dikembe Mutombo had 24 rebounds as the Hawks ended a five-game losing streak to the Orlando Magic with an 83-82 victory.
McGrady, who scored a game-high 30, missed a 16-footer that would have won it at the buzzer.
"It was do or die," McGrady said. "Unfortunately, the shot didn't go down for us."
Down the stretch in overtime in a 95-92 loss at New York on Thursday night, McGrady missed three shots and committed an offensive foul on four of the Magic's final five possessions.
"I'll be in that situation again," he said. "There's no reason to worry about this one."
Orlando (14-19) lost its third straight and fell for the fifth time in seven games. Atlanta had lost three of its past four.
Darrell Armstrong was 1-for-11 before hitting a three-pointer to bring the Magic within 80-77 with 1:37 to go. Armstrong's steal and layup on Atlanta's ensuing possession cut the deficit to one.
Matt Maloney's three-pointer put Atlanta up by four with two seconds left on the shot clock.
The scoring ended on Matt Miller's three-pointer with 36.1 seconds remaining. The Magic called a 20-second timeout after Dion Glover missed a three-pointer with 10.1 seconds to go, setting up a play for McGrady to win it.
Orlando's last lead, 71-70, came when Michael Doleac hit a turnaround five-footer with 8:40 to go. Jason Terry responded with consecutive field goals that put the Hawks up to stay.
The Magic twice led by 12 late in the first quarter, but the Hawks took a 43-40 lead on Mutombo's dunk with 1:03 left in the first half.
McGrady missed the first two meetings with the Hawks. He was out Nov. 4 after being suspended one game for fighting with Philadelphia's Eric Snow and Nov. 25 during a two-game absence with an infected left hand.
"A terrible game, really," Orlando coach Doc Rivers said. "I thought we executed as poorly as we can. That's something we've got to work on, because that's unacceptable. It's one thing to miss shots, and that's fine because that happens. But it's another thing to make mistakes."