Magic/Spurs preview
The Magic (28-31, 10-19 road, 9th East) take on surging SA (39-18, 19-8 home, 3rd West) FRI night. The Spurs have won a season-high 6 games in a row, winning those games by an average of 17 pts. SA is coming off a 107-91 home victory over TOR MON night. G Tony Parker led SA with 27 pts, and F/C Tim Duncan had 24 pts, 16 rebs. The Magic have lost 5 of their last 6 games, and 17 of 23 overall.
SA is led in scoring by Duncan, who averages 20.3 ppg, 10.8 rebs; Parker 18.9 ppg, 5.5 asts; G Manu Ginobili 16.9 ppg; G Brent Barry 8.7 ppg (45.2% 3 pt FG), F Michael Finley 7.8 ppg, and F Bruce Bowen 6.4 ppg. SA averages 98.6 ppg, while allowing 90.6 ppg. ORL averages 94.2 ppg, while allowing 94 ppg.
SA has beaten the Magic 15 of 18 games in SA, but have dropped 3 of the last 4 games to ORL overall, including a dramatic 2 pt Magic win on FEB 9th on DHoward's last-second slam off an inbounds pass. Duncan has averaged 25.8 ppg in 18 career games against the Magic, his most against any opponent. GHill will miss this game with his sore left foot, while injured Tony Battie may play sometime this weekend. No line out for the game yet.
SA is led in scoring by Duncan, who averages 20.3 ppg, 10.8 rebs; Parker 18.9 ppg, 5.5 asts; G Manu Ginobili 16.9 ppg; G Brent Barry 8.7 ppg (45.2% 3 pt FG), F Michael Finley 7.8 ppg, and F Bruce Bowen 6.4 ppg. SA averages 98.6 ppg, while allowing 90.6 ppg. ORL averages 94.2 ppg, while allowing 94 ppg.
SA has beaten the Magic 15 of 18 games in SA, but have dropped 3 of the last 4 games to ORL overall, including a dramatic 2 pt Magic win on FEB 9th on DHoward's last-second slam off an inbounds pass. Duncan has averaged 25.8 ppg in 18 career games against the Magic, his most against any opponent. GHill will miss this game with his sore left foot, while injured Tony Battie may play sometime this weekend. No line out for the game yet.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 4:50 AM
14 Comments:
At 10:52 AM,
Big Figure said…
The fact that the magic have won 3 out of the last 4 to me says this wont be much of an upset if we win,i think we play very well against the spurs because we can guard duncan and match-up well with all their perimeter guys because they dont have a perimeter post threat,our style of play is good enough to beat the spurs if we protect the ball and attack the basket.
At 2:44 PM,
OVERWADED said…
You said it BIG. Protect the ball, attack the basket, and play defense.
I still think we'll need at least 1 guy to catch a hot hand to win the game in the end. And we probably only have two guys that play with that capability in Nelson and Turk.
Normally I might feel decent against the Spurs, because of their style of play. But since the Magic beat them a few weeks ago, they've been playing great basketball and you know they haven't forgotten that game...who could?
So I'm expecting a loss...but honestly, who knows anymore with this team.
At 2:47 PM,
OVERWADED said…
AFTERTHOUGHT: On TNT last night they were talking about the playoff races. They said we caught a few teams off guard early on, but we obviously haven't figured anything out, and we've had plenty of games to do so. The team is done for the year, and we won't make the playoffs.
They love Dwight Howard. But they pointed out all the things we see in no outside shooting...no consistency...and maybe injuries...
They are all picking the Heat and the Nets to make it.
Speaking of TNT; Rashard Lewis looked pretty damn good last night. Normally I wouldn't have had much interest in watching a Sonics/Clippers game, but Ray Allen was out so everything went through Rashard. He would be the perfect replacement for Hedo. Actually, Hedo wouldn't have a place here anymore if we landed Lewis in the summer.
Can one of you guys help me out on this? If the Magic go out and sign a guy to a max contract, do they still have the ability to match any offer that Darko receives? Of course they'd end up paying luxury tax, but I think that'd be a fair price to pay for a championship team. Otherwise, to avoid luxury tax they would have to do a sign in trade. But I guess the real question is, if they sign a max player, can they match Darko regardless? Whether or not we have an organization that would do that is another story.
At 3:04 PM,
Big Figure said…
Intro check out the basketblog over on the sentinel,brian schmitdz claims we cant have both players,he used vince as the player and darko.
At 4:47 PM,
Matt said…
Technically they can if they don't mind going over the salary cap. The highest pay roll belongs to New York at just south of 140M. The second team is Dallas at north of 92M. Magic is ranked 22 out of 30 teams at south of 60M. Brian Schmitz claims that the Magic ownership would not go into luxury tax pay unless if Rich DeVos (he mentioned VC by mistake) wants to become the first philanthropist in NBA. That is a foolish statement, since Mark Cuban has had an open checkbook policy before anybody else. And what about the owner of New York Knick's whose name I don't know?
I have said it in the past, and will say it over nad over again if need be, that a team's success increases the team's value thus creating equity for the team. Don't you ever think that Mark Cuban is a foolish business man who is burning money. Smart business people with guts have the courage of envisioning potential appreciation; carpetbaggers who listen to bean counters don't.
At 5:01 PM,
Big Figure said…
Matt couldnt we do a sign and trade with seattle,sending hedo and keyon for rashard lewis or some combination.Then just match any offer for darko?
At 5:01 PM,
Big Figure said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
At 5:01 PM,
Big Figure said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
At 5:01 PM,
Big Figure said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
At 5:54 PM,
Matt said…
We could, and on top of my head I think the salaries are close enough to be a match. We might have to throw in Travis's salary, as well. This process would have been a lot easier had it taken place before the Feb deadline. In summer, when Rashard opts out, not only the two teams have to agree on the deal, but Rashard himself have to agree to the deal at the lower end salary (after annual increase to about 10.5M) which would be tough since the purpose of him opting out would be to reach a max deal.
At 6:01 PM,
Matt said…
As an additional note, Magic will match any body's offer on Darko. The question is whether or not they may want to break what would be just a piggy bank for Rich DeVos? My guess based on this ownership's prior business trends is negative.
At 7:01 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
It would be great if Rashard Lewis could join the Magic this coming off-season.
Don't be surprised if Pat Garrity sees some action tonight, since he hit two 3 pt FGs against DEN.
Spurs are favored by 12 pts.
At 7:22 PM,
Matt said…
It would be foolish for Hill to use Garrity instead of playing small ball. Garrity is so horrible on the defensive side that no offensive output could cover for it.
At 7:37 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Matt, we can all see that. but unfortunately, our coach can't.
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