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.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Magic snap losing streak with win at CLE

The Magic (23-19, 9-12 road) took advantage of a tired CLE (24-17, 15-4 home) playing its first home game after a long 7 game road trip, and did not collapse in the second half as they did the previous 2 games and won 90-79. The Magic broke a 5 game losing streak overall and a 6 game losing streak at CLE.

The Magic were led by the return of GHill to the lineup with 22 pts on 8 of 12 shooting; DHoward bounced back from the worst game of his career with 18 pts, 13 rebs; JNelson added 11 pts, 6 asts. Three members of the Magic bench, DMilicic, KBogans, and KDooling, each scored 9 pts; TDiener had 5 asts in just 14 minutes. LeBron James had a subpar game for CLE, scoring just 18 pts and missing 7 FTs in 13 attempts; Larry Hughes and Damon Jones each with 16 pts; and Drew Gooden with 12 pts, 11 rebs.

The Magic (36 of 66, 54.5%) outscored CLE (29 of 74, 39.2%) from the floor 77-64. The Magic shot an efficient 5 of 8 from 3 pt range, while CLE shot 6 of 17. CLE (15 of 27) had a slight advantage at the FT line over the Magic (13 of 21). The Magic had a solid advantage rebounding 43-31. CLE committed just 10 TOs, while the Magic had 17. CLE also had the better AST/TO ratio of 20/10; the Magic 20/17. The Magic bench outscored the CLE bench 29-24.

BHill broke his first clipboard in quite a while during the second quarter, as he was unhappy with the defensive effort by the Magic. He got his point across, as the Magic went from an 8 pt lead to a 16 pt lead at the half. Magic will find out how they fare against the best team in the league as they host DAL on TUE.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:59 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 1:34 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    The only thing that disappointed me was that J.J. Redick was back on the end of the bench; but with Dooling back I guess it was to be expected. The guys did play well off the bench, which was a big key for the win.

    Darko, Bogans, and Dooling combined to shoot 11 of 18 from the field, 4 of 5 on 3 pters, with 13 rebounds.

     

  • At 3:41 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    BULLET TIME

    Thank you Mike… Redick had the best game of his young career against the Nets. We might also add that he out played many of our other players that night. However, the game following this performance and he doesn't even dress?????

    Arroyo also improved against the Nets; regardless, for the 2nd time in the last 3 games he didn't play a minute. I can live with this, as he has been struggling for a long time. Diener deserves the minutes he is getting for now. It didn't really show in his shooting tonight, but he did finish with 5 assists. I'll also add that he plays better when J.J. is out there with them, as they play off of each other very well. Of course tonight that wasn't possible, because J.J. didn't get to dress. I guess it was more important to give that spot to Garrity?

    We’ve all said it, but I’ll say it again; Darko needs to be starting.

    I was talking to a friend of mine about basketball. He said something about the Junior Magic relating it to the Orlando Magic. I had to ask him to repeat himself. His point; he said the Magic substitutions patterns remind him of the Junior Magic because it appears Hill just has to play everyone a certain amount of minutes. He doesn't play anyone extended minutes if they are having a good game. He doesn't keep a player out there in the 4th if they are playing a better game than a starter. He has his patterns, like clockwork as I’ve said before, and it's pathetic.

    Well BIG, I can’t get on your case much, as you mentioned before that you could see the Magic having a chance tonight. Well, they pulled it off. They played a pretty solid game overall. Our defense was solid, but it sure helped a lot that our offense was in gear. I could careless if the CAVS are coming back from a road trip. Everyone has to deal with that. Continuing from last season, the CAVS home record was 29-3 at home. This was a big win; and a very much needed win. Maybe if he Magic can come home tomorrow and upset the Mavs, BIG will find some lost optimism. You can add my name to that list also.

    Kind of funny BIG; as you were talking about the Magic falling behind in the seeding. The Magic are tied for the 5th spot in the East, yet they are only 2 games out of being 1st in the East. It’s a good thing, but it’s still kind of sad.

     

  • At 1:41 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Yeah intro your right,i'll probably find that lost optimism due to the fact that the east is so horrible and not because the magic won a game.To me this team needs another 13-4 run,and the way the schedule shapes up they should be able to do it with lesser competition coming up.Two times this season we've had 5 game losing streaks to come out of it with a win in the 6th attempt,WEIRD.After watching last nights game,i'm still not very impressed with our offensive execution (17 turnovers)or attacking the basket,grant & dwight bounced back and shot very well,but jameer and turk are still taking way to many jumpshots,tommorrow it will be someone else because tonight grant shot way to many jumpshots in my opinion but he was able to make them which makes them good shots,if he misses they're bad,how will the magic fare when those shots arent falling? If the last 5 games are any indication,then i would say not good.We need to put more pressure on the officials to put us on the line on a regular basis,we're lucky we ran into a cleveland team thats actually struggling worse than we are right now,their play had nothing to do with being tired,they're just playing bad right now,thats the only reason i picked the magic to win.

     

  • At 2:12 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Good prediction Big Figure. I agree with OVERWADED that no sympathy is warranted for CLE, since that is the reality of NBA that all teams have to deal with. But let's not lose the sight of the fact that that win is not a good indicator of where the Magic stands right now, as Big Figure has noted, the same way that a loss tonight to the best team in the league is not. However, if Magic wins against DAL, despite back-to-back and all, that could be a good indicator of turning the ship around. Let's all hope for that. Amen.

     

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