ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Tracy McGrady scored 37 points and Gordan Giricek hit the winning 3-pointer with 32.2 seconds left as the Orlando Magic beat Boston 89-86 in their home finale Saturday night.
Giricek finished with 16 points despite shooting 4-for-12, 3-for-8 on 3-pointers. Pat Garrity added 10 points, and Pat Burke had nine points and eight rebounds.
Orlando won its third straight and moved into a tie with the Celtics for sixth place in the East with two games remaining for both teams. But Boston owns the tiebreaker thanks to its 3-2 record against the Magic.
Boston’s Paul Pierce dunked with 1:16 remaining to give Boston an 86-82 lead. He finished with 25 points and nine rebounds.
But Andrew DeClercq responded with a dunk for the Magic, and Pierce fumbled away the ball on the ensuing possession. McGrady drove, then kicked the ball to DeClercq on the right baseline. DeClercq fired the ball to Darrell Armstrong on the left wing, and Armstrong swung it to Giricek in the left corner.
Orlando shot just 39.7 percent from the field. The Magic were 9-for-23 (39.1 percent) on 3-pointers, 6-for-13 after halftime.
Jacque Vaughn’s free throws with 12.2 seconds gave Orlando some breathing room as the Magic scored the game’s last seven points.
Pierce missed two shots in the closing seconds and Antoine Walker’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was far off the mark as Boston had its three-game win streak snapped. Walker had 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
McGrady, who shot 12-for-30, scored nine straight points in a two-minute stretch of the fourth quarter to give Orlando an 80-79 lead. After his 3-pointer with 4:16 remaining cut the Celtics’ lead to a point, Boston called timeout and the sellout crowd broke into a deafening chant of “M-V-P! M-V-P!”
McGrady also set the team record for points in the season, finishing with 2,385. Shaquille O’Neal had 2,377 in 1993-94.
Pierce tied a Boston record. He shot 15 free throws, making 11, to tie his own team record for foul shots attempted in a season of 738 set two years ago.
The Celtics need 29 3-pointers in their last two games to break the NBA record for 3s in a season. The 1995-96 Dallas Mavericks sank 735. Boston set the record for 3s attempted earlier this season.
Notes: Magic power forward Drew Gooden missed his third straight game and eighth in the last 12 with a sprained right toe. He might return Monday night in Atlanta. … Boston was missing foward/center Tony Battie (right knee) and Bimbo Coles (ill mother). … Boston has lost nine of its last 11 games in Orlando. … With its win at Indiana on Friday, Orlando clinched its 11th straight season with a .500 record or better.
That run is tied with Charlotte/New Orleans for the fourth-longest active streak in the NBA, behind Utah, Seattle and Portland. … The sellout was Orlando’s sixth of the season.
AP-ES-04-12-03 2158EDT
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