ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Magic fizzled after the first quarter and will head into a four-game West Coast road trip on the heels of a blowout loss as they fell, 118-92, Saturday to the Chicago Bulls at Amway Center.
Nikola Vucevic scored 17 points while Dwayne Bacon had 16 points and Terrence Ross had 13 points for the Magic (9-15), who were trying to sweep the back-to-back set after beating the Bulls, 123-119, on Friday.
Reserve center Mo Bamba scored 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting and had seven rebounds to spark Orlando in the fourth quarter as it carved a 33-point deficit to 18.
Zach LaVine finished with a game-high 39 points while Denzel Valentine scored 20 points for the Bulls (9-13), who outscored the Magic 45-18 from the 3-point line.
Chicago led by as many as 33 points and held an opponent under 100 points for the first time this season.
The middle quarters were not kind to the Magic, who were outscored 64-33 in that stretch. The offensive struggles came after a 31-point opening quarter.
The Magic mustered just 12 points on 5-of-21 shooting (23.8%) and missed all seven 3-point tries in the second quarter.
Orlando was 9 of 26 (34.6%) and 3 of 9 from the 3-point line as they were outscored 34-21 in the third.
The points in the paint also were a factor through three quarters. The Magic were 9 of 32 (28.1%) on shots in the paint while the Bulls were 27 of 40 (67.5%).
Much of that was due to a lack of paint touches for Vucevic in the post as the Bulls paid more attention to the Magic center after his 43-point night on Friday.
The Bulls broke open a one-point game with a 25-8 run over the last 9:13 of the second quarter to produce a 61-43 halftime lead. LaVine hit 5 of 6 shots for 11 points in the stretch as he nearly matched the Magic’s scoring for the entire quarter.
Magic shooting guard Evan Fournier was a late scratch from the starting lineup because of back spasms and eventually was ruled out. It was the 10th game he has missed this season with the injury.
Orlando opens a four-game West Coast road trip Tuesday when it takes on Portland.
