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, November 26, 2006

Magic start fast, coast past ATL

The Magic (10-4), thanks to a balanced effort that saw 6 players score in double figures and 11 of the 12 players who played score, led at the half by 28 pts and coasted to a 98-79 win over the Hawks. The Magic have now won 7 of their last 8 games.

CArroyo led the balanced attack with 15 pts off the bench. HTurkoglu scored 14 pts, KDooling and KBogans scored 13 each, and DHoward and JNelson scored 11 each. J.J. Redick saw his first action of the season and scored 2 pts. Shelden Williams and Joe Johnson led the Hawks with 16 apiece.

The Magic (35 of 77, 45.5%) outscored ATL (26 of 73, 35.6%) from the floor 77-54. The Magic hit on 7 of 16 3 pters. ATL (25 of 33, 75.8%) had the edge at the FT line (ORL 21 of 29, 72.4%). The Magic outrebounded ATL 46-41. The Magic had the better assist/turnover ratio of 21-17, while ATL had a dismal 10-19 ratio. The Magic bench was strong yet again, outscoring the ATL bench 49-32.

Great job by everyone playing well in Grant's absence. Nice job by BHill making sure the team was ready to play this game after a tough win in MIA FRI night. Nice to see that Darko's minutes are gradually increasing (7 pts 5 rebs 3 assists in 31 minutes). The Magic now go out West for a tough 6 game road trip starting MON at Utah.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:35 AM  

5 Comments:

  • At 8:50 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    Magic did what they had to do, namely winning a game that they should have won. They had the right approach, in the absence of their top scorer, to win it on the defensive side with Keith Bogans on Joe Johnson, and yet they were able to reach their average of points output.

    Now they are off to this gruelling 6-game road trip, first of which with Utah where the teams with the best records in the east and west meet. I don't have enough information on Utah to make any comment, and look forward to Big Figure's detailed pregame analysis.

    For the final note, here is the latest quote from Hill on starting Darko:

    "I don't even worry about the starting lineup," Hill said. "I just worry about making sure Darko continues to develop and remains consistent."

    It seems that, once again, he shows his lack of understanding of Darko's impact on the Magic's prospect in the long term. He is sheepishly oblivious to the risks involved, and thinks as the team is winning there is nothing to worry about starting line-up. The question is: where does Smith fall on this issue?

     

  • At 11:36 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Not that I'd ever want to come to Hill's defense, but here is the rest of what he said in regards to Darko.

    Consistency has been Milicic's challenge. His defense has become a staple, but the Magic have tried to get him involved in the offense when he enters a game. "When Darko has early success, his confidence soars," Hill said.

    While Hill said Milicic remains "a work in progress," he added, "He's how we're going to get better."

    While I still feel the same as everyone else; that Darko should be starting, at least in Hill's own retarded way, it sounds like he knows the importance of Darko. Then again, the question follows, if he knows this, then why doesn't he do something about it? I guess that's just another one of the many things he lacks as a coach. He also contradicts himself. He says it himself that if Darko gets off to a good start, his confidence soars. Well, the problem most of the time, is that Darko only hits the floor for a few minutes, and never has a chance to get into the flow of the game. As far as I can see, the only issue Darko has is his confidence, you can't blame him for that because of his history, and the coach needs to be the one helping him. There is a good chance the only way Darko will end up in the starting lineup this year is if Battie gets hurt, and that's sad.

    Speaking of Hill, he really got on my nerves last night. The Magic were up from 20-30 pretty much the entire 2nd half. The crowd starting chanting "we want J.J." in the 3rd quarter. The chants only continued to grow as the game went on. Then, what does Hill do, he asks Diener to check into the game. I was like, "O-K". The rest of the crowd that was watching the bench basically reacted the same. Then, Hill asked J.J. to check in, J.J. stood, and the crowd exploded. The most exciting minutes of the entire game were involving J.J. My question, being that we were pretty much in control the entire game, J.J. is healthy, and still not getting any playing time; why not put him in the game with more the 3 minutes to go? Would it really have hurt to give the kid some minutes?

     

  • At 12:05 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Well said, Introvert316. I particularly agree with your assertion that Hill contradicts himself, a lot. His refusal to play J.J. is plain foolish from all angles. Besides the PR angle, this is a guy who is going to be needed on a team whose best long range shooter is Hedo. No knock on Hedo, but he has been an inconsistent shooter all his career; when he is on he is way too good but watch-out when he is off.

    As for Darko, in addition to what Introvert316 has mentioned, what Hill does not seem to understand is that Darko may lose interest being used sparingly coming off the bench, and look forward to a fresh start somewhere else, or even ask for a trade, and I bid there are plenty of takers who promise the kid a place in the starting line-up. One other factor, that I mentioned before in terms of Darko's consistency, is that practicing with the first unit may solve many of his inconsistencies. He seems to play more consistent when he is on the floor with the second unit (Carlos and Keyon), with whom he practices.

    I guess we all agree that Hill is not a very deep smart man, which brings me again to the question I posed before: where is Otis Smith in exerting his authorities as GM? Is he deferring to Hill?

     

  • At 12:29 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    THATS THE KIND OF PERFORMANCE I WAS LOOKING FOR,FINALLY WE DIDNT LET ATL PUSH US AROUND,another good win for the guys,i'm not sure any of us are ready for this kind of production,i'm so used to being mad the next morning after playing weak teams,but the magic have started to at least beat the bad teams,so all is good for now,but some of our bad habits showed up again last night,the guys have to start tightening up on those turnovers on this west coast trip,they can easily cost you a game on the road. On to utah,a team built just like us,BIG!!!

     

  • At 9:20 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    If BHill doesn't want to start Darko right now. at least play him the 31 minutes that he saw against ATL in every game. If Hill plays Darko at least 28-30 minutes a game off the bench, Darko's numbers and confidence should continue to grow, and maybe one day Hill will surprise us and put Darko in the starting lineup, where he should be for the best interests of the Magic and for Darko.

    I agree that BHill needs to do a better job in finding J.J. Redick playing time now that he is healthy. Hopefully during the upcoming road trip we'll see more of him. As Matt mentioned, we don't have many 3 pt threats, so Redick's deadly long-range shooting would be yet another boost off the bench.

     

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