ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- The Indiana Pacers never have been this good on the road. It's been a while since the Orlando Magic were this bad.
Jermaine O'Neal collected 22 points and 19 rebounds as the Pacers remained unbeaten on the road with an 89-78 victory over the Magic, who played without leading scorer Tracy McGrady and suffered their 13th consecutive loss.
The Pacers improved their road record to 7-0 for the first time since entering the NBA in 1976 and have won a club-record eight straight road games dating to last season. They also continued to get it done defensively, holding an opponent under 80 points for the seventh time in 13 games this season.
But they downplayed the record and were glad to avoid a letdown.
"No not really, we know we got a long season in front of us," Indiana forward Ron Artest said. "We'll probably enjoy it after this year."
"This was a dangerous game and if we didn't respect this opponent we were going to lose," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle added. "We played smarter and more efficiently as the game went on and that was the key."
With McGrady out with the flu, the Pacers began to take control in the second half. After taking a 48-43 lead into halftime, Indiana used a 10-3 run during the third quarter to take a 65-56 lead into the fourth.
O'Neal scored seven points in the fourth and his 3-point play with 6:45 remaining put the Pacers up, 77-63. They never led by less than eight points thereafter and won their fifth in a row.
Playing most of his 38 minutes inside the paint, O'Neal struggled early against Steven Hunter before collecting his seventh double-double of the season. He shot 9-of-21 and fell two rebounds shy of his career high.
"They came out and played extremely well. I think Steven Hunter did a pretty good job on me, the first couple of minutes, making me adjust my shots and blocking a few," O'Neal said. "Stuff like that kind of gets me going. When I'm not really shooting well, trying to find other ways to be effective, whether it's good rebounding, blocking shots or making good passes."
Playing without McGrady for the first time this season, Orlando is 0-7 at home for the first time in team history. The Magic have lost 13 in a row for the first time since a club-record 17-game skid during the 1991-92 season - one year before they drafted Shaquille O'Neal.
Orlando fell to 0-3 under coach Johnny Davis, who replaced the fired Doc Rivers on Tuesday.
"I thought our guys played really hard tonight," Davis said. "I thought they gave maximum effort. Certainly we were undermanned with T-Mac not playing, but I don't think our guys conceded to the Pacers. I'm proud of the way they fought."
