Magic hope to bounce back against Wizards tonight
The Washington Wizards bring a 1-1 mark into TDW for tonight's game, while the Magic are 1-2 and coming off a clunker against ATL Sunday afternoon.
The Wizards beat BOS in their previous game 124-117, as star G Gilbert Arenas scored 44 pts, after scoring just 7 the first game. WAS has two other players averaging over 20 pts: Antawn Jamison (24.5 ppg) and Caron Butler (21.5 ppg). Antonio Daniels (11.5 ppg) and Etan Thomas (10.5 ppg) also average in double figures. Former Magic G Deshawn Stevenson is averaging 4.5 ppg and 3 rebs.
The Magic have won 8 of their last 9 games against the Wizards in ORL. They must stop Arenas from going off from the field. The Magic have a host of things they have not done well the last two games, and must improve in areas like fewer turnovers, better FT shooting, distributing the ball better, better outside shooting, staying out of foul trouble, and being prepared to play the game. Magic are 3 pt favorites (www.pinnaclesports.com).
The Wizards beat BOS in their previous game 124-117, as star G Gilbert Arenas scored 44 pts, after scoring just 7 the first game. WAS has two other players averaging over 20 pts: Antawn Jamison (24.5 ppg) and Caron Butler (21.5 ppg). Antonio Daniels (11.5 ppg) and Etan Thomas (10.5 ppg) also average in double figures. Former Magic G Deshawn Stevenson is averaging 4.5 ppg and 3 rebs.
The Magic have won 8 of their last 9 games against the Wizards in ORL. They must stop Arenas from going off from the field. The Magic have a host of things they have not done well the last two games, and must improve in areas like fewer turnovers, better FT shooting, distributing the ball better, better outside shooting, staying out of foul trouble, and being prepared to play the game. Magic are 3 pt favorites (www.pinnaclesports.com).
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 2:28 PM
4 Comments:
At 4:13 PM,
Big Figure said…
Boy mike,right now we're just playing very poorly,you named 6 different things the magic needed to do better,and your right about every one,which shows me we're not a good team right now,players and coaches deserve blame.I wanted to take some time and talk about one thing i see thats holding us back that can only be blamed on the coach. Dwight and tony/grant and hedo..........(dwight and tony i'll talk about first)"How does battie compliment dwight at all"?? Battie is a scrappy defender no more no less,he's an average/inconsistent shooter that doesnt have great range,so why wouldnt we have problems with floor spacing with that combination on the floor together,defensive players when used by a smart coach usually come in the game to slow an offensive player that has it going,they usually have plenty of energy because they haveny had to play major minutes,they can focus on making it tough for said offensive player,but no,BSH starts these guys (he did it last year with deshawn,when we all know grant when healthy should be the starter)and when pachulia had it going we we're forced to watch dwight (in foul trouble might i add)try and slow him,but how can he if he's worried about his foul count,a fresh battie coming off the bench and not starting or playing major minutes would have been perfect in that situation. And now grant and hedo,first of all we're in big trouble with these two playing together under this coach,grants a small forward playing the two,and hedo's a scorer playing the three,thats a big problem,BSH has their roles reversed and its causing hedo to be non involved with what the team is doing offensively to start games which hurts our offensive effectiveness,against philly hedo at 6ft10 was being guarder by 6ft0 A.I.,why wasnt that mismatch ran into the ground??,it wasnt untill mid-way through the fourth quarter that we finally saw hedo posting up A.I.,which got him going way to late,he wound up hitting a big three to extend the game,but we could have used that offensive confidence way earlier in the game,i cant understand why BSH doesnt let grant find his way throughout a game,grant score's in transition alot and knows how to get himself to the free-throw line,you dont need to call offensive sets for him,but hedo's a shooter he needs confidence throughtout a game,getting him going early is way more important than running sideline isolations for grant,their roles need to be reversed and boy in a hurry,hedo's the shooter ala "shooting guard",grants the 6 time all-start at small-forward,which means he's the best at playing an all around floor game,no offensive sets need to be run for him and he still will get you all-star numbers,i see alot more loses coming our way untill the guys themselves start understanding how to play together,because they arent getting any help from the coaching staff,they obviously think these combinations work.
At 4:36 PM,
Big Figure said…
At this point untill they show that they can play together effectively,i'm changing my three keys.The new pre-game analysis (which may change now from day to day)will be called "Who must show up,for the magic to get a win"! Calling tony battie,tony's had two straight sub-par performances,even though none of us think he should be the starter,if he wants to remain the starter he's got to give us more. Calling jameer nelson,yesterday was a game i'm sure jameer will want to forget,he was very francis like with five turnovers and just four pts,jameers got to get to the hoop and stop shooting so many jumpshots,taking care of the ball is also high priority,if jameer wants to remain the starter,he has to be better,especially the way carlos is playing. Calling turk and keyon,GET TO THE BASKET FIRST,then after you've hit a few,the jumpshots seem to fall much easier. Because grant and dwight see so much attention,they've been excused,and keith,carlos and darko have been fine.
At 2:55 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Brutal, I will not disagree with you what you said about DeShawn. However, thanks to some bad advice from his agent, he severely over-priced himself, and was forced to sign with the Wizards for a couple million less than what the Magic had offered him.
The Magic were able to sign Bogans at about the same salary they had offered Deshawn. Smart move... I think Bogans brings a lot to the table. First off, he's a lot better outside shooter than Deshawn... Deshawn made only two 3 pt FGs all of last season and was not a good outside shooter. Bogans has two 3 pt FGs already in just 4 games.
Bogans had injury problems with Charlotte, which prevented him from getting steady playing time. He may not be quite the defender that Stevenson is, but I think he is adequate enough.
Look how well Bogans did off the bench Monday night. In just 18 minutes, he scored 8 pts, including a 3 pt FG, had 3 assists, a rebound and steal; and did well with Arroyo and Dooling in the fourth quarter. If he can play like that every game, that will really be a big lift for the Magic.
Also, this is the last year of Garrity's contract, so maybe some team might find value in taking his expiring contract.
I still believe that J.J. Redick will provide the Magic with great outside shooting off the bench once he is healthy... we just have to be patient.
At 1:38 PM,
Big Figure said…
I respectfully disagree with brutal,and tend to side with mike on this issue,pat garrity and keith bogans are no where near the same when it comes to contribution,pat gives us nothing and deshawn couldnt shoot at all,at least keith bogans hit some three's last night,how many did deshawn hit? None,thats because he doesnt even attempt three's,which causes teams defense to sag around dwight,keith spreads the floor and is tough under the basket (evidence is the big rebound),i'm glad he's here. And also there's no way you can take hedo out of the starting line-up for keyon,keyon would be a defensive liabilty going up against starting two guards where he would be outsized every night pretty much,the only thing that needed to be done was hedo's and grants role needed to be reversed,last night hedo was the focal point and we got the win,grants much better at playing the floor game.
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