Team effort helps Magic end 4 game losing streak
Led by Steve Francis and Dwight Howard, who scored 18 pts each, the Magic had 6 players in double figures and were able to overcome Boston's Paul Pierce pouring in 37 pts to beat the Celts 100-91.
The Magic shot well for the second night in a row, outscoring BOS from the floor 78-73 on 50.7% shooting. Their FT shooting was much better than against ATL, as they outscored the Celtics 22-18 from the FT line on 78.6% shooting. They outrebounded BOS 43-33, took fairly good care of the ball with just 13 TOs and dished out 20 assists. The bench, which had been a very weak area during this losing streak, came to life, outscoring BOS 23-12. Mario Kasun played just 7 minutes off the bench, but grabbed 5 rebs (4 offensive) in that short amount of time. Garrity and Dooling combined for 17 pts and 13 rebs.
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Another good effort by all the starters, and the bench finally played a decent game. Maybe Coach is finally seeing that it would be to the team's benefit to use more guys off the bench. Maybe next week we'll see JNelson and GHill back, which would be a tremendous lift. The Magic, at 19-26, remain 3 games behind WAS for the final playoff spot, and only trail CHI by a half game for the 9th spot.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!
The Magic shot well for the second night in a row, outscoring BOS from the floor 78-73 on 50.7% shooting. Their FT shooting was much better than against ATL, as they outscored the Celtics 22-18 from the FT line on 78.6% shooting. They outrebounded BOS 43-33, took fairly good care of the ball with just 13 TOs and dished out 20 assists. The bench, which had been a very weak area during this losing streak, came to life, outscoring BOS 23-12. Mario Kasun played just 7 minutes off the bench, but grabbed 5 rebs (4 offensive) in that short amount of time. Garrity and Dooling combined for 17 pts and 13 rebs.
.
Another good effort by all the starters, and the bench finally played a decent game. Maybe Coach is finally seeing that it would be to the team's benefit to use more guys off the bench. Maybe next week we'll see JNelson and GHill back, which would be a tremendous lift. The Magic, at 19-26, remain 3 games behind WAS for the final playoff spot, and only trail CHI by a half game for the 9th spot.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:16 AM
2 Comments:
At 5:21 AM,
Ken said…
I agree, great all-around game by everyone. Anytime we can beat a DRivers led team is a good night, Ha.. Production from Garrity and only 13 turnovers, the stars were definitely alighned in our favor tonight. Nice job by Kasun also.
Ya know what I always wished the Magic would do? Remember back in the day, when we had Shaq and were the envy of the NBA? Well, At that time Phil Jackson was coaching Chicago, and he kept 3 centers on the team. Luc Longley and... umm.. I forget the names of the other 2, its been a few years now and i'm old.. LoL, but they didn't even have to be all that good, just a big body to put on Shaq. That gave them 18 disposible fouls to use against Shaq or whoever he wanted, and he used them too. To me, that was genious. Let the 1-4 positions take care of the scoring and just keep rotating them centers.. Fouls weren't an issue, if you came in the lane you were gonna get hit... I'm probaby thinking to much, I should go to bed..
At 11:21 PM,
Matt said…
Magic played a decent team defense, but they got lucky that, with the exception of Pierce, opponent's shooters did not find the bottom of the net, as was the case with ATL the other night. They were also better with defensive rebounding not allowing second chance points to BOS. Kasun played a few minutes but not enough. Diener was a no show and I don't want to hear the old sorry match-up excuse.
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