ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Charlotte Hornets had won three of their past four games, yet still had an uneasy feeling about their play.

The Hornets had a 14-point lead in their last outing against the Brooklyn Nets, only to lose it on a buzzer-beater. It was the kind of loss that left a bad taste in their mouth.

As the buckets flew in the first half Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic, and as they saw their control of the game seemingly slip away and then rebound, the Hornets were not going to let another opportunity slip away.

The Hornets' strong third quarter staked them a 30-point lead on their way to a 120-101 win over the Magic at Amway Center.

Charlotte started the third quarter on a 20-6 run, taking complete control of the game with an offensive barrage that left Orlando frustrated and missing even open shots.

"We had to step up our defense," Hornets forward Nicolas Batum said. "The way we played last game in Brooklyn wasn't us at all. In the first half, we did a better job. We had to step up our game. This team can score. We put our energy up and stopped them from getting easy baskets."

The Magic made just 5 of 22 shots from the field in the third quarter, scoring only 13 points while giving up 35 in the quarter. It proved to be the big difference in the game.

Charlotte attacked Orlando's frustrated offense with opportunities of its own. The Hornets made 14 of 20 from the field, including three 3-pointers to take full control of the game.

Kemba Walker led the Hornets with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. Nicolas Batum scored 20 points to go with nine rebounds and eight assists, also going 8 of 12 from the floor.

For the Magic, the ending was disappointing after keeping pace throughout the first half in an important intra-division battle.

The Magic shot 59.0 percent from the field in the first half.

Serge Ibaka scored 15 of his 20 points in the first quarter, adding seven rebounds for the game. But it was not enough for the lead as Charlotte had control and a seven-point margin at halftime.

The teams combined for 117 points in the first half and shot a combined 56.6 percent from the floor. When Orlando's offense fell off in the third quarter, the defense was nowhere to be found to stem the tide.

"We just couldn't hit any shots and couldn't get any stops," Magic guard D.J. Augustin said. "They came down and got any shot they wanted. On the other end, we couldn't make any shots."

The Magic indeed struggled to get good looks with coach Frank Vogel admitting the team got the shots it wanted but could not get them to fall to stay in the game.

On one possession, the Magic saw three consecutive missed open 3-pointers -- one from Elfrid Payton and two from C.J. Watson. It was emblematic of the offensive struggles. And a game that kept flipping away.

The Magic were 19 of 48 from the field (39.6 percent) in the second half. And slowly the deficit grew.

NOTES: Magic G Evan Fournier missed his third consecutive game with a heel injury. Coach Frank Vogel said Fournier is experiencing pain and the team did not want him to reaggravate it with three days off before the team's next game Sunday in Indiana. Jodie Meeks started in his place. ... Magic G Elfrid Payton had high praise for the opponent. He said Kemba Walker is the most difficult player for him to defend in the NBA. Walker was averaging 22.3 points per game and has begun a serious push for his first All-Star berth. That campaign began for the Hornets with a release of a video online featuring Walker as the "Charlotte Hornets Ranger" in a parody of Walker, Texas Ranger. ... The Magic and Hornets entered the game with the two lowest rates of isolation plays in the NBA, according to NBA.com's Player Tracking stats. The Magic run isolation plays on 4.8 percent of their possessions and the Hornets run isolations on just 4.0 percent of plays. ... Despite not having a dominant rebounder, the Hornets entered the game third in the league in defensive rebound rate, grabbing 79.8 percent of all available rebounds, and limiting second-chance opportunities. The team's leading rebounder is Nicolas Batum at 7.5 per game, but the Hornets have four players averaging at least five rebounds per game.