Nets' D'Angelo Russell ices Magic with late triple, drops 40 points in comeback win

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D'Angelo Russell still has ice in his veins....just ask the Orlando Magic.

With the scores tied at 113-113, Russell stepped back on Evan Fournier and drained the clutch three-pointer to give his team the lead and seal the win, their third in a row.

Russell finished with 40 points on the night, on 16-of-25 shooting, including 8-of-12 from the three-point line, adding seven assists as the Nets notched their 16th win from their past 21 outings.


Trailing by as many as 21 points in the first half, Russell single-handeldy dragged the Nets back into the contest, scoring 19 straight points on 7-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-5 from deep to cut the deficit to 67-54 at the half.

"D'Angelo, what can I say, this last month and a half, he's been out of his mind, he's just playing great basketball," Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said post-game."You know we needed every one of those 40 today that's for sure, but he's playing great." 


The continued to chip away at the lead, trailing by nine points heading into the fourth quarter, before going on a 9-0 run to take a 112-111 lead thanks to a Spencer Dinwiddie four-point play.

The closed the game on a 14-4 run to move to 24-23 on the season, sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference.

For the Magic, Aaron Gordon led the way with 23 points, while Nikola Vucevic added 16 points and 17 rebounds as they dropped their sixth game from their past eight.

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Benyam Kidane is a senior NBA editor for The Sporting News.