Orlando Magic roar back on the road, beat Dallas for 9th straight victory

"It's a little bit unexpected from my standpoint," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, whose team added four new players and jettisoned four others through trades on Dec. 18.

"I thought it would take a lot longer to be playing at the level we are. Clearly, our defense is not where it needs to be, but our guys have come together and played with pretty good chemistry for a team that hasn't been together long. I have to give them a lot of credit for that. It's impressive."

No one played more impressively Saturday night than Turkoglu, who dished out a career-high 17 assists and is enjoying a career renaissance in his second tour with the Magic.

Appropriately enough, Turkoglu sparked a decisive run in which the Magic outscored the Mavericks 26-3.

Turkoglu and his ol' buddy Dwight Howard ran the pick-and-roll perfectly with the Magic trailing 85-82 early in the fourth quarter.

As Howard rolled into the lane, Turk drove toward the basket and pulled up for a jumper just above the free-throw line as he absorbed a foul by DeShawn Stevenson. The ball swished through the net and Turk made the foul shot to tie the game.

On Orlando's next possession, Turk recorded his 13th assist of the night when he fed the ball to Ryan Anderson for a wide-open 3-pointer.

The Magic led 88-85.

They never trailed again.

"I'm happy that I'm being able to do the things I'm good at and I'm helping the team to win the game," said Turkoglu, who also scored 13 points and added five steals. "Right now, I'm just good with the ball and am creating a lot of opportunities for my teammates. I'm just blessed that they've given me that opportunity again."

He had plenty of help.

Six teammates scored in double figures, led by Howard, who added a team-high 23 points to go along with his game-high 13 rebounds.

The Magic now have gone seven consecutive games with at least six players scoring in double figures. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest such streak in the NBA in the last 18 seasons.