Nelson scored 31 points and handed out 10 assists and drilled the tying shot at the end of regulation to force overtime. Davis scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 47 minutes and his biggest moment of the night came when he buried a straight-on 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left in the second OT to knot the game at 119.
Davis’ 3-pointer was tipped by Snell with nine seconds remaining in the third overtime, leaving the Magic only with the hollow feelings from a game they poured so much in to.
``We talked about validation with winning and losing. You feel for the guys and you want them to get a victory underneath them, but we got better tonight,’’ Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. ``The last time we were in a situation going down the stretch we didn’t come out victors. Tonight, the same result, but there were a lot of good things and a lot of positives along the way.’’
Chicago’s Joakim Noah scored 26 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked E’Twaun Moore’s final heave at the third-overtime buzzer. Bulls forward Jimmy Butler, who struggled most of the night trying to guard Oladipo, set a Chicago franchise record by playing 60 minutes. He had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
``We had to win it a couple of times,’’ Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau said. ``It was a hard-fought game. They played a great game. We were back on our heels, but then we had a lot of guys step up.’’
The final seconds of regulation, the first overtime and the second overtime featured some jaw-dropping, dramatic shots on both sides.
It was the Magic’s turn to hit a dagger of a shot at the end of the second overtime when Davis drilled a straight-on 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining. Davis had just missed a shot seconds earlier with the Magic trailing 119-116. The shot was reminiscent of the tying 3-pointer that Davis made in December to force an extra period of a two-overtime loss in Philadelphia. The emotional moment also ended up Davis dancing up the court while yelling to the cheering crowd.
``Everybody on this team wants to win and different guys on the team have different ways of expressing it. Glen got excited and he hit a really big shot for us,’’ Harris said. ``It’s just passion. To play this game of basketball, you have to have passion for your team and for yourself out there.’’
Follow John Denton on Twitter here