MIAMI — When the final buzzer sounded, Jason Richardson clasped both sides of his head.
Jameer Nelson pumped his right fist and turned toward Dwight Howard. The two co-captains exchanged high-fives.
Coach Stan Van Gundy raised both arms into the air.
None of them will forget what their team accomplished Thursday night.
Trailing by 24 points several minutes into the third quarter, the Orlando Magic stormed back against the Miami Heat and pulled out a pulse-pounding 99-96 road win.
“That one almost defies explanation,” Van Gundy said. “Even six minutes into the second half, we just looked down-and-out. We didn’t have any way to stop ’em.”
The announced crowd of 19,600 inside AmericanAirlines Arena and a national television audience watched the Magic complete the second-largest comeback in franchise history and saw a game that once belonged to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade take an unbelievable turn.
The Magic, once seemingly out of hope, went on a 40-9 run.
“Thank God we woke up and got a win,” Howard said.
Chris Bosh and James each missed 3-pointers in the final eight seconds, setting off the Magic’s celebration.
Heat fans had seen something similar before.
In November, the Utah Jazz overcame a 22-point deficit to beat the Heat in Miami. This past Sunday, the New York Knicks recovered from 15 down in the fourth quarter for the win.
“We’ve blown a lot of games where we’re in full control, and we have to do something,” Bosh said.
The Magic won their fourth consecutive game and sixth out of their last seven.
Even better, Orlando now trails Miami by just 31/2 games in the Southeast Division and Eastern Conference standings.
The result didn’t seem possible.
“It’s mindboggling,” Wade said.
James and Wade dominated the first half, combining to score 47 points on 18-of-21 shooting. Long-range jumpers, drives to the basket, generating foul shots — it all seemed so easy for them.
Their fortunes took a 180-degree turn in the second half. James and Wade totaled just 10 points, and Wade missed all six of his shot attempts.
When the two teams played in Miami in late October, the Heat took a big lead — just like they did Thursday night — and cruised to a 96-70 win. Howard said that his teammates looked “shell-shocked” by the atmosphere that night.
Since that evening, the Magic added four players and subtracted four others through a pair of blockbuster trades. But even with the recast roster, Howard still brought up that defeat more than once to his teammates Thursday.
“We’re not going to let them embarrass us again,” he told them.
Rarely used forward Quentin Richardson came off the Magic bench and helped contain the Heat’s wings. Howard protected the rim. And the Heat went cold, making just under 30 percent of their shots from the field.
“We got down big against a great team, but we didn’t go away,” Richardson said. “It was definitely a different type of effort and a different type of intensity we brought in the second half.”
Meanwhile, Jason Richardson found his rhythm from long range.
He made all five of his 3-point tries in the second half and finished with a team-high 24 points.
“I’ve been a part of games like this one before, but this one is special,” he said. “LeBron and D-Wade, they played at a superstar level in the first half. We just came out and we just hung in there and we just battled and continued to battle. We got some stops and made some shots. It was huge getting a win here.”
Howard finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds.
He wasn’t even 4 years old when the Magic last completed a comeback of this magnitude.
On Nov. 8, 1989, in only the franchise’s third-ever regular-season game, Orlando beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 117-110 after trailing by 25 points.
On Thursday, Gilbert Arenas, who had started the fourth quarter with three turnovers in the first three minutes, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 82. Ryan Anderson followed with a layup to give Orlando its first lead since 3:45 remained in the first quarter. And Arenas continued the onslaught with another trey to put Orlando up 87-82 and prompt the crowd to rain boos on the Heat.
With Orlando clinging to a 97-96 lead with 8.0 seconds left in regulation, J.J. Redick sank a pair of free throws.
That set the stage for the final sequence.
Bosh’s 3-point try from the top of the arc was long and deflected off the left side of the rim. The ball eventually found its way to James, but his shot hit off the front of the rim.
“It was a great comeback,” Van Gundy said. “It’s probably one of those games that I’ll remember 10 years from now. When I’ve forgotten everything else except all the losses, this is one win I might remember.”
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog. Subscribe to our Orlando Magic newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/joinus.
