Magic to face Denver, Anthony tonight
The Magic (20-38; 6-24 away), coming off a hard-fought loss to PHO, face a Denver squad (31-28; 19-12 home) also coming off a loss FRI night, 89-78 to HOU. The Magic will be trying to avert their 12th straight road loss. But the Magic have beaten DEN 21 out of their last 25 meetings.
Carmelo Anthony, coming off a 34 pt game against HOU, averages 26 ppg. Andre Miller (14.2 ppg), Marcus Camby (14.2 ppg), Kenyon Martin (14 ppg), and Earl Boykins (12.6 ppg) also average in double figures. DEN beat DET 98-87 their last home game. DEN is also a solid rebounding team with both K-Mart (6.8 rebs per game) and Camby (12.1 rebs). Hopefully the Magic front line will be ready for a physical game.
It's really great to have Jameer back; amazing how he played so well against PHO after missing a month and a half. Can the Magic bounce back and play a competitive game tonight, after one of their toughest losses of the season last night? The Magic are 10 1/2 pt underdogs to Denver (www.pinnaclesports.com).
Carmelo Anthony, coming off a 34 pt game against HOU, averages 26 ppg. Andre Miller (14.2 ppg), Marcus Camby (14.2 ppg), Kenyon Martin (14 ppg), and Earl Boykins (12.6 ppg) also average in double figures. DEN beat DET 98-87 their last home game. DEN is also a solid rebounding team with both K-Mart (6.8 rebs per game) and Camby (12.1 rebs). Hopefully the Magic front line will be ready for a physical game.
It's really great to have Jameer back; amazing how he played so well against PHO after missing a month and a half. Can the Magic bounce back and play a competitive game tonight, after one of their toughest losses of the season last night? The Magic are 10 1/2 pt underdogs to Denver (www.pinnaclesports.com).
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 2:39 PM
7 Comments:
At 3:18 PM,
Big Figure said…
Two things,(1)historically the magic play well against denver! (2)Denver isnt a big team,who the magic seem to struggle with the most! I think the buck stops here,after last nights game,the players have to start looking in the mirror,the coach aint out there on the floor turning the ball over 15 times and he damn sure aint missing 15 freethrows a game,time for the guys to start taking pride in doing their jobs,so we can stop blaming the coach for everything thats wrong,if jameer & carlos get dwight the ball last night we might get out of their with a win,they shouldnt have to be told to do every little thing,some of this stuff they should remember,b/c i know BSH is preaching this stuff in time outs,b/c thats the only way he knows how to coach,feed the big's!
At 7:44 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
You hit the nail on the head Big Figure... we can blame BHill for not starting the right guys or his erratic substitution patterns, but the players have to be held accountable also when things go wrong.
Every Magic player needs to ask themselves what can they do better to help this team start winning some games.
At 11:08 PM,
Ken said…
I agree with both of you, the players are the ones who are ultimately responsible for what happens on the court. But at the same time, you can tell the difference between a well coached and well disiplined team, and the Magic are neither one of those. The erratic offensive sets and the look of confusion at the end of games are also things the coach can do something about. I think that all boils down to BSHill's lack of communication to his players. There is no reason whatsoever, with the talent this team has, to be loosing game like we are loosing them. If these games were blow-outs i could understand it, it meant we just aren't good enough. But all these games have been close throughout, its the last half of the 4th quarter were we seem to loose them and I feel that is the poor substitution choices and play calling.
At 11:23 PM,
Ken said…
When the hell are we gonna get to see some Dwight and Darko together? It seems like its always Dwight and Battie or Darko and Battie. I know we have been riding BSHill's ass quite a bit, but deservedly so... His unwillingness to shake up the lineup has already got this team in a funk. His insistance on starting Battie and Stevenson are getting to be a damn joke, along with not even looking to play Arriza.
The only bright side of all this is Garrity is going to be out for a few weeks. Now BSHill won't have his butt monkey to count on in close games. Personally I was hoping it was a career ending injury, but no such luck...
I just want to mention one thing about the Suns game... I didn't watch the whole game because I couldn't stand to listen to David Steele and Matt Googas any longer go on and on and on about how wonderful the Phoenix Suns were.. They sounded like they were working for the Phoenix promotional department the way they gushed over them continuously. I was beginning to wonder whose payroll they were on. I understand giving the opposing team a couple of compliments, but holy shit, I thought Steele and Googas were gonna friggin piss themselves over the Suns everytime they made a play.. They sounded like a couple of star-struck 10 year olds, it was really pathetic.
At 2:22 AM,
OVERWADED said…
There are two problems that come to mind when I think of this season. Sure, we've had injuries, but throughout the whole year we've been in most of our games. There are only two reasons for us to lose all the games we do down the stretch. One, we're a young team, we're still learning, and this is all going to be chalked up as experience. Two, poor coaching... When a game goes to the wire, especially like the games have gone to the wire over and over for us this year, who is on the floor, who gets the ball, what plays are called; the end of games is pretty much why every team has a coach. We don't have that coach, which is why we will continue to lose, until our players just start winning on their own, or we replace the coach.
But damn it's nice to see Jameer back...
At 10:37 AM,
Big Figure said…
Very well said intro!
At 12:03 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Yep, Intro's post sums up our season pretty good.
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