Magic/Hornets preview
The Magic (22-16, 8-10 road, 3rd East) play their last game of a 4 game road trip in OKCity against the injury-ravaged Hornets (14-22, 8-10 home, 12th West), who are missing 4 regular players. The Hornets have won 2 in a row and are coming off a 104-97 home win over WAS on FRI. Desmond Mason led NO with 22 pts. NO's scheduled game on SAT at MIL was postponed because of the icy weather in OKCity not allowing NO to fly out.
NO/OKC is missing G Chris Paul (18.4 ppg), F Peja Stojakovic (17.8 ppg), F David West (17.4 ppg), and G Bobby Jackson (10.6 ppg), all out due to injury. Among their active players, G/F Desmond Mason is the leading scorer at 13.4 ppg; G Devin Brown 11.5 ppg; G/F Rasual Butler 11.3 ppg; and G Jannero Pargo 10.9 ppg. C Tyson Chandler averages 11.3 rebs and 1.6 blocks per game. NO averages a league-low 90.2 ppg, while allowing 94.7 ppg. The Magic average 94 ppg, while allowing 92.2 ppg.
The Magic have won 4 of their last 5 games against the Hornets, and beat them 86-83 last month. NO is 13-5 when scoring at least 92 pts. The Magic have lost 6 of their last 7 road games. Magic are favored by 6 1/2 pts (www.pinnaclesports.com).
NO/OKC is missing G Chris Paul (18.4 ppg), F Peja Stojakovic (17.8 ppg), F David West (17.4 ppg), and G Bobby Jackson (10.6 ppg), all out due to injury. Among their active players, G/F Desmond Mason is the leading scorer at 13.4 ppg; G Devin Brown 11.5 ppg; G/F Rasual Butler 11.3 ppg; and G Jannero Pargo 10.9 ppg. C Tyson Chandler averages 11.3 rebs and 1.6 blocks per game. NO averages a league-low 90.2 ppg, while allowing 94.7 ppg. The Magic average 94 ppg, while allowing 92.2 ppg.
The Magic have won 4 of their last 5 games against the Hornets, and beat them 86-83 last month. NO is 13-5 when scoring at least 92 pts. The Magic have lost 6 of their last 7 road games. Magic are favored by 6 1/2 pts (www.pinnaclesports.com).
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 4:50 AM
5 Comments:
At 9:46 AM,
Matt said…
Magic is 0.004 percentage point behind DET, and a win tonight will erase that. Isn't Magic supposed to be second in the east by the virtue of leading Southeast division?
At 11:51 AM,
Big Figure said…
This game is a must win because of their injuries,staying close to 500% on the road also will keep us near the top of the east.
At 11:55 AM,
OVERWADED said…
A win tonight and we can still call this road trip a success.
The Magic should beat this team, as of late, we've been beating teams we should. I'm expecting a double figure margin after taking LA and PHX down to the final minutes.
At 12:34 PM,
Matt said…
I agree that this is a must win game, and so is the game at home, Friday night against WAS, in order to maintain the lead at Southeast division. In fact winning Southeast is the closest way to achieving, at least, the second seed in the play-offs. After Friday we have a tough stretch, which includes playing back-to-back at NJ, playing CLE (one day rest), and come back home to play back-to-back against DAL.
At 7:47 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
The seeding is different this year... because DET has a slightly better winning % than the Magic coming into this game, DET is the second seed, even though the Magic are leading the SE, and DET is second in the Central.
Even though this game should be a win for the Magic, they better not take it for granted, as just last FRI, the Hornets upset WAS.
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