Magic Bench Timberwolves

Rookie point guard Chucky Atkins bailed out one of his mentors and made the other one proud.

With starting point guard Darrell Armstrong, the Magic's leading scorer, struggling all game, Atkins came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points as the Magic beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 103-93 Thursday night.

Atkins, who signed as a free agent with his hometown Magic in September, has learned under the tutelage of Armstrong and first-year coach Doc Rivers, himself a former point guard. On Thursday the lessons paid dividends.

The Magic forced the Timberwolves into an up-tempo game and were able to capitalize on Minnesota's season-high 22 turnovers, scoring 27 points off them. And the tempo played to Orlando's superior depth, as the Magic's bench scored 63 points to the Wolves' 34.

"Chucky was awesome," Orlando coach Doc Rivers said. "He changed the pace of the game, and he pulled everyone else along with him. Our guys realized if they were going to score, they were going to have to run with him."

That negated Armstrong's worst performance of the season. Armstrong, averaging nearly 20 points a game, went 0-for-11 from the field and had just two free throws in 25 minutes.

Chris Gatling led Orlando with 22 points off the bench.

The Wolves shot just 38 percent from the field against the sixth-worst defensive team in the NBA and were uncharacteristically careless with the ball. Coming into the game, Minnesota was committing just 14 turnovers a game, second-best in the league.

"With 22 turnovers for 27 points, you're not going to beat too many teams," Wolves coach Flip Saunders said. "We didn't play good team basketall, and they had a lot to do with that."

Joe Smith led Minnesota with 18 points, but 11 came in the first quarter. Minnesota was without starting forward Wally Szczerbiak, who reinjured his right knee in practice. He is expected to play Saturday against Dallas.

Orlando led 55-50 at halftime, keyed by 33 points from its bench.

The Magic had a 23-16 run to end the half, then opened the third quarter with a 10-1 run for a 65-51 lead.

The Wolves made just 6-of-21 shots in the third quarter, but managed to whittle the lead down to 77-70 by the end of the period. They got within 95-89 in the fourth quarter, but Gatling converted consecutive baskets to push the lead back to double figures.

"They have a bunch of guys that just go out and compete," Smith said. "They just go out and compete. People didn't expect them to be 8-8 right now."

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