Amazing Magic pull off upset in MIA
Thanks to the return to form of Jameer Nelson, and with 4 of the 5 starters scoring in double figures, the Magic continue their late season surge with a stunning 93-84 win over the Heat. The Magic had as much as a 20 pt 3rd quarter lead, and saw it get cut to 5 early in the 4th. However, the Magic were able to extend the lead from that point on.
Nelson scored 26 pts on 9 of 16 shooting. DHoward (16 pts 8 rebs), HTurkoglu (14 pts), and DStevenson (11 pts) all scored in double figures. KDooling (9 pts) and BOutlaw (4 pts 6 rebs 2 steals and a block) had good efforts off the bench. Only 3 Heat players scored in double figures: Dwyane Wade (27 pts but with 7 TOs), Shaq (16 pts 9 rebs), and Udonis Haslem (10 pts).
The Magic outscored the Heat 72-68 from the field on 51.5% shooting. MIA shot 50%. Surprisingly, the Magic had the edge from the FT line, shooting 21 of 30 (70%). The Heat shot just 16 of 23 (69.6%). The Heat decisively won the rebounding battle 37-25. However, the Heat had 20 costly TOs compared to just 12 for the Magic. Magic had just 13 assists, compared to 18 for the Heat. The Heat bench barely outscored the Magic bench 26-24.
The ORL defense was able to keep Shaq under control, 4 of the 5 starters played well for the Magic, the bench stepped in with nice performances (Outlaw and Dooling in particular), the defense played well (forcing 20 TOs) and the refs called a good game (25 MIA fouls, 22 ORL fouls). All those factors combined for a huge Magic win! The Magic streak is now at 8 out of 9, and 12 out of 16. The playoff dream is still alive, at just 3 games back. If the Magic beat ATL Mon night, WAS beats PHI, and NJ beats CHI Tues night, the Magic are only 2 games out!
Nelson scored 26 pts on 9 of 16 shooting. DHoward (16 pts 8 rebs), HTurkoglu (14 pts), and DStevenson (11 pts) all scored in double figures. KDooling (9 pts) and BOutlaw (4 pts 6 rebs 2 steals and a block) had good efforts off the bench. Only 3 Heat players scored in double figures: Dwyane Wade (27 pts but with 7 TOs), Shaq (16 pts 9 rebs), and Udonis Haslem (10 pts).
The Magic outscored the Heat 72-68 from the field on 51.5% shooting. MIA shot 50%. Surprisingly, the Magic had the edge from the FT line, shooting 21 of 30 (70%). The Heat shot just 16 of 23 (69.6%). The Heat decisively won the rebounding battle 37-25. However, the Heat had 20 costly TOs compared to just 12 for the Magic. Magic had just 13 assists, compared to 18 for the Heat. The Heat bench barely outscored the Magic bench 26-24.
The ORL defense was able to keep Shaq under control, 4 of the 5 starters played well for the Magic, the bench stepped in with nice performances (Outlaw and Dooling in particular), the defense played well (forcing 20 TOs) and the refs called a good game (25 MIA fouls, 22 ORL fouls). All those factors combined for a huge Magic win! The Magic streak is now at 8 out of 9, and 12 out of 16. The playoff dream is still alive, at just 3 games back. If the Magic beat ATL Mon night, WAS beats PHI, and NJ beats CHI Tues night, the Magic are only 2 games out!
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 9:15 PM
11 Comments:
At 9:34 PM,
Matt said…
A stunning performance by the Magic. Once again, they saw a huge lead dwindled, but kept their exposure to push to the finishing line, and that says a lot about this team's Character. If that's not looking too far ahead, how about mentioning that Magic will meet both PHI and CHI at home. As tough as they have been in Orlando, if both CHI and PHI lose their next games while Magic beats ATL, can we say they could be only one game off in perpetuity? Good news also from BOS ... they lost to NY.
At 10:09 PM,
Big Figure said…
Did we run?,yes,did we take advantage of mismatches?,yes,were our hands active?,HECK YES,did jameer attack? OH YEAH,inside and out! Everything got answered,and even better than i expected,dont need much analysis,we're gonna have to start talking about what these upcoming teams are gonna be able to do to stop us,and not what we need to do to beat them,i know one thing,it would be a down right shame if this team had to stop playing basketball when the regular season ends!
