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Tracy McGrady adds an insult to victory

Monday, March 3, 2003


After Orlando's 102-76 win, Tracy McGrady said Cleveland players gave up.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Never mind any of Tracy McGrady's 3-pointers, dunks or jumpers. His most lethal shot came following the game.
After the Orlando Magic dismantled Cleveland 102-76 Sunday, McGrady didn't hold back as he summed up the Cavaliers' dreadful second-half performance.
"I know they quit," McGrady said.
And Orlando's All-Star guard seemed far more upset about it than anyone in Cleveland's locker room.
"Guys didn't want to play," McGrady said. "Ricky Davis, he wasn't aggressive. He was too passive. Guys were passing up open jumpers. I mean, they just became a passive team."
Laughable quarter
McGrady scored 28 points and rookie Gordan Giricek made two 3-pointers when Orlando outscored Cleveland 39-12 in a laughable third quarter.
McGrady didn't have to play in the fourth as the Magic improved to 4-1 since acquiring Giricek and fellow rookie Drew Gooden in a Feb. 19 trade with Memphis.
Giricek had 16 points and Gooden added 13 points and 14 rebounds for Orlando, which led 54-50 on Giricek's 3-pointer -- his first of two straight -- with 10:27 remaining in the third.
Giricek's jumper ignited a 28-3 run by the Magic, who outscored Cleveland 34-7 over the final 9:43 of the third to turn a tight game into another blowout loss for the Cavs (11-48).
"Can we not talk about the third quarter?" Cavs interim coach Keith Smart said. "We came out and didn't make shots and dropped our heads."
McGrady and Giricek each matched Cleveland's offensive output by scoring 12 points apiece in the third as the Magic had runs of 9-0 and 16-0.
Orlando went 16-for-26 from the floor in the period, and Cleveland helped out by making nine turnovers.
Davis and rookie Dajuan Wagner had 14 points apiece for the Cavs, who have lost eight of nine.
Ridicule
With Cleveland down by 33 in the fourth, some fans began chanting "Here We Go, Brownies" and one yelled, "Where's LeBron?" as the Cavs dropped to 8-21 at home.
"This is the way things have been going around here for the last two years," Darius Miles said. "We have to try and turn it around. All we have left is to try and knock some teams out of the playoffs and just have fun."
McGrady, the NBA's leading scorer at 31.3 points per game, was content to make passes as his teammates blew it open in the third.
However, the All-Star guard put an exclamation point on Orlando's spurt by draining consecutive 3-pointers to put the Magic ahead 79-52 with 3:15 remaining.
"We wanted to come out aggressive," McGrady said. "A team that has a record as bad as the Cavs have, if you come out and jump them right away, they tend to fold and don't want to play no more."
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