NEW YORK — The New York Knicks traded their leading scorer Thursday and fired their president two days earlier.

• The Orlando Magic lost for the ninth time in 11 games, falling to the New York Knicks
• The Magic committed 20 turnovers in the loss after leading the league in fewest turnovers
• The Magic return home for a three-game homestand entering the All-Star Break on Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks

During what should be a time of turbulence, they are playing some of their best basketball of the season.

“Everyone knows we have a job to do. We are still a team. We’ve still got to keep pushing,” rookie RJ Barrett said. “We’ve still got to play every day and do our jobs and we did that tonight.”

And they left Orlando coach Steve Clifford screaming at the referees at halfcourt and criticizing them afterward for what he said was a lack of awareness in not granting him a timeout on the final possession.

Julius Randle scored 22 points, Taj Gibson had 19 and the Knicks beat the Magic 105-103 for their third straight victory.

Despite trading leading scorer Marcus Morris to the Clippers earlier in the day, the Knicks rallied from 10 down in the fourth quarter to match their longest winning streak of the season.

“They have been such a good group,” interim coach Mike Miller said, “the things that we have gone through as a team or the things that we have had individually and how they’ve been there for each other and how they’ve stuck together.”

Elfrid Payton had 15 points, nine assists and seven steals for the Knicks, who got Barrett back after he missed nine games with a sprained right ankle. He finished with 12 points.

Nikola Vucevic had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Magic, who lost for the seventh time in eight games. Clifford was trying desperately to get a timeout in the final seconds, but nobody on the court saw him and the Magic couldn’t get a shot off.

Clifford screamed at referees Tom Washington, Mitchell Ervin and Evan Scott after the game and had to be held back by Orlando assistant coaches.

He said the officials should have been aware that the Magic, after rebounding a Knicks miss with about 10 seconds left, would likely push the ball in transition and try to call a timeout if that didn’t work.

“There’s three of them. There’s a guy on the baseline and I just saw it. I mean, visibly I called timeout. I don’t understand how that timeout’s not called. That may cost me, I don’t care,” Clifford said.

“Like, again, when players don’t have awareness, you lose. Coaches have poor awareness, that was my fault tonight, you lose. The officials got to have awareness, too. Knowing the rules and knowing the game, and knowing the situation’s got to be part of it.”

With the timeout not granted, Evan Fournier ended up losing the ball for Orlando’s 21st turnover.

The Knicks scored 30 points in the first quarter and had a 13-point lead in the second, but the Magic surged ahead by outscoring them 36-22 in the third.

Orlando went ahead by 10 in the fourth quarter, but Wayne Ellington hit consecutive 3-pointers and added another later in the period. Payton’s 3-pointer tied it before a jumper by Randle and Gibson’s dunk gave New York a 100-96 edge with 3:49 to play.

Randle hit another jumper to make it 105-98 with 1:44 to play and the Knicks held on despite not scoring again.