At 11:40 PM,
Ken said…
Wow!! Another amazing win against an upper crust team. I don't want to sound arrogant, but the Magic made the Heat look down-right MEDIOCRE... Balanced scoring, ball rotation, and solid team defense is hard to beat. Every time the Heat made a push the Magic had a reply. And even when the Heat made the run to close it to 5, the guys never lost their cool and stayed composed. It was great seeing Jameer get under Gary Payton's skin, I was beggin the ref to call that 2nd "T" on Payton. Even when Battie was called for the "flagrant" it sent a message. They aren't the "creampuff" team from the McGrady years.
At 12:13 AM,
OVERWADED said…
Great win for the Magic tonight. It's really exciting to see the playoff hopes stay alive. Now, it's sad to see the season coming to an end. I didn't expect to see the Magic dominate the game the way they did. I expected a win, but just not that easily. In the end, I was happy for the W, but it just proved to me even more that the Heat will be lucky to get past NJ in the 2nd round. They have no chance in hell to beat the Pistons. Bring back Mourning, J Williams, it's still not going to matter, they ARE NOT a championship team.
At 11:53 AM,
Big Figure said…
Yeah i agree,in retrospect the heat looked old and tired,obviously wade is the truth,but he still cant shoot,all his basket pretty much came at the hoop,their role players are just horrible,payton:Opts,HEY PAT RILEY walker is not a small forward,and doleac?was that the best they could do?I'd take kasun over doleac! I'm a fan of derek anderson but he cant play his true position with wade playing 45 minutes,they play him out of position,which hinders his game defensively,but our depth just seperated the two teams,everytime they tried to make a comeback,someone different for us hit a shot,with so many options its hard for a team to key on one of our guys,the "team concept" is making it real hard for other teams to prepare/beat this team,and the fact that this team is built so well with inside and out,means it makes it double hard to beat this club,we're young,athletic and experienced (i love the experience of our point guards,who are our leaders) at all the right positions!
At 12:09 PM,
OVERWADED said…
Orlando really made the Heat look bad last night. Pretty much in the exact same fashion the Pistons made them look bad last Thursday. It should be embarassing when the #2 team in the east loses 2 games in a row at home by a pretty large margin. Granted, one loss was against the future champion Pistons, but that should have been that much more of a reason for them to at least keep the game close. One cool note, the Heat had won 20 straight games against the Southeast Division, the last team to beat them before we did last night, was also the Magic earlier in the year.
At 12:28 PM,
Big Figure said…
And pat riley is supposed to be one of the good GM's,"IMO" none of the trades made miami any better,worse "IMO",i would have kept keyon,EJones & DJones (RButler too for that matter)! I wonder what shaq's gonna do when they are eliminated from the playoffs,will he start pondering retirement?Will he ponder playing somewhere else? Will he challege management (riley) to put better players around him?b/c the heat arent gonna win anything EVER with that combination,plus wade's non shooting behind,that makes for a bad team,at least kobe could shoot during his and shaq's championship runs!
At 3:38 PM,
Matt said…
While I agree that MIA has shown considerable weaknesses compared with DET, last night they were missing two potent 3-point shooters in Williams and Posey. I also agree that Posey is not an upgrade compared to E.Jones, but Williams should be compared to D.Jones, at least in the books. Their weakness is that D.Wade does not have range ... so last night they couldn't come back from way behind by Wade taking the ball to the basket. Additionally, Haslem's lack of size at PF was exposed by Magic, and would definitely be exposed by DET.
At 3:46 PM,
OVERWADED said…
Yeah, the Heat signed Walker for like 5 years which was a huge mistake. Still, they'll probably be able to dump him somewhere. The Glove is done and should have already retired. White Chocolate will never be the PG of a "championship team" and that should have been proven by now. And Shaq isn't getting any younger, and you might as well include Zo in that category also. I think they should have stuck with Dooling, D Jones, and E Jones. That team actually had a little chemistry. Players had roles and understood them, which is the opposite of their team now...
At 3:53 PM,
OVERWADED said…
Williams and Posey are not even worth mentioning. If anyone should have been mentioned it should be Zo. But Zo has been out for over a month. But look at the Magic, they've had Grant Hill issues for years, is that an excuse for us, no... They have Shaq, and they have Wade, and if they can't win with those two guys on the floor, their average at best role players are not going to make the difference for them.
At 8:28 PM,
Matt said…
I agree with you Intro on all your statements, but don't you agree that Williams would be an upgrade compared to D.Jones who has stunk the whole joint in CLE?
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