Jan. 3—Al Horford squared up from the top of the arc and drained a 3-pointer that gave the Thunder an eight-point lead with 50 seconds left.

“I felt like I had some really good looks all night and for some reason they just weren’t falling for me,” Horford said. “And we got to that point and it just felt really good. I know the team needed it and I felt like that put us in a good position there to close the game.”

OKC (2-3) avenged its home loss to Orlando (4-2) on Tuesday with a 108-99 win at the Magic on Saturday. Here are five takeaways

Here are five takeaways from the game:

Bazley’s double double

Darius Bazley cut to the rim and Horford found Bazley for a two-handed slam.

The dunk capped a 7-0 fourth-quarter run for the Thunder and it tied OKC’s biggest lead (seven) of the game.

“For it to end in a dunk, that energizes the whole team,” Bazley said.

Bazley scored a season-high 19 points with 12 rebounds Saturday night. He shot 7-of-10 overall and 2-of-4 from 3-point range.

“Man, I thought he was great,” Horford said. “His energy at times is very contagious. He was being assertive on offense, really taking the challenge defensively.

“He hit a corner three there in the fourth that I thought was huge for us.”

That 3-pointer from Bazley gave the Thunder a six-point lead with just under seven minutes left.

“Really pleased with the approach that he’s taken, because obviously he had a couple tough games there individually to start the year,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “Tonight was obviously his best game.”

Maledon impresses

Theo Maledon hit an 18-foot jumper to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter.

The Thunder rookie then went on the attack in the second quarter. Maledon crossed over Magic rookie Cole Anthony and finished a layup through a foul.

“I’m still learning for sure,” Maledon said, “but one thing that coach and my teammates told me was to be aggressive and play like I did in the first preseason game ... I think I need to keep that going.”

Maledon also gave the Thunder a boost to start the fourth quarter. He drained a 3-pointer to give OKC an 87-84 lead, and on the next possession he whipped a pass to Hamidou Diallo for a corner 3-pointer.

Maledon scored or assisted on the Thunder’s first four baskets in the fourth quarter.

“He doesn’t look too much like a rookie to me,” Bazley said. “I know my rookie year I wasn’t, especially this early in the season, I wasn’t where he’s at.”

Maledon, just five games into his NBA career, scored a career-high 12 points with four assists and three rebounds.

“Theo, he’s not your average rookie,” Horford said. “I feel like he’s very mature. He’s trying to play the right way. He’s trying to understand how he fits in.”

Better post defense

The Magic set a franchise record with 72 points in the paint when these teams met Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder was missing Horford on Tuesday, and OKC’s interior defense improved Saturday with Horford back in the starting five.

Orlando scored 46 points in the paint.

Vucevic, Ross lead Magic

While the Thunder was better at protecting the paint, it wasn’t much better at defending Nikola Vucevic.

The Magic’s All-Star center scored 30 points with 13 rebounds on 13-of-21 shooting. He shot 4-of-7 from 3-point range.

Terrence Ross added 26 points for Orlando. Ross was 4-of-9 from behind the arc.

But the Thunder’s defense tightened in the fourth quarter. OKC held Orlando to just 17 points and Vucevic and Ross were limited to eight combined points on 4-of-13 shooting.

“We got some stops down the stretch, which we needed,” Bazley said. “Vucevic and Ross kind of got going, but coach uses the term ‘flinching.’ We didn’t flinch. We were able to handle it, get it a little bit under control.” The Magic was missing

The Magic was missing Evan Fournier (back spasms).

Balanced scoring

Vucevic and Ross played an outsized role in Orlando’s offense, but Oklahoma City had a balanced scoring attack.

Six Thunder players scored at least 12 points led by Bazley’s 19.

George Hill scored 18 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 16 and Horford, Maledon and Diallo all had 12 points.

“We had great balance tonight with how we played on both ends of the floor,” Daigneault said. “I thought we got a lot of contributors top to bottom. I thought the bench came in and gave us a great game. Those guys really held serve.”

The Thunder’s bench outscored the Magic’s bench 34-33.