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.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Bosh dominates Magic again in TOR victory

10 Comments:

At 2:04 AM, Mike from Illinois said…

Despite losing rookie Andrea Bargnani, TOR (37-31, 24-10 home) parlayed a huge rebounding advantage, poor Magic FG shooting, and a huge game by Chris Bosh, as the Raptors stopped another Magic one game winning streak by beating the Magic (31-38, 11-24 away) 92-85.

TOR was led by Bosh, who scored 34 pts with 16 rebs; T.J. Ford 16 pts, 12 asts; and Juan Dixon off the bench with 15 pts. ORL was led by GHIll, with 24 pts, 5 rebs; DHoward 17 pts, 12 rebs but only 5 of 13 FTs; JNelson 15 pts, with 12 of those coming in the 4th quarter; and TAriza led the reserves with 7 pts. HTurkoglu scored just 4 pts on 1 of 11 FGs. KDooling added 6 pts, 6 asts, and 4 steals in reserve, but shot just 3 of 12.

TOR (30 of 71, 42.3%) outscored the Magic (28 of 75, 37.3%) from the field 63-61. The Magic made 5 of 10 3 pt FGs, while TOR was 3 of 12 from long range. TOR (29 of 38) had the edge at the FT line over the Magic (24 of 37). TOR had a dominating 55-38 advantage on the boards. The Magic at least took better care of the ball, with just 10 TOs, compared to 14 for TOR, but TOR had 21 asts to the Magic's 14. The Magic bench, which had done so well the past 3 games, was outscored by the TOR bench 30-19.

Despite the Magic loss, they moved percentage points into the 8th spot, ahead of NY and IND, as the Pacers lost also WED. NJ visits the Magic FRI night, as the Magic shoot for the 7th spot in the East.
At 2:37 AM, Mike from Illinois said…

I had a bad feeling about this game, considering that TOR played so bad on SUN, that TOR has played so well against the Magic the last 5 meetings, and how Chris Bosh always has big games against the Magic.

Big Figure, you got it right again in your pre-game comments, when you said that the Magic have to have at least average games from Battie and Hedo, that they can't play horrible and expect to win... well, Battie was average with 6 pts, 7 rebs; but Hedo was horrible, shooting just 1 of 11 for 4 pts. No doubt that played a big part in the Magic loss.

Nice to see Grant have a breakout game, after struggling for a while, also to JNelson for hitting some big shots in the 4th quarter to keep the Magic in it, after struggling the first 3 quarters.

I followed most of the 4th quarter on the internet... one thing I could not understand was why were Nelson and Dooling on the court together for most of the quarter? Why not pair J.J. Redick with either one or the other, instead of having him on the bench? We sure could have used J.J.'s outside shooting. True, Dooling contributed 6 asts and 4 steals, but his 3 of 12 FG shooting really hurt. Redick played only 11 minutes... he had been getting more playing time than that recently... why not against TOR?

No excuse for the Magic to be outrebounded by 17... also, the poor FG%... and Dwight missing 8 FTs. A game like this was certainly there for the Magic to win, but you look at the stats, you could see why we didn't.
At 2:54 AM, OVERWADED said…

If the Magic don't make the playoffs in the East, it's pathetic.

If the Magic squeak into the 8th spot, we'll get the default beating in the 1st round against the Pistons.

And if the Magic could actually win a few games in a row, we could get into the 7th spot. While I like our chances better against the Cavs, it's hard for me to imagine myself wanting to watch us play King James's Cavs. The NBA has two players that the love to pimp in the East, Wade and Lebron. I don't know if I can take watching the Magic being apart of that parade.

So what do I hope for? I guess I should think in a positive way. If the Magic make the playoffs and lose, chalk it up as experience.

If the Magic don’t make the playoffs, there are greater odds in some serious changes with the Magic. What’s the saying; 1 step back, 2 steps forward?

