Magic/Utah preview
It's the best in the East vs the best in the West Monday night, as the Magic (10-4, 3-3 away) take on the Jazz (12-2, 7-0 home). The Jazz are coming off their second loss of the season, losing to Golden ST SAT 91-78.
The Jazz have many players who are having strong seasons. PF Carlos Boozer, averaging 21.9 ppg on 57.7% shooting and 12.7 rebs; second year PG Deron Williams, who helped lead Illinois to the NCAA championship game in 2005, averaging 17.7 ppg and 9.2 assists; C Mehmet Okur, averaging 15.9 ppg and 9.2 rebs; former Magic G/F Matt Harpring averaging 12.5 ppg, and G Derek Fisher, averaging 10.5 ppg. Former Magic G Gordie Giricek is averaging 7.9 ppg on 51.2% shooting. F Andrei Kirilenko is back from injury, averaging 7.4 ppg, 5.6 rebs and 2.8 blocks per game. Rookie Paul Millsap is doing well, averaging 7.1 ppg and 4.9 rebs.
The Jazz average 106.1 ppg, and allow 100.2 ppg. The Magic average 97.4 ppg, and allow 93.9 ppg. UT has beaten the Magic 8 of the last 10 games in UT. A key for the Magic will be defense, as the Jazz have lost their only 2 games they didn't score 100 or more pts. UT is a 5 1/2 pt favorite (www.pinnaclesports.com).
The Jazz have many players who are having strong seasons. PF Carlos Boozer, averaging 21.9 ppg on 57.7% shooting and 12.7 rebs; second year PG Deron Williams, who helped lead Illinois to the NCAA championship game in 2005, averaging 17.7 ppg and 9.2 assists; C Mehmet Okur, averaging 15.9 ppg and 9.2 rebs; former Magic G/F Matt Harpring averaging 12.5 ppg, and G Derek Fisher, averaging 10.5 ppg. Former Magic G Gordie Giricek is averaging 7.9 ppg on 51.2% shooting. F Andrei Kirilenko is back from injury, averaging 7.4 ppg, 5.6 rebs and 2.8 blocks per game. Rookie Paul Millsap is doing well, averaging 7.1 ppg and 4.9 rebs.
The Jazz average 106.1 ppg, and allow 100.2 ppg. The Magic average 97.4 ppg, and allow 93.9 ppg. UT has beaten the Magic 8 of the last 10 games in UT. A key for the Magic will be defense, as the Jazz have lost their only 2 games they didn't score 100 or more pts. UT is a 5 1/2 pt favorite (www.pinnaclesports.com).
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 4:20 AM
3 Comments:
At 2:39 PM,
Big Figure said…
Utah is a big team alot like us,but not one of their starting five is a real post up threat (boozer is average in the post because of lack of height),so that means they will try and manufacture points all night with jerry sloan's great basketball mind,mistakes by the magic will lead to points,so turnovers will be key tonight,to me this is an interesting match-up even without involving the records,utah will pick-n-roll,use down screens,run motion offense,and back door cuts to the basket for easy lay-ups,the magic must know where their guys are defensively tonight.
At 3:03 PM,
Big Figure said…
Three keys to a magic victory.(1)Jameer and hedo must attack the basket,it seems as if dwight/battie and grant understand how to be a good basketball team,by not relying on your jumpshot when it isnt falling and taking the ball to the basket,it seems as if jameer and hedo try and get themselves out of a shooting slump,by shooting more shots,which in turn never works out in their favor,it only makes their shooting percentages for that night look horrible,if were gonna win out west we need jameer and hedo to be aggressive and not rely solely on outside shooting.(2)Rebounding,for a team like utah,which doesnt have great individual scorers,you cant give them second chance opportunities,we must take care of defensive rebounding even if our offensive rebounding isnt great,they will shoot high percentage shots,so keeping your guy boxed out will be crucial.(3)Substitutions,this is an area that seems to really cost us,BSH must realize that teams will react to us if we dictate style of play,but to many times we try and match up with other teams and it backfires,plus keyon and keith should never play on the floor together,when we saw BSH play keyon,keith and trevor all at the same time the second unit really struggled because trevor doesnt post like hedo does,trevor needs to always play the three where he can give you his all-around floor game,if you need to go small at the PF then use hedo,also darko needs to play at least 30 minutes,and those minutes should come with dwight on the floor,if dwight can stay out of foul trouble we should see alot of darko and dwight tonight.
At 9:18 PM,
OVERWADED said…
I couldn't have really said it better.
My quick thoughts that tag along with yours first relate to Dwight and Darko. They need to play a lot together tonight. We all know Dwight will be playing, pending foul trouble, but it's up to Brian Hill to get Darko out there and keep him out there. The two towers SHOULD have a huge impact on tonights game, not so much Battie though.
Grant Hill will probably have a typical G Hill game.
Hedo really needs to get his game going. He has been out of it for a while now.
I expect Arroyo to come in ready to play off the bench and have a big game.
I figured I'd throw a few names out there, since you already nailed all the keys of what the Magic need to do tonight. Regardless, it'll be a tough game. The stage is set for us to lose tonight. The Jazz are coming off of only their 2nd loss this season. They are undefeated at home. The Magic have only won 3 out of the last 29 games in the last 3 years out west; SCARY. Still, I think the game will go down the wire, and I really believe they might be able to steal a win.
Magic 104-101.
Good seeing Dwight getting some love from the league with the Eastern Conf Player of the week award.
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