ORLANDO, Fla., March 19 (Ticker) -- Tracy McGrady made his coach look pretty smart.

McGrady poured in 48 points as the Orlando Magic raced to a big lead and stopped a 10-game losing streak against the Milwaukee Bucks with a 101-91 victory.

It was the first meeting between the Central Division clubs since Bucks coach George Karl -- the highest-paid coach in the league -- made comments in an Esquire magazine artical about how he disagreed with how some of the younger NBA coaches got their jobs, singling out Rivers. Rivers is among the youngest coaches and took exception to some of Karl's comments.

"I just thought, Let's move on," Rivers said. "I thought it would be a good thing to do. I thought about it last night, and then forgot until I walked on the floor today. We said we'll talk in the summer; we'll go boating. I'm just so glad it's over."

"I think it's great," Karl said. "I really don't have a tremendous understanding of everything that went on. I don't live in Orlando and don't read the papers in Orlando. As I said before the game, I don't try to create hell for anybody."

McGrady made his coach look like genius Tuesday as he made 18-of-35 shots from the field, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range as he fell two points shy of his career high.

NBA TV highlights from Bucks-Magic: 56k | 300k Darrell Armstrong hoists up Pat Garrity, who has been hoisting up some serious threes in Mike Miller's absence. Fernando Medina NBAE/Getty Images

The electrifying swingman had 30 points in the first half, helping Orlando open a 54-38 lead. McGrady's point total in the half was four short of Shaquille O'Neal's team record set against Minnesota on April 20, 1994.

"It's sweet, it's real sweet," McGrady said. "For a team to beat you 10 consecutive times, it just feels like they've got your number. We had confidence going into this game because the last time we played them in Milwaukee, we were basically beating them for three quarters and gave the game away. So we had confidence we were a better team than them."

Pat Garrity added 21 points -- all on 3-pointers --- for the Magic, who beat Milwaukee in the regular season for the first time since April 9, 1999. Orlando won once during last year's first-round playoff series.

Orlando (37-30) extended its winning streak to six games overall and moved one-half game ahead of Milwaukee (36-30) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

Sam Cassell netted 23 points and Ray Allen 22 for the Bucks, who have lost three straight games and five of their last six.

"We still feel confident against this team," Cassell said. "If they would have missed one of those bombs, we would've been right in the game. We had beaten them 10 consecutive times. Like they say, all good things must come to an end."

Milwaukee was sloppy for much of night as it committed 22 turnovers that led to 21 points for Orlando.

A basket by McGrady early in the third quarter helped the Magic open their largest lead at 58-38. But the Bucks showed some resiliency and attempted to rally.

Allen drilled a pair of 3-pointers, Cassell made a basket and Glenn Robinson hit a short jumper that narrowed the deficit to 10. The Magic responded with a 16-8 burst, including half of the points by McGrady, for a 74-56 bulge with three minutes left in the period.

Like they did in the third, the Bucks attempted to rally in the fourth. Allen sank his fourth 3-pointer with 4:28 to play, pulling Milwaukee within 95-87. After that basket, the Bucks went scoreless for nearly four minutes until Darvin Ham scored with 45 seconds left.

Just under a minute after Allen's basket, Garrity made his seventh shot from beyond the arc to seal it for Orlando. Garrity was 7-of-10 from 3-point range and missed his only four shots within the arc.

Sparked by Garrity and McGrady, the Magic went 13-of-26 from 3-point range. Milwaukee was 6-of-18 from the arc.

"Pat Garrity getting seven or eight threes or whatever," Karl said "Every time I thought we had a chance, he would make one. We just didn't react very well to their dynamite 3-point shooting."

Early on, it looked like the Bucks would continue their dominance of Orlando as they scored 10 of the game's first 12 points. McGrady, however, had other ideas.

McGrady netted 15 of his 17 first-quarter points during a 31-11 run that gave the Magic a 33-23 lead. He made 10-of-15 shots in the half, helping the Magic to their comfortable advantage.

Horace Grant added 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Magic, who shot 42.5 percent (37-of-87). Michael Redd netted 14 points for Milwaukee, which shot 46 percent (36-of-79).