ORLANDO – Winners 12 times in their last 15 games before Tuesday, the Timberwolves lost 108-102 to an Orlando Magic team that had won just once since Dec. 6.
The Magic did so after shooting guard Evan Fournier scored a career-high 32 points and after it outscored the Wolves 33-18 on three-point shots.
Fournier made six of those on a night when he made 12 of 22 shots and both free throws he attempted while the Wolves came into the game averaging 24.6 free throws attempted and shot just 10.
Magic big man Bismack Biyombo had a 10-point, 16-rebound night as well.
Jimmy Butler led the Wolves with 28 points and seven rebounds.
Leading by as many as seven points in the first quarter, the Wolves trailed 101-92 with 2:10 left after they delivered an 18-9 run late in the game.
They also led 94-87 with 4:05 left in the game after Fournier already had matched his career high by reaching 30 points.
The Magic built that lead with an 11-5 run over nearly four minutes in which the only points the Wolves could score was Butler’s falling-down jumper and Taj Gibson’s slam dunk.
Even with Butler defending him much of the night, Fournier made 10 of his first 18 shots — including five of his first nine three-point attempts — and his scoring positioned the Magic to win for just the second time since a Dec. 6 overtime victory over Atlanta.
His back-to-back threes late in the third quarter gave the Magic a 73-72 with 26 seconds left in the quarter.
The Magic arrived at Amway Center Wednesday losers of their last seven games and 16 of their last 17 games.
The only interruption between losing streaks of nine and seven games was a Dec. 28 victory at Detroit.
The Wolves, meanwhile, had gone 12-3 since they came back to beat Portland at home on Dec. 18.
They also had won five consecutive games — all on a long home stand — by double digits, the second-longest such streak in team history. The 2001-02 Wolves won six consecutive by that margin in Dec. 2001.
Both Magic guard Arron Afflalo and Wolves forward Nemanja Bjelica were ejected with seven minutes left in the first half after they engaged in a confrontation they already had engaged in an altercation that earned each a technical foul early in the second quarter.
This time, Afflalo pushed Bjelica and then threw an ill-intentioned roundhouse right at Bjelica’s head that mostly missed before Bjelica grabbed Afflalo in headlock.
After the officials reviewed the play, each was given another technical foul and both were ejected. Expect the NBA to review Afflalo’s thrown punch for a possible fine and/or suspension.
It was Bjelica’s first ejection in his three-year NBA career.