ORLANDO, Fla. -- The thing about depth is you never know when you'll need it. A few days ago, J.J. Redick and Ryan Anderson seemed like bit players in the Magic's rotation. But after Mickael Pietrus sprained his ankle on Wednesday, and Vince Carter limped off the floor with a sprained toe just 95 seconds into Sunday's game against Denver, the reserves suddenly were forced into central roles.

And man, did they deliver. Each played arguably his best game in a Magic uniform, in fact, as Orlando topped Denver 103-97 in a Finals preview (according to Matt Barnes' Twitter account, at least) despite getting only 43 points from its four All-Stars.

Redick played the entire game after Carter left and racked up 23 points, 8 assists and 7 boards, while Anderson added 19 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes, missing only one of his eight shot attempts. It was the first time since April 19, 2006, that Orlando's top two scorers came off the bench.

"Obviously, you can't predict injuries," Redick said. "You just have to be ready."

"I thought the key to J.J.'s performance was that rest I gave him at the beginning of the game," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy joked. "He was tremendous. What you have to know, and what we see every day and appreciate, he is one of the best-conditioned guys in the league. He works his butt off year-round to be in great shape. He usually gets no more than 24-25 minutes, [but] you need him for 46, and he's able to do it."

With Carter and Pietrus both wounded, the Magic may need similar iron man performances from Redick for tough road games later this week against Dallas and San Antonio. Carter went down after a collision at the defensive end with Arron Afflalo and quickly limped off the court after the Magic got the ball and called timeout. The one saving grace for Orlando is that it has three days of before it will play again, giving him time to recover.

On this night, at least, his absence didn't matter, because Orlando's reserves could do no wrong. Two signature plays were emblematic of that fact. First, at the end of the third quarter, Orlando tried to run a play for Jameer Nelson at the top of the key. Anderson was supposed to come up top to set a pick but stayed on the low block; Van Gundy was so "baffled," in his words, that he threw up his hands and stormed away with his back turned to the other side of the bench. When he turned around, he was watching Anderson's 3-pointer go through the net to end the quarter, tying the game.

"He got to his spot eventually," Van Gundy said.

For Redick, the signature moment came with three minutes left and the Magic nursing a 95-90 lead. He dribbled to the right side of the key and pulled up for a midrange jumper that caught the side of the rim and spun all the way around, and around, and around, and around again before finally swirling around the inside of the net and down for a bucket.

"When was the last time you saw that in the NBA?" Redick asked.

The other piece of Orlando's success was another maestro defensive effort by reigning defensive player of the year Dwight Howard. Although he blocked only two shots, his help defense against Carmelo Anthony was tremendous, with Howard constantly meeting Anthony near the rim to thwart attempted drives. Anthony scored 25 points but needed 25 shots to do it and had only two assists against the league's top-ranked squad in defensive efficiency.

The Magic were helped by a laissez faire approach by the zebras as well, as Denver attempted only 11 free throws despite contact on several drives. Both Anthony and Chauncey Billups picked up technicals protesting the calls, and an increasingly frustrated Anthony was rung up for screaming "call that [stuff]" after getting bumped late in the first half.

(I should point out that it went both ways -- Howard endured similar physical treatment, while Billups answered one non-call late in the game by essentially throwing Nelson out of the way on the next trip and hitting a 3-pointer).

"We tried to get the refs to blow the whistle and the calls weren't going our way," said J.R. Smith, who scored 13 points off the bench. "We normally get Chauncey and Melo to the line 10 to 12 times a piece, and that usually helps us out a lot with some extra points, but it wasn't going the way we were playing."

Of course, the other reason Denver didn't get to the line was that it didn't get to the rim. Van Gundy said before the game that the key to limiting free throws by the Nuggets -- the league leader in free throw attempts with 31.1 per game, nearly four more than the next-closest team -- was to keep them away from the rim, and Denver attempted only 27 of its 80 shots in the paint.

"We've been doing an excellent job the last couple of games of being really aggressive on both ends, really trying to focus in on the defense," Howard said. "[Barnes] had a very tough matchup tonight. He kept his head up; he did an excellent job on Carmelo Anthony."

Add it all up, and it was another big win supplied by the Magic's bench, a unit that has carried the team at several key junctures this season -- most notably right out of the gate when it helped Orlando to a 7-3 start during Rashard Lewis' 10-game suspension. So although the Magic still count on Howard, Carter, Lewis and Nelson to carry them in May and June, it's comforting to know they have a solid Plan B in case things don't go according to plan. Few teams can say the same so confidently.

John Hollinger covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.

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