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.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Hot-shooting Magic relentless in pounding of NJ

The Magic (25-22, 16-9 home), without GHill for the next 2 to 3 weeks, put on their most impressive performance of the season in a 119-86 beatdown of NJ (22-25, 9-14 road), as Nets PG Jason Kidd was held scoreless in 25 minutes. Seven Magic players scored in double figures, and 11 of the 12 players scored.

The Magic were led by HTurkoglu with 22 pts on 8 of 12 FG; DHoward returned to form with 19 pts on 8 of 11 FG, and 9 rebs; DMilicic off the bench with 14 pts on 6 of 9 FG; J.J. Redick also off the bench with 13 pts; JNelson 12 pts; TBattie 11 pts, 10 rebs; and CArroyo off the bench with 10 pts. James Augustine made his first NBA appearance and scored 2 pts with 3 rebs. NJ was led by Vince Carter with 25 pts, and Eddie House off the bench with 12 pts.

The Magic (45 of 72, 62.5%) outscored NJ (33 of 74, 44.6%) from the floor 97-72. The Magic shot well from 3 pt land, going 7 of 14, while NJ shot 6 of 17 from long range. The Magic (22 of 27) shot FTs well and outscored NJ (14 of 26) from the FT line. The Magic dominated the boards 47-22. The Magic had 14 TOs compared to 9 TOs for NJ, but moved the ball very well on offense with 28 asts, while NJ had 21 asts. The Magic bench outscored the NJ bench 47-42.

A very encouraging win for the Magic, who looked excellent in every phase of the game. The Magic have now won 2 in a row, and come right back SAT night to host the NY Knicks, as the Magic try to continue to gain momentum after losing 8 of 9 games.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:21 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 12:49 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    WOW!! I'm happy this game was on ESPN... what a great performance to watch.

    I know none of us didn't want GHill to get injured, and he can still be a valuable player off the bench when he comes back, but this latest injury to Grant just may be a blessing in disguise for the Magic, as it forces BHill to use a different lineup and player rotation, which he wouldn't do otherwise.

    OVERWADED, that was an excellent observation about Hedo in your post about the GHill injury. Hedo does have a tendency to struggle when he and Grant are on the floor at the same time. As you pointed out, Hedo was such a key in the great finish to last season with Grant out.

    So look what happened against NJ with no GHill... Hedo looked much more comfortable on the floor, hitting his outside shots, and even making a few nice drives to the basket. Hedo could very well be ready for a "break-out" now, as you suggested.

    Great job by the team executing their offense with 28 assists, going to the basket, and hitting their outside shots. This game really reminded me of how the Magic played the last month of last season, with a more free-wheeling, exciting brand of offense.

    Only one Magic player (Hedo) played as many as 30 minutes, so everyone should be fresh for the Knicks on SAT night.

     

  • At 5:59 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    Great win for the magic. In my view, the collective defense of the team, and the shooting of Keith, Hedo and Jameer early on set the tone for the game. I have brought my view on "GRANT'S EFFECT", so to speak, from an earlier post:

    "The points stated about Grant not complementing when in the line up with Hedo are valid. However, Grant's natural position is SF, and we should think of putting him together with a shooter in the SG position, end result of which could be the same as having an average shooter at SG with Hedo at SF, which was the case last year with Deshawn at SG. No matter what the case, I agree that Grant cannot play heavy minutes, especially because he knows one way to play; all out. However, I like Grant to be the go to guy in crucial moments of the game. Dwight cannot be that guy due to free throw woes, and Jameer is too small for driving to the basket when opponents know that is the only play that could be drawn."

    As you have noticed, we have won without Grant this season, as well as with him. The ones that we won without him, we had Keith as his replacement, results on which games are 6-1 in our favor. We also won games with him based on his heroics and leadership. My favorite line up would be to start Keith at SG and move Grant back to SF. Hedo will then be an immediate offense coming in from the bench while playing against the second unit of the opposing teams, at which his defensive deficiencies would not be exposed.

     

  • At 6:45 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Thank you Mike.

    Turk has his season high tonight; big surprise.

    As Matt would have called it, B Hill took credit for it in the post game interviews saying that "there was a concerted effort to get Turk involved offensively, and to run plays for him"; because Grant was out.

    Tonight the Magic did what they were supposed to do. They played players in the position they're supposed to play in. Should we be surprised that the game went so smoothly for us tonight?

     

  • At 10:10 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I had a feeling the game was going to go that way with three shooters on the floor,new jersey had to pick their poison and they chose to not double dwight,exactly what i said would happen did if they didnt double,dwight was just #8 with his reverse dunk on sportcenters top ten highlights.Until grant retires he should man the small-forward position,now you can limit grants minutes but hedo should be his back-up,i totally agree with matt on that,defensive liabilities should never be starters unless injuries occur.Keith should remain as the starter at the 2guard,with JJ and trevor as depth and insurance,keyon seems to be the odd man out.

     

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