By Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post

With Nelson and Afflalo out of the lineup, Harris had to take on a larger offensive role for Orlando, and he delivered. His raw point total of 31 certainly stands out, but his efficiency bears noting as well: the third-year forward shot 11-of-20 from the foor and 9-of-9 from the foul line, and he committed just one turnover.

“I just play my heart out and whatever happens happens,” Harris said. “I just give 100 percent effort for our team. Anything I can do for us to win is what I wanna do.”

“They were focusing a lot on Nik [Vučević] tonight so I saw a lot of openings, spacing wise, and I wanted to use that to my advantage.” Tobias Harris

Harris said he approached the game with an aggressive, attacking mentality. That much was evident early, as he scored eight of Orlando’s first 10 points of the game. Harris also recognized that attention center Nik Vučević drew would create scoring opportunities for him.

“They were focusing a lot on Nik tonight so I saw a lot of openings, spacing wise, and I wanted to use that to my advantage,” Harris said.

All three of Vučević’s assists on the night led to scores for Harris, each resulting from the seven-footer’s drawing Harris’ defender away from him, Harris finding open space, and then Vučević making the right pass.

Harris set his career-high in scoring by draining a pair of foul shots with 14 seconds to play. The former Volunteer felt prepared to take those shots and, as such, “wasn’t sweating” the prospect of missing them. “Before every game I try to make 10 free throws in a row,” he said, “just to get my mind going.”

Counting Sunday’s game, Harris has four performances of 20-plus points in his last six outings. He’s averaging 20.8 points on 64.2 percent True Shooting despite connecting on 25 percent of his three-pointers.