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.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Magic edge Spurs in dramatic fashion

DHoward's spectacular catch and dunk over Tim Duncan with 0.2 seconds left off an inbounds pass from HTurkoglu gave the Magic (26-25, 17-10 home) an incredible come-from-behind 106-104 victory over SA (33-17, 17-9 away). The Magic trailed by as many as 18 pts in the first half. The key to the comeback was a 3 guard offense used by the Magic for much of the second half.

Heroes were abundant for the Magic in this game. JNelson led the Magic with a season-high 31 pts on 12 of 20 FGs, including a remarkable 16 pts in a row bridging the third and fourth quarter; DHoward with 30 pts on 11 of 14 FGs and 8 rebs; J.J. Redick with a career-high 16 pts off the bench on 6 of 11 FGs; and CArroyo also off the bench with 12 pts on 6 of 9 FGs and 7 asts. SA was led by Duncan's 24 pts, 16 rebs; Brent Barry with 21 pts; Michael Finley off the bench with 18 pts, and Tony Parker with 17 pts

The Magic (42 of 77, 54.5%) outscored SA (40 of 79, 50.6%) from the field 90-88. The Magic hit 6 of 14 from 3 pt range, while SA was 8 of 18 on 3's. Both teams were even from the FT line, with the Magic 16 of 20, and SA 16 of 24. SA won the rebounding battle 35-28. SA had a slightly better AST/TO ratio of 26-11, while the Magic's AST/TO ratio was a respectable 22/12. The SA bench edged the Magic bench 36-32.

Spurs coach Greg Popovic after the game: "That was a fantastic catch by a really dynamic young player. But Dwight was great the whole night. It was a fantastic win for Orlando."

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:53 PM  

8 Comments:

  • At 12:16 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    WOW!! That catch and dunk by Dwight just might be the play of the year so far in the NBA!

    What a great win for the Magic... I'm really happy for the guys... this kind of win should be a real confidence builder for the team... coming from 18 pts down against a top NBA team.

    I have to give BHill credit too. Instead of using the same, predictable substitutions and rotations that he usually does, he finally came up with something bold with the 3 guard offense with Nelson, Arroyo, and Redick in the second half... all 3 played outstanding.

    The Magic are now 1 1/2 games ahead of the Heat, who lost, and stayed 2 games ahead of NJ, who won. I'll feel a lot better about the Magic's playoff chances if they can avoid a letdown and beat NJ SAT night.

     

  • At 2:18 AM, Blogger Ken said…

    Dwight plays at another level than just mere mortals.. Incredible catch and dunk over one of the games best players. I agree with you mike, that has got to be the play of the year so far.

    Great game by everyone, especially by Bo Outlaw grabbing some key offensive rebounds when they needed them most. It was also nice to see Jameer break out of his semi-funk and have the kind of game we all know he's capable of. JJ seems to be getting more comfortable with each game as his minutes increase.

    I'll refrain from calling this win a confidence builder until after saturday nights game against NJ.

     

  • At 8:00 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    What a fantastic game and a spectacular finish by Dwight. Hopefully Magic can build on this a get a win tonight, since it is important to keep distance with NJ. In my estimate, MIA is gonna pass Magic and the battle for the 8th play-offs spot would be with NJ. A word of caution on using 3 guards combination; all three have to play at their highest for that to work. It worked with Spurs also because: 1) Brent Barry is not hard to defend if not left open, and; 2) Ginobili was erratic last night.

    It is funny, as much as we mention that we will accept losses to get rid of Hill, we cannot help but to rejoice in the team's victories and hope for more.