As for tonight's game, I don’t know if I really care anymore. G Hill finally shows up. I’m not surprised, as he’s had a pattern like that all season. Same goes for Nelson and Turk, but they were no shows for the game, until Nelson hit a few baskets in the 4th. Pretty much everyone struggled. It was really painful having to watch this game for me. The biggest difference was the Raptors play as a team. TJ Ford torn us apart and was finding his guys all night. He’s making everyone on his team better. I'm beginning to understand that Jameer will never be capable of that. Hell, Dooling in his 4th game playing backup point guard had 6 assists, and that's become a long shot for Jameer this season. Maybe the Magic should make a push for Billups this summer? I know it's easy to think the worst right now, but I just don't know how Jameer is going to cut it. Even when he's playing well, the only thing that means is all the shots he's forcing are going in. He rarely looks to pass, and doesn't make anyone on the team better. Someone really just needs to tell him to keep things simple. He makes everything he does so difficult because he tries to force things to happen. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
At 11:12 AM, Big Figure said…

Our starting unit is just killing us,to start the game we scored 11pts in the first 8 minutes of the quarter,compared to the raptors 22 11 seems pretty pathetic,intro hit it right on the head,notice how now that we play the right way with the right rotations how you can see how much certain players impact the game on a night to night basis,jameer is not a top flight point guard,he's a back-up that should be used in a scoring role,when steve was here and the starter,jameer would come off the bench scoring the ball and we all saw that and figured hey he should be the starter,but with starter minutes we see that jameer lacks play making ability,he cant consistently figure out how to beat defenses with the pass like we watch other point guards do to us on a regular basis,who cares that when he's got it going he can be a very effective scorer/shooter,ford cant shoot and look at his impact by passing,i'm almost tired of watching jameer play shooting guard at out point guard spot,the first shot of the game for jameer was a jumpshot,oh and he missed it. At this point after 4 games i have a new nickname for jameer and hedo,jameer's putting a "full nelson" on our offense by basically not being a point guard,point guards pass,and hedo's "streaky turkey" no explanation needed!!! To be honest i dont think taking on a 30 year old billups would be the wise choice,getting rashard is the only option,the reason the magic have games like last night is simple,we count on to many guys from night to night for offense PERIOD,we re-invent the wheel everytime down the floor because we dont have that one scorer to lean on,we basically have to get good or at least average games from the nine players we play every night to have a chance,and when you dont have good floor leadership coming from the front of your offense/defense your in big trouble,at this point i'd like to see keyon moved into the starting line-up,instantly we would get better defensively and i'm sure with more minutes keyon would break the double figure assist mark,which jameer wont do with two games of statistics,i cant see signing jameer to an extension,if someone throws big dollars at him i'd let him walk and keyon could take over as the starter,ford cant shoot either so thats not an arguement for keyon not being able to shoot as consistently as jameer,i'll take the 6pts,6assits and 4 steals,imagine if he got jameer's minutes,keyon's shots would go down and our players would be made alot better,when dwight was struggling last night with the starters,keyon came in and instantly found dwight for a dunk and lay-up.
At 1:09 PM, Big Figure said…

The officiating was horrible also,JJ and keyon were noticably fouled in the third period and no calls came,dwight and darko both were getting pounded in the first period and no calls came,boy toronto had everything in their favor last night,even the ball just seemed to bounce their way.
At 1:41 PM, Ken said…

You read my mind big figure. I was sitting there watching the first quarter thinking, we got the worst starting line-up in the NBA. A shoot first at any cost point guard, and the streakiest fwd that ever played the game. I agree that something needs to be done about Jameer. He obviously isn't getting the job done with the starting unit, why not give Keyon a shot and bring Jameer off the bench in a scoring roll...

While i'm at it. The Magic need to do a better job of developing Dwight. His post game has become entirely to predictable. When defenses collapse on him he struggles to find the open man, many times not even trying to, and is turning the ball over way to much. How many times have we seen the ball slapped out of his hands in the post? A raw but talented kid like him needs leadership and guidence and I don't think he's getting it here.

The Magic are revealing themselves now for what they are. A poorly coached, un-motivated, un-disciplined, inconsistent, under achieving group of players with no idea how to play as a team. The season can't be over soon enough for me...
At 2:23 PM, Big Figure said…

