Magic collapse in final 3 minutes against Suns
With 3 and a half minutes remaining in the game, the Magic, on blistering 61% shooting, looked to be in great position to pull off a stunning upset against PHO. However, everything fell apart for the Magic from that point on as they hit only 1 out of their final 10 shots (a meaningless layup by Arroyo in the final seconds) and lose 123-118 for their 4th loss in a row, 11th road loss in a row, and 16th loss in their last 18 games.
There were a lot of positives from the Magic to take from this game. Without GHill, because of his sports hernia being sore again, five players scored in double figures. They were led by the return of Jameer Nelson, who was brilliant off the bench, and scored 24 pts on 9 of 13 shooting in just 26 minutes. Carlos Arroyo impressed with 21 pts, 6 assists and 0 TOs in 33 minutes. Darko had 8 pts and 10 boards. HTurkoglu (20 pts) DHoward (15 pts) and KDooling (12 pts 5 steals) also had good games. Six players scored in double figures for PHO, led by SMarion (24 pts) and newly acquired Tim Thomas (20 pts). SNash had 18 pts and 13 assists.
PHO outscored ORL 105-104 from the field on 51.7% shooting. ORL shot 55.6%. PHO (85,7% FT) outscored the Magic (70% FT) from the line 18-14. The Magic outrebounded PHO 40-36. PHO had a brilliant assist-to-turnover ratio of 34-12, while the Magic's ratio was just 20-15. The ORL bench, led by Nelson and Arroyo, outscored PHO's bench 57-44.
I thought Coach Hill, despite questionable substitutions late, did an OK job getting Arroyo (33 min) and Nelson (26 min) enough playing time, and they both had the hot hand. It will be interesting to see how Hill handles this in the future. If the Magic hadn't gone stone-cold in the final 3 minutes, they would have won this game.
There were a lot of positives from the Magic to take from this game. Without GHill, because of his sports hernia being sore again, five players scored in double figures. They were led by the return of Jameer Nelson, who was brilliant off the bench, and scored 24 pts on 9 of 13 shooting in just 26 minutes. Carlos Arroyo impressed with 21 pts, 6 assists and 0 TOs in 33 minutes. Darko had 8 pts and 10 boards. HTurkoglu (20 pts) DHoward (15 pts) and KDooling (12 pts 5 steals) also had good games. Six players scored in double figures for PHO, led by SMarion (24 pts) and newly acquired Tim Thomas (20 pts). SNash had 18 pts and 13 assists.
PHO outscored ORL 105-104 from the field on 51.7% shooting. ORL shot 55.6%. PHO (85,7% FT) outscored the Magic (70% FT) from the line 18-14. The Magic outrebounded PHO 40-36. PHO had a brilliant assist-to-turnover ratio of 34-12, while the Magic's ratio was just 20-15. The ORL bench, led by Nelson and Arroyo, outscored PHO's bench 57-44.
I thought Coach Hill, despite questionable substitutions late, did an OK job getting Arroyo (33 min) and Nelson (26 min) enough playing time, and they both had the hot hand. It will be interesting to see how Hill handles this in the future. If the Magic hadn't gone stone-cold in the final 3 minutes, they would have won this game.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:05 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:20 PM,
Big Figure said…
"Stone Cold" i think is being forgiving of the coaching staff,the magic's biggest problem down the stretch was the fact that they didnt have any offensive guidance,during the periods that jameer and carlos were playing so well,we were'nt running set plays,they were making plays off the dribble and off the pick and role,so in the final three minutes of the game the suns started switching everything b/c we still had that small backcourt on the floor,hedo wound up taking a bad shot b/c they switched on the role, and jameer missed a wide open shot b/c they switched on the role! The biggest problem is that dwight didnt get a chance to take a shot or be the playmaker in those final three minutes,and its up to the coach to get him the ball,when the game gets to the 5 minutes left mark in the fourth period,thats when teams buckle down and play their toughest defense,the suns didnt play any defense the whole game,but when it got to those final minutes they turned it up a notch,at that point its up to the coach to understand whats best for the team offensively,you should give the ball to the guy who shoots the highest %,and dwight being 5 feet from the basket everytime he shoots means that he's probably gonna be your highest % shot,coupled with the fact that the suns are very small and would have probably had to double dwight,means that instead of seeing our guys defended well off the role,guys would have gotten driving lanes from dwight double teams,which would have given us some freethrow attempts during those last three minutes,which we had none,it also would have given us some offensive rebounding abilities,tipping dwight's shot back in if he were to take one,thats all coaching that we're lacking and the reason why we struggled down the stretch! BSH has such a one track mind,he saw jameer & carlos working well together and thought he had found a quich fix,but in reality it back fired on him b/c he stayed with them too long on the floor together,during the last three minutes jameer,carlos & hedo took nothing but jumpshots,but if BSH was a smart coach he would have gone with a traditional line-up while he had the lead,and punished the suns inside when basketball is slowed down and more of a possession game (last 5 minutes in the fourth),it would have made things alot easier on the players,at a time when execution is critical!The fact that our guards cant even give dwight a decent entry pass also makes me sick!
At 2:25 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Your points are well-taken, Big Figure, about trying to get the ball into Dwight in the final 3-4 minutes. As I pointed out in my original post on the game, look at the superb assist-to-turnover ratio PHO had (34-12) compared to the Magic (20-15).
Since most of the time I can't watch the Magic games (I can only follow them on the internet), sometimes I miss out on things that you guys pick up on while watching the game, and thanks for pointing those out.
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