     

  • At 1:36 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Very well said matt,i'll take it a step further,you cant help but to rejoice when they win in that type of fashion,plus the three guard rotation wont work on most nights because san antone has no perimeter post players,not one of their guards can post up,so it was actually a no brainer to use guards,bsh "HAD" to match up because the speed of parker,ginobli and barry which is a three guard line-up was killing us in the first half,so in the second bsh finally decided that if keith (keith gets a pass because he's playing injured)and hedo werent going to give max effort he was going to go with a match-up line-up,plus you cant coach "HOT",and thats what jj was in the first half,and jameer was the third and fourth quarters,also if jameer doesnt hit the shot to tie the game were all killing bsh this morning and giving praise to the guys who played hard,i give bsh no credit for this victory,the players won despite the coaching in my opinion,the fact that while darko was playing duncan in the third quarter he was shutting him down,but yet bsh kept going back to dwight against duncan shows that we can win with who we have healthy,i'm sure alot of you guys felt the same way,were losing because of the coach.

     

  • At 3:32 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    You all know that we have been pushing for some minutes to be given to J.J. and Hill was not budging. He brings in J.J. not because he wanted to but out of necessity, and J.J. plays so big that Hill could not keep him out. I didn't notice the post-game interviews whether or not Hill claimed credit for himself.

     

  • At 4:28 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Mixed emotions...

    Of course it was an amazing game to watch. David Stern couldn't have scripted a better game. However, all of you have valid points.

    First, I'm almost expecting the Magic to build off of this. That game really felt like the Magic of last year, or November. It almost makes you wonder if the players had lost their confidence. Whatever the problem is, it sure didn’t show last night. Tonight will prove it in NJ. The Nets should be pissed, seeing that we embarrassed them a week ago on national TV; so they should be ready to go. If the Magic can win tonight, I might start believing again; (in the players, not the coach). If they lose, the win meant nothing, except a few players caught fire.

    Still, it feels like a double edge sword. I want the Magic to win, but I want them to lose, as I want a reason for B Hill to get out of here. However, I'm giving up on that idea, especially for the fact that none of these losses really count against him because of team injuries.

    BIG said well, how can you give any of this victory to the coach? He didn't do anything. Redick, Jameer, Howard, and Arroyo put up numbers. The play to Howard at the end was great, but there was no other choice really. After all, it was Hedo's great pass, and Dwight's unbelievable self that made the play happen. Still, it was awesome.

    As of late we've mentioned a lot about point guard play. Well tonight, the Jameer we'd come to love showed up. It's been a long time since we've seen Jameer play like that. And for that matter, Arroyo followed right along with him.

    Last, we've been calling for Redick all year long. The kid literally gets better every game. How can you not love the confidence the kid is playing with. Can you imagine how he’d be playing now if B Hill actually gave him anytime the first have of the season? I pray B Hill doesn't push him to the back of the line again when other players start to return from injuries.

    When Ariza comes back, I’m personally looking forward to see a lineup of Nelson, Redick, Ariza, Darko, and Dwight on the floor together.

     

  • At 6:00 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Good points intro,and i have one last point,jameer's success last night came because he was allowed to play off-the-ball,for the last half of the third and pretty much the whole fourth quarter,carlos was the point guard with jameer at the two and JJ playing the three,like i said in the previous post that will only work against teams built like the spurs,but in any case,it really seemed like jameer played alot more care-free and aggressive,it seemed like him not having to worry about getting others involved really gave him the confidence to only focus on putting the ball in the hoop,and boy did he.I said a while back,that i thought jameer would benefit from being able to play off-the-ball sometimes,sorta like a "vinny johnson" just instantly heating up the team,and thats exactly what happened last night,jameer looked more like vinny than i ever thought,offensively he has the total package,and when he blows by someone and leaves them in his tracks,he looks like a bowling ball going to the hoop,if i were the coach there would be designed times during a game where i would let jameer play off the ball,and obviously depending on match-ups you can still use JJ as we saw last night.

     

  • At 4:06 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Good point BIG. You'd think we'd have seen that a lot more this year when Grant Hill was in the line up. When Grant returns, I'm going to watch for that. G Hill was basically a "point forward" his entire career, until the injury years in Orlando. Why not, from time to time, let Grant bring the ball up, and give Jameer the chance to play off the ball. Otherwise, we'll only be able to do that against smaller teams.

     

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