A puzzling, inexplicable loss for Magic
The 76ers, without Allen Iverson and having played Saturday night, come into Orlando and end the Magic's 7 game home winning streak 89-81. Chris Webber with 18 pts and John Salmons with 17 led Philly. Francis had another outstanding all-around game with his first triple double of the season with 22 pts, 10 rebs and 10 assists; and all the other starters for the Magic scored in double figures.
The Magic outscored Philly 65-63 from the field on 43.1% shooting, compared to 45.6% for the 76ers, but were outscored from the FT line 26-16. These last 2 games, the Magic have stopped being aggressive offensively and have not been drawing many fouls. The Sixers also did a much better job taking care of the ball, committing only 10 TOs while the Magic committed 17. The Magic did outrebound the Sixers 40-37. It was another woeful effort by the Magic bench, as they were outscored 19-7. Dooling, Garrity, and Diener combined to shoot just 3 of 13.
It's becoming apparent the Magic really miss Jameer Nelson, who would have been a huge spark off the bench these last 2 games, and GHill. It was unrealistic to expect Turkoglu to continue to play out of his mind like he was, as he has come back down to earth these last 2 games. Magic are now 2 games behind Washington for the final playoff spot.
The Magic outscored Philly 65-63 from the field on 43.1% shooting, compared to 45.6% for the 76ers, but were outscored from the FT line 26-16. These last 2 games, the Magic have stopped being aggressive offensively and have not been drawing many fouls. The Sixers also did a much better job taking care of the ball, committing only 10 TOs while the Magic committed 17. The Magic did outrebound the Sixers 40-37. It was another woeful effort by the Magic bench, as they were outscored 19-7. Dooling, Garrity, and Diener combined to shoot just 3 of 13.
It's becoming apparent the Magic really miss Jameer Nelson, who would have been a huge spark off the bench these last 2 games, and GHill. It was unrealistic to expect Turkoglu to continue to play out of his mind like he was, as he has come back down to earth these last 2 games. Magic are now 2 games behind Washington for the final playoff spot.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 9:30 PM
12 Comments:
At 9:51 PM,
Matt said…
We lost this one because of PHI's good defense. For the last two games where any decent defense was played by the opponents, we missed Grant more than ever when we had trouble bringing the ball up the floor. Hedo was 5-15 shooting on this game with 3 TOs. He was 4-10 with 5 TOs in NY game. Steve has been outstanding in the last two but as we were raving about Keyon, he came up with his worst in the last two, probably due to his lack of playing time conditioning. Jameer's absense, as Mike has pointed out, was felt, as well. I hope that Magic does not get into a tail spin, as has been the trend this season. They need to get up and get ready for LAC.
At 2:54 AM,
Ken said…
Good point about them having trouble bring the ball up the floor, that even resulted in a turnover or two.. Keyon seemed totally out of sync tonight, but hopefully it dosn't last..
The thing that bothered me was, Yes, Phi played good defense, but the team just dosn't seem to play as a organized unit. At times they appear to be more like a pick-up team at the playground. Where you have guys just running all over the place and looking for their own scoring, jacking up shots from anywhere on the floor. Maybe i'm wrong on this, but thats how I saw it.
Has SFrancis become the model teamate? Will it last? Has he finally grown-up? Turkglue and Garrity's shooting streaks where short lived also. And I won't even go into Garrity's 30 minutes and 2-7 shooting.
At 3:37 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Saw an interesting report on ESPN's NBA Fastbreak Sunday night that reportedly, the Magic had to convince Steve-O that there was no truth to the rumor they were going to trade him to Minnesota for Wally Szczerbiak, and that they will not trade him (Francis) at all. In turn, Steve said that he wants to stay and he would be willing to go to the 2 guard and play aside Jameer, who would play the point.
Jameer should be ready to return Wednesday night against LAC; let's see if Coach Hill does go with that lineup; and who would come off the bench, Stevenson or Turkoglu? I would have Hedo come off the bench, because Stevenson is the better defender, and as some of you have pointed out, Hedo wouldn't mind coming off the bench.
At 8:34 AM,
Matt said…
Smaller back court with LAC wouldn't be such a good idea since Sam Cassell will post up Jameer constantly, as he did in LA successfully.
