Another second-half meltdown by Magic in loss to Nets
The Magic played NJ tough for about 2 1/2 quarters before the roof fell in when NJ (20-20, 13-10 home) went on a 45-18 spurt spanning the third and fourth quarters and defeated the Magic (22-19, 8-12 road) 101-94. It was the Magic's 5th loss in a row.
GHill and KDooling sat this one out for the Magic. The Magic were led by HTurkoglu with 24 pts on 9 of 14 shooting; J.J. Redick off the bench with a career-high 13 pts (3 of 4 3 pt FG); TDiener 11 pts; JNelson 11 pts; and CArroyo 10 pts, 5 asts. NJ was led by Vince Carter with 27 pts; Richard Jefferson 17 pts; reserve Eddie House 17 pts (15 pts in the fourth quarter); and Jason Kidd 16 pts, 7 asts. The Magic's DHoward was held to a season-low 1 pt on 0 of 6 shooting and fouled out in just 25 minutes.
NJ (33 of 78, 42.3%) outscored the Magic (32 of 70, 45.7%) from the field 76-73. NJ was 10 of 27 from 3 pt range, while the Magic were 9 of 17. NJ (25 of 32) had the edge at the FT line over the Magic (21 of 32). The Magic did outrebound NJ 44-42. TOs hurt the Magic again with 18, while NJ had only 10. NJ also had a much better AST/TO ratio of 25-10, while the Magic were at 18/18. The Magic bench did well, outscoring the NJ bench 48-37.
This is the mathematical midpoint of the season for the Magic. With a 22-19 record, if they maintain that pace, they will finish 44-38, still good enough for around a 6th seed and a playoff berth. Despite the second-half collapse to NJ, many positives came out of the game... the bench, specifically Redick, Diener, and Arroyo all had solid games. Turkoglu snapped out of his mini-slump and had a solid game. No one could have predicted that DHoward would score just 1 pt, however. Magic have a day of rest then travel to CLE MON night to begin the second half of the season.
GHill and KDooling sat this one out for the Magic. The Magic were led by HTurkoglu with 24 pts on 9 of 14 shooting; J.J. Redick off the bench with a career-high 13 pts (3 of 4 3 pt FG); TDiener 11 pts; JNelson 11 pts; and CArroyo 10 pts, 5 asts. NJ was led by Vince Carter with 27 pts; Richard Jefferson 17 pts; reserve Eddie House 17 pts (15 pts in the fourth quarter); and Jason Kidd 16 pts, 7 asts. The Magic's DHoward was held to a season-low 1 pt on 0 of 6 shooting and fouled out in just 25 minutes.
NJ (33 of 78, 42.3%) outscored the Magic (32 of 70, 45.7%) from the field 76-73. NJ was 10 of 27 from 3 pt range, while the Magic were 9 of 17. NJ (25 of 32) had the edge at the FT line over the Magic (21 of 32). The Magic did outrebound NJ 44-42. TOs hurt the Magic again with 18, while NJ had only 10. NJ also had a much better AST/TO ratio of 25-10, while the Magic were at 18/18. The Magic bench did well, outscoring the NJ bench 48-37.
This is the mathematical midpoint of the season for the Magic. With a 22-19 record, if they maintain that pace, they will finish 44-38, still good enough for around a 6th seed and a playoff berth. Despite the second-half collapse to NJ, many positives came out of the game... the bench, specifically Redick, Diener, and Arroyo all had solid games. Turkoglu snapped out of his mini-slump and had a solid game. No one could have predicted that DHoward would score just 1 pt, however. Magic have a day of rest then travel to CLE MON night to begin the second half of the season.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:45 AM
2 Comments:
At 11:52 AM,
Big Figure said…
Mike,maintaining a win one lose one pace isnt good,finishing with a 3 games over 500% record is well short of what this team can acheive with things in order,i wont be happy with that type of finish becuase at anytime the bottom can fall out if the gm feels like this is the best team he can put on the court,we're in a position with expiring contracts,talented trade bait,and salary cap releif come the summer,that we should be able to put a top 5 seed on the floor every night,a team good enough to win our division because we wont catch the wiz at this pace,particularly id like to have a team of young budding stars,that can play every night barring injury,we've got one vet who cant play in back to backs because the staff doesnt want him to get hurt,mike miller-joe johnson-vince carter,all those guys play in back to backs becuase their medical history isnt as tainted,otis doesnt have the power to fire BSH so we can forget that,but he does have the power to give us a winning team,last year he worked magic,he can do it again this year with a little smarts,if we're about righting wrongs in magic history,one thing he can right is bringing back mike miller,id give up anything they asked except for jameer-hedo-dwight,and off the bench trav-JJ-trevor.Everybody else can be had,grant,battie,carlos,keyon,keith,darko,pat all expendable in my opinion.
At 3:01 PM,
OVERWADED said…
At least I was finally able to watch J.J. play...
Unfortunately I had to watch Dwight get treated like he was a rookie again. It continues to amaze me the advantage they give to smaller players. Smaller players get touch fouls, yet Dwight can't do anything without being touched. Then, if tries to use a little muscle, opposing players just flop, fall down, and the officials seem to bite everytime. I've never seen so many bogus flop calls like I have this year.
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