Ken you read my mind with the dwight follow up comments,i was thinking myself last night that dwight is very limited,i know i've said that before but last night was the most evident i can remember,toronto's game plan was to double dwight all night long,and because time and time again we got nothing out of dwight post ups because guys didnt take the ball to the basket strong or when they did we missed lay-ups at the rim like we were a team that played the night before,plus dwight struggled to find the open man just like you said at the same time,but more importantly if you are a coach coaching dwight what else can you do? You cant run pick and roll with dwight for two reason's,(1)He cant shoot:If dwight wants to become a shooter he needs to stay extra and take more shots,notice that trevor has become a better shooter right in front of our eyes,dwight can no longer blame the coaching staff around him,one day he's gonna have to take on the resposibility to become a better shooter by working harder at it,at least from about 10-12 feet,not hard in my opinion.(2)We have a shoot first point guard:Last night everytime tj ford went around a pick he looked to pass,on the contrary,everytime jameer went around a pick he looked to shoot,dwight wont get any shot attempts anyway playing with jameer.BSH likes to run the offense through dwight,so very rarely does he get offensive rebounds,also we cant keep giving him the ball in the fourth quarter if he's gonna miss 9 free-throws,so what your left with is basically hoping teams play dwight one-on-one so that we can see him show off the one skill he has,back to the basket/faceup post moves,obviously dunks arent considered a skill. As much as i love dwight,i'm starting to think letting dwight play off the ball in more of a ben wallace role would be better for dwight,he'd have a chance to run the floor more,he'd have a chance at a ton more offensive rebounds,my suggestion would to be to put darko in the starting line-up and run the offense through darko,he's a taller player to see over the defense better and he can shoot his free-throws to boot.
At 8:30 PM, Ken said…

You hit the nail right on the head big figure about the missed lay-ups. There are just to many mistakes by a team that supposedly calls themselves "professionals" I agree that Dwight needs to take it upon himself to expand his game more. Ultimately it is his call. But I also think that while he is under contract with the Magic, they still have an obligation to develop his talent to the best of their ability. I don't expect BSH to understand this, hell, BSH doesn't understand much of anything. But Otis, being a former player himself should know at least a little bit about player development. Dwight was fresh out of high school when he joined the Magic, they could start with the fundamentals and work their way up.

It would be interesting to see the offense ran through Darko instead of Dwight. Who knows, perhaps Darko would blossom into an incredible post player. It sure couldn't hurt at this point. The only thing that I would worry about is how Dwight would view this. The fragile ego's of NBA stars being what they are, would Dwight look at this as a demotion or a lack of faith in him?
At 3:18 AM, OVERWADED said…

Is it just me, or has Dwight's game went down since Darko left the starting 5?

With Darko on the floor regularly, Dwight's offense was coming ALOT easier, and I think that's obvious.

For a while, Dwight has been talking about developing a jumper, but Brian Hill and the Magic told him that's not where they want him. They don't want him shooting 15 foot shots. They want him on the block, and that's all. I've heard Otis and Brian say that. As for Dwight, last summer he was shooting little jumpers all day at the RDV. His shot looked pretty good to me; but if you don't have a green light in games, it's not going to happen.

I can't blame anything on Dwight. He’s 21, and has had some of the worst coaching in the league; I think he's exceeding all expectations. He's our most consistent player. The only complaint I have with him is his free throws. He needs to keep working on them. Right now it's a confidence issue.

As for his other struggles, I blame the offense Brian Hill runs, and the players surrounding Dwight. Let's look at the starting 5. Battie, how does he help Dwight at all? He doesn't... Hedo, he probably compliments Dwight's game more than anyone else in the starting rotation, yet he's also the streakiest of them all. G Hill, in and out, on and off, no range beyond 18 feet, his passing game has all but vanished, he does nothing for Dwight. Jameer, a gunner of a point guard who loves to force things. The only time he helps Dwight is rare when Jameer is driving for one of his shots, Dwight's man switches over to help, and Jameer tosses the lob to Dwight. Beyond that, he does nothing for him.

However, if you take a look at our bench, Redick, Bogans, and Darko all compliment Dwight's game. Then there is Ariza, who has shown to play a nice two man game with Dwight. And last, Dooling, playing point, has shown some signs of being able to find Dwight easy baskets.

The reason we've looked a little better as of late, is because we’re starting the same average groups of individual players we have all season. If they perform individually, we look pretty good. But, the 4 we bring off the bench, combined with Dwight, can be argued as a better team than our starting team.
At 7:36 AM, Matt said…

Concise and right to the point, OVERWADED. I would be curious to see how Darko's minutes has gone down since Battie has come back, regardless of the starting issue? Keith's losing all minutes does not make sense, neither. He is a capable defender and a consistent 3-point shooter. His minutes are supposedly sacrificed to get J.J. in, but how many minutes did J.J. played in the last game? 11?

2009 Eastern Conference Champs