At 9:38 AM,
WeRDevos said…
The roller coaster continues. 2 straight disappointing losses. Magic were not prepared for a Philly team that passed the ball in AI's absence.
At 11:44 AM,
Big Figure said…
Coach hill deserves the blame for another loss,dwight is a power forward,but b/c coach hill plays dwight and battie together,other teams can put their best low post defender on dwight b/c we dont start a center,these last two losses have more to do with the fact that were being out played by the opposing teams big men,than it does about our shooting,eddy curry and chris webber have killed us,which shows that coach hill is lost,why play garrity so much? why does coach always go small? Instead of playing dwight at the center with pat on the floor,why not let dwight shut down chris webber and play mario at the center? b/c chris killed pat,but coach stayed right with'em (pat) till the end!
At 12:38 PM,
Big Figure said…
My opinion of coach hill stem's back from the setinel blog,a couple of the first games the magic played this year were against the pacers & grizz on our home floor (both losses),and i can remember posting back then that we lost those games b/c we were undersized,everybody on the sentinel agreed that when cato got healthy he would take back over the starting position,well hear we are mid-way through the season and cato hasnt given us anything,and when he was healthy coach didnt insert him into the starting line-up,which leads me to beleive coach thinks we can win with small line-ups,isnt that why doc was fired?Sometimes battie plays bigger than he is and we forget that he's really a PF,and the fact that coach hill plays them together means that everytime down the floor were playing switch-a-roo center,which is not helping dwight's growth!
At 1:16 PM,
Big Figure said…
Recently steve nash was quoted saying "Dwight Howard is the second coming of Tim Duncan",and i agree,but the one thing that stands out to me is tim had David Robinson,which allowed tim to be a PF all the time,he never had to play out of position (unless match-up were in their favor)b/c david was a true 7ft center that took on opposing centers,as his insurance! It was a sort of protection that tim wanted to keep,thats why he didnt sign with the magic that summer,b/c he knew the magic would play him alot of minutes at the center position under the doc rivers regime,and he didnt want ant part of that,and now under the coach hill regime were doing it to dwight,without a true big man to put beside him,so that he could dominate the PF position,at the center he's still an above average rebounder b/c of his jumping ability but average at best as a scorer,b/c he's got 7ft1 7ft2 7ft3 guys trying to guard him!
At 1:29 PM,
Big Figure said…
As long as coach hill plays dwight and tony together,teams are gonna play dwight as if he were our starting center,which is a bad thing,i personally wont be happy untill we start one of our centers permenantly,cato when healthy has enough gerth at 6ft 11 to get the job done,we saw that last year,and mario is 7ft,either would give dwight the ability to go back to the PF position,where he could dominate!
At 2:27 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Coach Hill was furious with the loss last night, he claims that the team didn't have any focus. Well, he has to share the blame for the loss also, as who's job is it to get the team focused (especially with the opposing team's superstar out)?
At 3:13 PM,
OVERWADED said…
I avoided making any comments until now because last night's loss should have never happened. So are they the same ol' Magic? Have they made no improvement? Go on a win streak, and once they lose, they lose confidence, and go on a losing streak. They have shown how they can play. This comes down to being able to preparation, and being able to bounce back, which puts Coach Hill liable. So this group of players that has shown they can have success together. Now the bigger question is, can Coach Hill give them direction and make it happen? So far, no good...
At 6:57 PM,
Matt said…
We were all aware of coach Hill's capabilities or lack thereof. We gave him the benefit of the doubt as a new coach and also due to some improvements in defense. We also were well aware that such kind of defense without much of a reward on the offensive end could wear the team down. The main problem is the lack of communication skills, a disconnect between the team and the coach. The result has been the enormous fluctuations from night to night. When the team comes out with no clue of what is expected of them on a given night, who's to blame? When the team comes out flat against a team that has lost 6 in a row, who's to blame? Now that we are half the way thorough the season, we are not granting the benefit of the doubt to anybody. Injuries are no excuse, since we have seen what the team is capable of, injured or not. Right the ship, we say, or bow out. I think that we are entitled to it.
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