The Orlando Magic got a little revenge on Wednesday night. They defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-94 to avenge their 28-point loss in Oklahoma City just a week ago.

The Magic played their best game of the season and took a 30-point lead into the fourth quarter before they coughed up a big chunk of the lead in garbage time. The Magic played very well on both ends of the floor and Head Coach Stan Van Gundy was very happy with the team’s performance.

“That was a good game to see right there. We came with a lot of energy right from the get-go and sustained it pretty darn well for three quarters.”

Orlando’s defense played very well. The bench allowed 36 fourth quarter points, but the Thunder still shot just 41% (34-of-83). They were shooting just 33% and had only 58 points through three quarters.

Mickael Pietrus was the player of the game. He shot 4-of-8 from the field and scored 14 points but his offense was not the reason why. Pietrus had the responsibility of guarding Kevin Durant. Durant torched the Magic for 28 points just 10 days ago, but was held to just 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting and committed 5 turnovers Wednesday night. Van Gundy was extremely pleased.

“I thought MP’s defense on Durant was outstanding. I thought our team defense helping was a lot better.”

Russell Westbrook also lit up the Magic on November 8 when he scored 17 points and dished out 10 assists. He was held to just 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting and added just 3 assists on Wednesday night.

The defense was excellent.

The offense may have been even better.

The Magic did an excellent job of passing the ball. The team finished with 25 assists and had 22 assists on 33 field goals through three quarters. On one particular play after Vince Carter dove for a loose ball and found Jason Williams. Williams threw a perfect bounce pass to Rashard Lewis who then threw another excellent bounce pass to Mickael Pietrus, who slammed home a powerful dunk.

The Magic found open shooters throughout the game.

The return of Orlando’s Stretch Fours, Ryan Anderson and Rashard Lewis, is really opening up the offense.

The Magic were much better from downtown Wednesday night, hitting 13 of their 31 3-point attempts (41.9%).

Vince Carter was Orlando’s leading scorer, putting up 18 points in just 27 minutes. Now, 18 points isn’t usually considered impressive for Carter (even though he did in limited minutes), but the way he scored them was. I have been calling for Vince Carter to drive the ball and attack the basket since the first game of the preseason. Tonight, he did. Van Gundy took notice.

“Vince really went on the attack tonight, was very aggressive offensively.”

This is the Vince Carter that the Magic need. As I noted in my game preview, when Carter gets to the rim, good things happen. Carter made an effort to get the hoop right from the start tonight. He got a couple of easy buckets and really opened up the outside shot for his teammates. After a few drives, Vince got hot from the outside too. He made back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter, helping the Magic get out to a huge lead.

Carter did more than just score. Not only did he have 6 rebounds, but he dove after a loose ball that seemed to fire the whole team up. You have to love that kind of effort from a veteran like Carter.

Rashard Lewis was excellent tonight. Stan Van Gundy was happy to see his All-Star get back to form (well, almost to form).

“I thought Rashard got going and he got on the boards, he did a lot of things tonight.”

That may be an understatement. Lewis was just one assist away from a triple-double entering the fourth quarter. Despite pleas from Lewis’ teammates, Van Gundy did not play Lewis in the fourth quarter.

He finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and tied a career-high by dishing out 9 assists. Lewis was 2-of-6 from downtown, hitting his first 3-pointer of the season in the second quarter. He did a good job of getting to the basket and made some nice, crisp passes. One that really stands out was a cross-court pass that he threw to Jason Williams, who buried a 3-pointer. Lewis said that this was an excellent way to go into a statement game against the Boston Celtics on Friday night.

Jason Williams got the start for the injured Jameer Nelson and filled in nicely. Williams made just one of his four attempts and scored just 4 points, but he dished out 5 assists, had 4 rebounds and really dictated the pace of the game. Van Gundy talked about that after the game.

“J-Will was pushing the ball up and down and guys wanted to get out in transition and get open shots so I thought he did a great job.”

Dwight Howard got into foul trouble again. He had great energy in the first half. He really crashed the boards, played good defense and  got another huge block coming over to help on defense. Unfortunately, he picked up 3 fouls in just 9 minutes in the first half. He scored just 4 points and grabbed 6 rebounds during that span. The Magic did a good job of getting the ball to Howard in the third quarter before he picked up his fourth foul. He shot 3-of-4 in the quarter after going just 2-of-3 in the first half. He finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds. It was his eighth double-double of the season. He did not play in the final quarter.

Orlando’s bench was excellent. They scored 44 points in the contest and really helped the Magic build a big lead. You can read about Orlando’s excellent bench play and see quotes from the second unit here.

There are several other numbers that show why Orlando won this game. They out-rebounded the Thunder 47-42. They had 26 assists to Oklahoma City’s 18. The Magic scored 40 points in the paint, 12 more than the Thunder. The Magic had 15 second chance points to the Thunder’s 9.

Game Notes:

• Orlando had six players in double figures (Vince Carter 18, Rashard Lewis 17, Mickael Pietrus 14, Ryan Anderson 12 Dwight Howard 11 Marcin Gortat 10).
• Orlando is 5-0 when at least six players score in double figures.
• Every Magic played scored.
• Dwight Howard has eight double-doubles.
• Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to score 45 points in their last meeting with Orlando. They scored a combined 22 points Wednesday night.
• Rookie James Harden led the Thunder with 24 points on7-of-14 shooting, but 12 of those points came in garbage time during the fourth quarter.

Next up: The Magic travel to Boston to face the Celtics. Orlando defeated the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs last season in 7 games after the Celtics took a 3-2 series lead. Both teams enter the game at 9-3, tied for the second best record in the Eastern Conference.

Final Thought: Despite Jamer Nelson’s absence, this is the kind of performance we have been waiting for from the Magic.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)