ORLANDO – On the New Year’s Eve night in 2012 when Nikola Vucevic did the unthinkable in grabbing 29 rebounds and eclipsing Shaquille O’Neal’s Orlando Magic record for boards in a game, the 7-foot center’s team suffered a heartbreaking, double-overtime loss.
On the night when Vucevic passed O’Neal for second on the Magic’s all-time rebounding list, he wasn’t even able to enjoy the moment because Orlando was whalloped in a lopsided loss in Chicago.
This season, two of the greatest games of Vucevic’s seven-year NBA career – a 41-point, 12-rebound effort on Oct. 20 in Brooklyn and a dominant triple-double performance on Saturday in Atlanta – came similarly in losses.