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.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Magic let 12 pt 3rd quarter lead slip away in loss to SAC

6 Comments:

At 12:40 AM, Mike from Illinois said…

The Magic (30-37, 20-14 home) fail once again to win two games in a row, as SAC (29-37, 11-23 road), despite shooting just over 33%, parlayed a huge FT advantage and 18 Magic TOs into a 95-83 victory. The Magic led 62-50 with under 5 minutes remaining in the third before their offense collapsed. The Magic made only 10 of 33 FGs in the second half. They pulled to within 81-79 with around 3 minutes remaining, but SAC went on a 11-0 run to put the Magic away.

The Magic only had one starter score in double figures, as JNelson put in 23 pts along with 5 rebs; three bench players scored in double figures, led by TAriza with 17 pts; JRedick with 12 pts, and DMilicic 10 pts. The starting frontcourt of TBattie and DHoward combined to score just 8 pts on 3 of 18 FGs. SAC was led by Kevin Martin, despite making just 1 FG, with 20 pts (17 of 20 FTs); Ron Artest added 19 pts; Mike Bibby 16 pts.

The Magic (31 of 74, 41.9%) outscored SAC (24 of 71, 33.8%) from the field 63-53. SAC shot 5 of 21 from 3 pt land, while the Magic were just 1 of 5 from long range. SAC won the game at the FT line, making a whopping 42 of 48 FTS, compared to 20 of 25 for the Magic. The Magic outrebounded SAC 41-36. TOs hurt the Magic as they committed 18, compared to just 9 for SAC. SAC also had a slightly better AST/TO ratio of 15/9, compared to 20/18 for the Magic. The Magic bench outscored the SAC bench 43-26.

Coach Brian Hill after the game: "We were just very poor offensively tonight. Very poor shot selection, careless with the ball... it was just a very, very, disappointing performance."

Once again, the Magic frustrate all their followers with an inexplicable loss following a promising victory, and are 1/2 game out of a playoff spot. Magic hop on a plane to face surging MIA on SUN.
At 12:56 AM, Mike from Illinois said…

Go figure... the Magic outscore the Kings by 10 from the field, shoot 80% from the FT line, outrebound SAC by 5, the reserves outscore the SAC reserves by 17, and yet the Magic lose the game by 12 pts. Well, you can't beat the Kings' deadly 42 of 48 FT shooting, and the Magic's sloppy ballhandling with 18 TOs didn't help any either.

HTurkoglu played only 9 minutes. I never heard what happened to him, but you can't use his absence as an excuse for the horrific offensive performance in the second half. The Magic played fairly well in the first half, scoring 52 pts, before the second half meltdown.

I would have thought the Magic's new, fast-break style of offense would have done well against SAC, considering SAC was giving up an average of almost 102 pts a game, and the Magic had 2 full days to prepare for this game while SAC had played a tough game the night before in MIA. What the heck happened?

Being a die-hard Magic fan, this is just so frustrating to go through.
At 2:23 AM, Ken said…

Like I posted over at the Sentinel article, the Magic don't even deserve a 8th place position and a thrashing from the Pistons in the playoffs. This coach and team has me totally dumbfounded... I think part of the problem was when Dooling was subbed for GHill when Hill went out with 2 fouls early in the first quarter instead of for Nelson like in the game against Utah. But I just don't know anymore... Home court advantage isn't even an advantage for this team anymore. I got lots more to say about this game but need to sort out what I want to say first. Not unless you want to read a stream of obscenities
At 10:46 AM, Matt said…

I have just posted this short summation of the season on Sentinel:

"Let me blunt. If it is not coach's fault, whose fault is it?

1 - Teams usually line up the right combination of players, and as they play and practice different sets of offensive and defensive systems, they will get comfortable in honing their skills and build consistency towards the end of the season. Well coached teams usually peak as season goes on, and in the process, deal with injuries which is an inseparable part of NBA.
2 - People were calling all year for Darko's insertion in the starting line-up, and giving some meaningful minutes to J.J., and Hill was inexplicably adamant about his line-up, that after a good start when they won some close games, was obviously faltering. This late in the season, it is illogical to change the line up and expect miracles. Whose fault is it?
3 - Run and Gun is not a style of offense that Hill is comfortable with. It is a sweet cover to mask the sourness, and save his job in the process. Not that I am suggesting this, but if he was faithful to Run and Gun, Keyon should have been starting in place of Jameer. In the game with Utah, didn't the offense bog down when Jameer came in towards the end? For the same token blaming Carlos for offensive inefficiency is the same as it is in Jameer's case, since the two are rather similar type of players.
4 - Hill wants everybody to take the ball to the basket. That has made Jameer a reluctant shooter. It is strange to see J.J. taking the ball to the basket, the guy who is probably the only pure shooter on the team.

