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.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Magic lose yet another heartbreaker on the road

Despite having a 5 pt lead in OT with under a minute and a half to play, the Magic couldn't hold it, as ATL went on to win thanks to ZaZa Pachulia's tip-in with 2.4 seconds left to give the Hawks a 108-107 win. This was the Magic's franchise record-tying 15th straight loss on the road.

Eight players scored in double figures for the Magic, including all 5 starters. JNelson led with 18 pts. DHoward had 13 pts and 15 rebs. Hedo added 16 pts, but committed an offensive foul with 12 seconds left in the OT to set up the ATL game-winning play. Trevor Ariza, seeing his most action in a Magic uniform, had a nice game with 10 pts, 8 rebs and 5 assists in just 18 minutes. For the Hawks, Joe Johnson had 40 pts, 11assists; Al Harrington had 24 pts, while Pachulia hurt his old team with 13 pts and 18 rebs. Josh Smith added 15.

ATL (44 of 94, 46.8% FG shooting), outscored the Magic (40 of 82, 48.8% shooting) from the field 96-83. The Magic did well from the FT line, outscoring ATL 24-12 on 82.8% FT shooting. ATL outrebounded the Magic 45-41, and had an outstanding assist-to-turnover ratio of 27-8. The Magic also had a good assist-to-TO ratio of 19-7. The Magic bench outscored ATL's bench 36-14. Wish that Darko would see more than 17 minutes of action (4 pts 2 blocks).

Overall, a nice effort by the Magic, as they shot the ball well from the field and FT line, and had only 7 TOs. They couldn't find an answer to stop Joe Johnson, however; and ZaZa got the clutch tip-in in the final seconds.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 6:10 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 8:03 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Two sets of numbers say it all to me: Battie 41 minutes, Milicic 17 minutes; 3-point shooting for ATL 8-16 and Joe Johnson 5-5. If the GM is a competent and intelligent one, he should be able to impose some necessary adjustments on this joke of a coach. Battie's minutes 2½ times that of Darko? As for Joe Johnson's points, coach has two good defenders in Deshawn and Keyon ... how in the world he is allowed to drop 40 on us and 5-5 on 3 pointers?

     

  • At 9:50 PM, Blogger Ken said…

    Your being waaaay to kind by even acknowledging the mental midget with the title of "coach", matt... A "coach" has organizational skills, a game plan, is a good judge of talent, and is able to make adjustments in strategy and players during a game. I'm afraid the mental midget is incapable of any of the above. I think he attended the Larry Brown School of Coaching. I know Darko has gotten more playing time here than he ever saw in Detroit, but still not enough in my opinion. Anyone who, in their right mind, would compare Darko to pat garrity needs to be bitch-slapped and then castrated... Someone, anyone, in the organization must be able to see what he is doing.

    It sucked not getting to see the game. But i did catch the last few minutes of regulation on the radio while i was on my way to Taco Bell.. Jeff Turner made numerous comments on how Pachoolia had been hammering on Dwight all afternoon and at the end of regulation had only been called for his 2nd foul. Turner then said the fouls were so blatant that if it had been a football game, Pachoolia would be called for "holding" each time, no calls ever came Dwights way.

     

  • At 12:28 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Matt, excellent points about the coaching on Sunday. What happened with our defense that Joe Johnson was able to go off for 40 pts? Why weren't adjustments made? And I think you're right, the front office should say something to BHill about playing Darko more, at least 25-30 minutes a game. I hope Ariza sees more time now, as he did very well against ATL.

    Omar, I liked your definition about what assets a good coach should possess. This season, BHill sure hasn't shown any of the attributes that you mentioned.

    What Jeff Turner said about ZaZa getting away with a lot of fouls might be true, but I won't criricize the officiating too much, because ATL got called for one more foul than the Magic did, and the Magic went to the FT line 9 more times. As long as they call a fairly even game in terms of fouls, that's all I ask.

     

  • At 12:34 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Sorry, I spelled "criticize" wrong in the final paragraph.

     

  • At 1:42 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Everything you guys mention is right,our so called defensive coach let a guy go crazy,we're gonna be better offensively with jameer/carlos running the team,much better than we ever were with steve,so with that said,all BSH has to do is coach us to stop teams,but he has to do his job and make adjustments,him not making an adjustment sometime in the game to take the ball out of JJohnson's hands shows me that the guy isnt really a good defensive coach either,his field goal % was so high that your bound to have defensive success if you take the ball out of his hands and make someone else shoot,all that "attention to detail stuff" was a load of shit at the begining of the season,pretty much so management could get the fans to back the move,it worked b/c i thought there could be some truth to those statement's,he seems intelligent,well spoken and articulate,and pulling the wool over our eyes at the same time,he probably knows in his own mind he's not GPopovic or PJackson,but shit even bad coaches have family's to feed,and if you can find a team stupid enough to give you a job,then i cant blame him,he just hustled magic management for his paycheck,b/c he aint worth a penny to me!

     

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