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.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Spurs pull away in 4th to rout Magic

The Magic (28-32, 10-20 road) were trailing SA by only 5 pts late in the third quarter, but it was all downhill from that point, as Manu Ginobili sank a three at the buzzer and SA (40-18, 20-8 home) outscored the Magic by 16 pts in the fourth to win going away 98-74. It was SA's 7th win in a row. The Magic have lost 6 of their last 7.

SA was led by Manu Ginobili, who was on fire off the bench, with 31 pts (6 of 9 3 pt FGs); Tim Duncan 19 pts, 10 rebs; and Michael Finley off the bench with 12 pts. The Magic had just 2 players in double figures... HTurkoglu with 22 pts on 7 of 8 FGs, and JNelson 18 pts, 7 rebs. CArroyo led the bench with 9 pts, 3 asts. DHoward had a rare off-night with 9 pts, 9 rebs. The other 2 starters, DMilicic and KBogans, combined for just 10 pts on 3 of 12 FGs. J.J. Redick finally saw action, scoring 5 pts in 22 minutes.

SA (36 of 79, 45.6%) whipped the Magic (28 of 65, 43.1%) from the field 82-57. SA made a solid 10 of 22 from 3 pt range, while the Magic shot a pitiful 1 of 12 there. The Magic (17 of 23) edged SA (16 of 18) from the FT line. SA had the rebounding advantage 43-35, including 12-6 on the offensive boards. SA had a superior AST/TO ratio of 24/11 compared to the Magic ratio of just 10/16. The SA bench had a huge advantage over the Magic bench 57-15.

Magic coach Brian Hill after the game: "When an elite team loses to somebody, they look to pay you back. We knew it was going to be a hard game coming in."

Magic face the Herculean task of trying to win at DAL SAT night.

3 Comments:

  • At 1:22 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    What a struggle on offense... just 10 assists. Bogans needs more than 3 FG attempts in 25 minutes, and Dwight needs more than 8 FG atempts in 34 minutes.

    What happened with TAriza? One rebound, no points in just 13 minutes.

    This was probably the bench's worst game of the season. Take away CArroyo, who played decent, the 5 other reserves combined to score just 6 pts on 2 of 14 FGs. With three starters scoring in single figures, combined with the poor bench effort, it's no small wonder the Magic lost by 24 pts.

    Manu Ginobili played much better than he did in ORL 3 weeks ago. The Spurs are really playing well now as a team.

     
  • At 2:47 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    The sentinel basketblog says it all!

     
  • At 3:01 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    No matter who the player is, it’s hard to expect a guy to come in and perform when they haven't been playing.

    Bogans, has gotten a little time here and there, but adjusting from playing 5 minutes off the bench, to starting and playing 25 minutes isn’t easy. Here’s a question. Why is it that when G Hill goes down, Bogans always gets the call to start. Yet when Hill is starting, Dooling always gets the first call off the bench to play behind Hill at the 2 spot, and Bogans is thrown back behind Dooling?

    Then Redick, he went from being benched to playing 22 minutes. You just can't throw a player out there in the offense and expect numbers; especially not playing against a team like the Spurs.

    I'm sure the changes in lineup has something to do with the lack of assists, but we really might have a problem at the point guard. Arroyo has never been called a shoot first point guard, but he chucks shots just as much as Nelson. It's getting really old. Brian Hill controls these guys playing time. He needs to make it clear, they need to pass the ball. And if this is just how they're going to play, then it's not going to work. My confusion, Nelson and Arroyo have both shown they can pass the ball. So I don't know if they're just not focusing on it, or maybe it's the offense we run, but something has to change at the point guard spot. And if it's not going to be the style of play, it might come down to replacing the players there.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home