ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- It took 40 days - and may have felt like 40 years - but Tracy McGrady and the Orlando Magic finally have a second victory.
McGrady collected 16 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists as the Magic overcame a 22-point deficit to defeat the Phoenix Suns, 105-98, and snapped their franchise-record 19-game losing streak.
"The mood in the locker room after the game was incredible," McGrady said. "Hopefully we can build on this and get some confidence, get some wins now. Hopefully our season can start now. I don't know what team was playing for the past 20 games."
Drew Gooden added 21 points off the bench and Juwan Howard and Gordan Giricek chipped in 19 apiece for the Magic, who had not won since beating the New York Knicks on the road in their season opener on October 29.
It took 10 games, but Johnny Davis earned his first win as Orlando's coach after replacing the fired Doc Rivers on November 18. The Magic also won their first home game after dropping their first 11.
"For the first time in a long time we have a very happy locker room, and for the first time in a long time I can actually smile for a change," Davis said. "We played just a tenacious, just hard-fought, never-say-die game. Every guy on the team was involved in the game and had the feeling that tonight we were going to stop it and that's exactly what we did."
Phoenix jumped out to a 38-16 lead 10 1/2 minutes into the contest and held a 71-54 advantage with 7:22 left in the third quarter before Orlando stormed back to take an 81-80 lead into the final quarter.
"That was, like, the greatest comeback I've ever been involved in," McGrady said.
The game was tied, 95-95, when Howard made a layup with 3:12 left, Giricek followed with a 3-pointer and rookie Zaur Pachulia sank a pair of free throws to make it a seven-point lead with 1:54 remaining.
"Even down 22 we never surrendered, we just kept fighting even though we knew that it was an uphill battle, and that's really been what we've done throughout the streak," Davis said. "We've been fighting, we've been fighting and we're bringing it but we didn't close that games and tonight we did."
Suns coach Frank Johnson was ejected for picking up two technical fouls for arguing with the officials with 12 seconds left.
"The free-throw discrepancy was unreal and I'll leave it at that," said Johnson, whose team attempted 11 and saw the Magic shoot 32.
The Magic avoided becoming the fifth team in NBA history to lose 20 games in a row. The 1995-96 Grizzlies and 1997-98 Denver Nuggets share the all-time mark of 23 straight defeats.
Shawn Marion contributed a season-best 29 points and a season high-tying 17 rebounds for the Suns, who fell to 1-2 on a four-game road trip. Penny Hardaway, who spent six seasons with Orlando, added 22 points and eight assists, both season highs.
"We had the momentum and then they started their run and we couldn't stop it," Marion said. "They were getting easy baskets and we weren't playing good defense in the second half."
"They are really not that bad of a team," Hardaway said of the Magic. "It really got bad for them because they played some really good teams early. It is one of those situations where it just snowballed and then maybe the players just didn't believe."
