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 04, 2007

Magic throw big scare into Mavs before losing

The Magic (28-33, 10-21 road) gave it their best shot against red hot DAL (50-9, 29-3 home). The Magic had as much as a 6 pt 4th quarter lead, the game was tied with just under 2 minutes left, and the Magic had the ball down 3 with under 30 seconds left, but DAL won their 15th in a row 103-98.

The Magic were led by DHoward with 25 pts, 10 rebs; HTurkoglu 19 pts, 7 rebs; JNelson 17 pts but 5 TOs; TAriza off the bench 11 pts; and CArroyo also off the bench 10 pts. DAL was led by Jason Terry with 29 pts (11 of 17 FGs), 15 asts; MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki 24 pts, 9 rebs; Josh Howard 21 pts; and Devin Harris off the bench with 10 pts.

DAL (38 of 71, 53.5%) outscored the Magic (38 of 74, 51.4%) from the floor 85-80. DAL sank 9 of 21 from 3 pt range, while the Magic shot 4 of 10 there. Both teams were even at the FT line (DAL 18 of 24, ORL 18 of 25). The Magic had a slight edge rebounding 33-32. The Magic did hold down their TOs to just 10, but DAL had the superior AST/TO ratio of 32/9, while the Magic's ratio was a mediocre 14/10. The Magic bench, after getting smoked by SA the previous night, outscored the DAL bench 23-21.

The Magic trail NJ by 1 game for the 8th seed, and are now tied with the NY Knicks for the 9th spot. Magic finish this road trip 1-3, but they need more than moral victories after hanging tough with DAL. Magic host MIL MON night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:16 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 12:45 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    The Magic were able to hold their TOs to just ten, they shot the ball well from the field, and matched DAL at the FT line, but DAL ran their offense a lot better than the Magic and that was the difference.

    What a fantastic AST/TO rato by the Mavs (32/9). Jason Terry's AST/TO ratio was 15/2. Compare that to our PG JNelson at 0/5... that's right, ZERO asts in 30 minutes!

    At least Nelson only took 7 shots in 30 minutes, but once again KBogans doesn't get anywhere near enough shot attempts... just 4 FGA in 28 minutes.

    KDooling's stat line the last couple games has been laughable. After 2 decent games against CHI and DEN, he has gone in the tank big-time. Here are his numbers the last 2 games... in 33 combined minutes... ZERO pts on 0 of 11 FGs; ZERO rebounds; ZERO steals; and ONE assist. Oh yeah, I forgot, his "great defense" justifies him being in there regardless of his sorry offensive numbers.

    In the meantime, J.J. Redick gets only 4 minutes of action, and for some reason, PGarrity gets 3 minutes of action.

    HTurkoglu has had 3 decent games in a row... hopefully that's a good sign that he's getting his consistency back.

    Also, nice job off the bench the last couple games from CArroyo. He's played turnover-free basketball, and has provided a spark on offense.

     

  • At 3:19 AM, Blogger Ken said…

    Jason Terry had more assists than the entire Magic team. Our 2 PG's had ZERO. Some may look at this as a moral victory of sorts, and say, now the schedule gets easier. But the fact is, the Magic have already proven they can loose to the bad teams just as easily as the good ones. There is no "easy" part of the schedule for this team.

    The only reason this game was close was due to the determination of the Magic players. Not because of some brilliant strategy and game plan by that red faced mental midget on the sideline.

     

  • At 5:12 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Ken said it... The only reason this game was close was due to the determination of the Magic players. Which brings more questions... Obviously, the Magic have not played with this kind of effort every night. Tonight guys played with an edge. They played with purpose; almost as if trying to say they felt like they belonged on the court with Dallas. Of course we all know that isn't the case; Dallas has been the best team in the league 2 years, regardless of the jobbing in the NBA Finals. The point, I saw something in our players tonight that I haven't seen in a while. WHY? There is a list of reasons, and some of them could relate to the players, but all of relate to the coach.

    The Magic didn't play a perfect game tonight by any means; but at least they protected the ball. Of course it didn’t help that our PG's didn't get a single assist ALL NIGHT. Mike mentioned Nelson, well you can add Arroyo to that list. At least Arroyo didn't turn the ball over though. Tonight, the Magic had 10 turnovers, which is great, but Nelson had 5 of them. Add his zero assists and that down right sucks.

    I do have to mention Hedo, just because I think this has been his best stretch of games he’s played all year long. I know it’s only been a few games, but it’s been that kind of year for Hedo.

    Once the game gets going, I rarely see a lineup on the floor that really interests me. Yet, tonight, for about 4 minutes, B Hill got my attention. The lineup was supposed to be Dwight, Darko, Ariza, Redick, and Nelson. However, Darko got his 3rd foul and had to sit the rest of the 2nd quarter. So Hedo took his place at the 4 spot. The Magic cut the lead, and actually took the lead. Or maybe I was just relieved Pat Garrity didn’t check back in…

    At the same time, Garrity is still seeing game time...

    And Redick got a whopping 4 minutes...

    And Mike took care of what I thought about Dooling...

    The sad thing is, everyone on our team that got into the game did something positive, except Dooling. And no, I didn't mention Garrity, because I don't even count him as a real player.

    When it comes down to it, the Magic have some serious problems with the identity of this team. And that kind of thing can happen easily, on a young inexperienced team. Whose job is it? Who’s to blame? I believe in the pre game comments, Matt was the one who mentioned, it doesn't matter how much talent we have, if we don't have someone to do something with it.

    So while tonight was a GREAT BASKETBALL GAME; it doesn’t change the fact that it was still a loss for the Magic, and we still have issues that need to be addressed. And if the Magic keep losing, which they very well could, I don't see how Brian Hill couldn't be held responsible.

     

  • At 8:00 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    I don't have enough time to say much except:
    1) Darko is not the same player that was coming off the bench. The swagger is obvious in his face and the way he walks.
    2) Keyon is not the same after his return from injury. He, although streaky, could shoot.
    2) This group of talented players play confused from time to time. Is it because of the complexity of Hill's system? One can see that the players are communicating a lot to each other. That is good up to a certain point and after that gets into coach's responsibilities area. Is that because the players trust each other more than they trust the coach or they are not receiving proper instruction?

     

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