Simultaneous Bulls, Magic late-rally wins on road join NBA history

Road, sweet road.

The Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic did something extremely unusual on Monday night, pulling away to win road games by outscoring their opponents by huge margins in the fourth quarter.

The Bulls outscored Boston 39-11 in the fourth to complete a 128-114 win and improve to an NBA-best 6-1 to start the season, while the Magic outscored Minnesota 43-19 in the final quarter to win 115-97.

Chicago’s plus-28 margin in the final quarter was the largest in franchise history. Orlando’s plus-24 margin tied for the third-best in Magic history; the club record is 26, done twice.

And on the day the NBA celebrated its 75th birthday — the first game in what was then called the Basketball Association of America was played on Nov. 1, 1946 — the Bulls and Magic turned Monday into a truly rare occurrence.

It was just the second day in NBA history when two road teams outscored opponents by at least 24 points in the fourth quarter of a game.

The other was Dec. 20, 2006, when the Los Angeles Lakers outscored Minnesota 34-7 in the fourth to win 111-94, while Utah outscored Atlanta 40-13 in the final quarter to win 112-106.