Orlando Magic Blog

Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Magic start 5 game trip at Kobe, Lakers

It's back on the road again for the Magic (20-35, 6-21 away), as they face the LA Lakers, who are barely holding on to the last playoff spot in the West. Phil Jackson is not finding things easy in his return to LA. The Lakers are 28-28, including 4-8 this month. They hold a 15-11 home mark, and have beaten the Magic 13 of their last 15 meetings. The Lakers won the only previous meeting this season, 104-88 on Dec. 23rd at TDW.

The Magic will have to control league-leading scorer Kobe Bryant (35.1 ppg). Lamar Odom, who was rumored to be possibly coming to the Magic before the trading deadline, is averaging 14 pts and 9.3 rebs per game. Smush Parker (11.4 ppg) and Chris Mihm (10.2 ppg) also average in double figures. Brian Cook (8.3 ppg) is the leading scorer off the bench.

Here's a quote from Coach Hill from Monday's Sentinel regarding the Magic's young players playing the bulk of the 4th quarter minutes against the Rockets: "You got to do it. It's part of who we are now. These guys need to be put in those situations. You got to do things the right way. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward. You want to win, you want to be competitive... but it is what it is." Could it be that Coach is finally getting a clue about giving the younger players more playing time?

The Magic are 8 1/2 pt underdogs to the Lakers (www.pinnaclesports.com).

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 3:25 AM  

9 Comments:

  • At 8:07 AM, Blogger WeRDevos said…

    Hill is either delusional or vainly trying to make excuses for his job.

    You play your best players in the 4th quarter, because that's what you do.

    Darko is clearly better than Garrity right now and with a little progress will be much better than Battie over time. Arroyo is the steadiest of the PG's currently healthy. And Hill hasn't played Ariza a single minute.

    If he really wants to make a statement, and keep his job, he'll start Darko & Arroyo and get Ariza into the rotation. Plus play Kasun & Diener.

    Magic have to figure out what to do with all the free agents including Stevenson, Battie, Diener, Kasun, Ariza.

     

  • At 12:00 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    I expect a big game from Grant, Dwight, Hedo and Darko. Keyon should guard Kobe, and if the coach uses the depth of the bench, wisely, Magic has a chance to steal this one.

     

  • At 12:03 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    There is no reason the Magic shouldn't win this game. The Lakers have been struggling and their team pretty much consists of everyone watching Kobe.

     

  • At 12:53 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I tell you what,if the starting line-up is as follows,keyon,deshawn,grant,dwight & battie,and we lose AGAIN,coach hill has to start tinkering with the starting line-up! The magic are 1-31 when trailing after three quarters,which shows that your best players should be on the floor to start the game like grant,hedo,dwight & darko,and is a big indication that the magic need to get off to a good start in games so that they dont have to play from behind,which is all the more reason to start the "big Four"together,so if thats the case,then bringing hedo,darko & arroyo off the bench to start the fourth quarter is way to late in a game for them to make a sizeable impact,darko gets 8pt's & 5rb's in 10 fourth quarters minutes,can you imagine if the guy got quality starter minutes!Coach hill says that he's gonna start keyon until jameer is ready b/c jameer is the starter and putting carlos in the starting line-up might effect the rotation,and also that jammer wont lose his position b/c of injury,but that doesnt let deshawn & tony off the hook,if we lose again tonight with both off them in the starting line-up,and they both noticeably play bad,while darko,hedo come in and shine off the bench again for the third time in a row,WE BETTER SEE SOME CHANGES IN THE STARTING LINE-UP!!! How could he just sit by and let us lose while still putting that same combination of five on the floor together,we need a win with them in the starting line-up to be off the hot seat in my opinion,deshawn like 4 or 5 assists and 10 or 15 points,and battie with at least 8 or 9 rbs to go along with his 10 or 15 points,if we lose a close one while they play good,and statistics say we turned the ball over a ton and missed a bunch freethrows,then you keep your spot till the next game,b/c at this point the coaching staff should be evaluating on a game to game basis,aint nobody played great enough to say that they have a spot set in stone except dwight!grant,hedo,darko & keyon (until jameer gets back), would be fine with me as the other starters!

     

  • At 1:36 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    You're exactly on point. Hill has been stubborn and stuck with the same starting 5. No matter what happens throughout the game, they play most of the 1st and 3rd quarters. So the game starts and we fall behind. The 2nd quarter hits, and we fight back. Then the 3rd quarter hits, and we fall back behind, usually by more in the 2nd half because they other team is just trying to put us away. So finally the 4th approaches, at some point we have our "bench players" out there, usually fighting back, trying to pull off a unlikely comeback, but as we've seen many times this year, the hole was too deep, and time runs out. GET A CLUE B HILL!

     

  • At 2:27 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    I am in total agreement with you all about the change in the starting line-up. Even, if Hill is thinking of his job security, when you are the underdog by 81/2 nobody is going to blame you for losing the game. So, do something courageous, and yet logical, and reap the benefits. Unfortunately, Hill is not a courageous man and he will stick to his guns, although guns are not blazing.

     

  • At 7:15 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    The Lakers have lost at home recently to Atlanta and Boston, so this is a game where the Magic could indeed surprise some people.

     

  • At 12:29 AM, Blogger Ken said…

    Its late in the 3rd quarter and I cant bare to watch any longer.. turnovers, turnovers, turnovers... BSHill continues to put his stamp on this team by being a first half team only, 3rd quarter and magic down by 18. DHoward has been pushed around again like a little bitch by non other than chris mihm and of all people kwame brown.. Howard is slowly regressing under the incompetent guidence of AHoleHill.. End of the 3rd and garrity has the same amount of minutes as Darko, however garrity has 1 rebound, 1 turnover and 2 points... KDooling is officially on my shitlist now, allowing Odom to steal the ball from him then not even having the sense to fowl him hard enough to stop a easy layup, but still getting called for the foul.. Dooling is grossly overrated in all aspects of his game and should be the first one to go from this team. he was nothing but a back-up in Miami and is my choice for 3rd string in Orlando.. AHoleHill must be the dumbest person on the face of this earth..

     

  • At 4:00 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    3rd string is right omar... I've been saying it for a while, but who wants to listen to me?

     

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