The loss of this whole season, in my view, should be blamed on Hill. FIRE BRIAN HILL!!!!!!"

To add to that post, did you notice how many times Jameer had a chance to take a 10-12 footer, and decided to drive closer to the basket and occasionally turned the ball over?
At 12:12 PM, Big Figure said…

Ok three things happened last night that made the difference in the game.(1)Foul trouble: Grant hurt us bad with his foul trouble and inability to guard without fouling,once grant got into foul trouble the rest of the team caught his bug,bsh had to adjust his rotation by using keyon to help out at the two because that early in the game he didnt want to lose defensive integrity,i'm ok with that sub that early in the quarter,but it made us one person shorter for the rest of the half.Blame: Grant hill,we cant win with performances like that from grant. (2)The kings transition defense: The kings start two point guards in all truth,martin is more of a point body wise,they played alot smarter than utah when it comes to staying with their man in transition,and they have the type of team to keep up with us in the run game speed wise,in the first half we pushed the ball and forced the ball close to the rim even though we werent getting fast break buckets,that persistence got us a 10pt half time lead,its very hard to keep that level of persistence for four quarters and you would have thought at some point the kings would have thrown in the towel but they didnt,they kept coming with their speed game pushing the ball right back at us,it came down to an offensive game,without hedo plus grant,tony and dwight all struggling,we had no chance against the kings offense.Blame:Shot selection from the players,if you take better shots on your end,they cant push the ball.(3)Our offensive sturggles:Grant,hedo,tony and dwight.Grant was in foul trouble so his shots were low,hedo and his body just havent agreed on anything this year,and dwight n tony were just down right horrible offensively,we need points from these four more than anybody else on the team because all four start,our bench is the only reason last nights game was close.If we get performances like this "NO" coach could win with this team. When it comes to hill i actually think he coached ok,he kept the same rotation throughout the game that he used against utah and he let the players push the ball,thats two wins in my book and if he lets the team continue to play that way we should win more than we lose,to me last nights loss was more of a combination of hedo going out at the half and the players that were used in the second half arent comfortable in the roles they played which was forced by injury/sickness,trevor had to start at the three and with him and grant out there with the starters together as we see the lane closes down dwight stuggles and the perimeter players cant shoot so they dont score,our offense becomes not good. If everybody is healthy and we continue to play this way,i think we'll win more than we lose to finish the season because of our new style of play,but as fans we have to remember that some teams will force you to play half court ball by getting back in transition like the kings did last night,plus them being a western team that runs on the norm,they would be better suited to play that way,when we've been playing that style for what 2 games,i'm not going to overeact with one or two losses playing our new style. The only thing about last nights game i would question is this,if bsh knew hedo wasnt going to be there in the second half,why didnt he use keith to start the second half? I understand the shortened rotation,but i would think injury/sickness would be a great reason to expand by one player,so that your bench rotations could stay the same,which is usually when we perform the best,keith has been the default starter this/all year when grant or hedo have gone. down
At 1:08 PM, Matt said…

Good points, Big Figure. You mentioned that Grant's being in foul trouble limited our rotation in the first half, but we came out of the first half with a 10-point lead. Then Hedo's factor comes in, and you are absolutely right that Keith should have been used for his defensive and shot making abilities. When you have Keyon, Grant, Trevor, Darko or Battie with Dwight on the floor, who is gonna shoot the ball? There were times last night that J.J. or Keith could have been more effective in making some shots when Magic could not throw in the ocean even if their life depended on it. Also Jameer, despite his points production, was responsible for a lot of turnovers plus his lack for defending anybody whether it was Bibbi or Martin.

2009 Eastern Conference Champs