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, April 14, 2007

Career Day for Howard in big Magic win

Led by DHoward's career-high 35 pts (26 in the first half) on 14 of 15 FGs and 7 of 10 FTs along with 11 rebs and 5 asts, the Magic (37-42, 14-26 road) started out fast with a 35 pt first quarter and maintained control throughout the game in a 104-87 victory over PHI (33-46, 21-19 home). The 76ers are now eliminated from playoff contention.

In addition to Howard, four other Magic players scored in double figures: DMilicic off the bench with 14 pts, 7 rebs; HTurkoglu 13 pts, 7 rebs; GHill 11 pts, and JNelson 10 pts, 5 asts. PHI had 5 players in double figures, led by Andre Miller with 18 pts; Andre Iguodala and Kyle Korver, who were questionable going into the game because of injuries, both played and scored 14 pts.

The Magic continue their outstanding shooting (43 of 81, 53%) and outscored PHI (29 of 74, 39.1%) from the field 91-64. ORL shot 5 of 12 from 3 pt range, while PHI shot 6 of 11 there. PHI (23 of 32) had the advantage over the Magic (13 of 18) at the FT line. The Magic had the rebounding edge 42-38. The Magic had a good AST/TO ratio of 25/14, compared to 16/15 for PHI. The PHI bench edged the Magic bench 35-33.

Magic now move 2 games ahead of IND with a "Magic Number" of 2 to clinch a playoff spot. The Magic trail NJ by 1 game for the 7th seed. Magic come back to ORL and host the reeling, injury-plagued Celtics on SUN.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 5:44 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 6:23 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Good to see the Magic playing with the kind of focus and intensity they need, in order to be beating these teams that they should be beating which they had so much trouble doing so earlier this season.

    Great to see Dwight have his career-high game against the 76ers after a poor game at DET. He did have 5 TOs, but added 5 asts. He even shot FTs fairly well with 7 of 10. Hopefully, this will give him the confidence going into the playoffs that he can make FTs, and be a game-changing force as long as he maintains his focus and intensity.

    Magic have had really good AST/TO ratios in their last several games, something they've been poor at most of the season.

    JRedick must have had some kind of injury or something not to receive any playing time. Hope it's nothing serious. KBogans received his first meaningful playing time in a while and well with 5 pts in 8 minutes.

    OVERWADED, you made a post the other day, stating your preferred Magic starting lineup. Let me put in my 2 cents worth... I too, wish BHill would wise up and start Darko with the veteran Battie coming off the bench, but knowing Hill's penchant for giving the veteran players priority, I doubt Darko will start again this season.

    I have mixed feelings about whether TAriza should start over GHill. Hill is probably playing his best basketball of the season, is staying healthy, and is no doubt the better offensive player at this point. Of course, Ariza is the better defensive player. For this reason, I think Ariza should continue coming off the bench to be a high-energy guy coming into games.

    Otherwise, I agree with you when you said that Dooling should start at the PG position with Nelson coming off the bench, and Redick starting at SG, and obviously Dwight at C, with Darko as PF backed up by Battie; I would start Grant at SF, with Ariza and Hedo coming off the bench. Arroyo, Bogans, and Outlaw could be used if necessary off the bench. Wish there was room for TDiener though. Garrity is fine where he's at... the end of the bench.

    I'd love to see the Magic win out in their final 3 games to enter the playoffs on a high note, but NJ needs to lose 2 of their final 3 games for the Magic to make the 7th seed.

    An encouraging win over PHI, and the Magic should make short work of the Celtics on SUN.

     

  • At 8:32 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Mike i agree,dooling-redick-grant-darko and dwight is the best line-up we can put on the floor,and i think intro will only argue grant being in there,if grant is healthy i agree he should be out there at small-forward and not hedo,the problem is knowing for sure if grant is healthy or not.

     

  • At 8:36 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Without any post players to match dwight's play philly was pretty much toast from the start,they lost the game chucking up jumpshots more than we won it.

     

  • At 10:58 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Of course with a Pacers' loss and Magic's win we are in the play-offs by tomorrow. But I rather have Pacers beat Nets because then by winning out the remaining two games while Nets would probably lose at Bulls, we will grab the 7th spot. There is the danger of us losing the next two while Pacers winning their last two which would push us out of the play-offs, but I cannot imagine Magic losing to Wizards, thus we should do no worse than 8th spot in that scenario, even if we lose to Heat at home.

     

  • At 4:48 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I agree Matt... I would rather see the Pacers beat the Nets on SUN so the Magic would have a better chance at the 7th seed. I'm not worried about the Magic winning at least 1 of their final 2 games to make it into the 8th spot.

    Big Figure, I agree what you said about Grant... if he is healthy, he should be the starter. That is a big if; but over the last several weeks, he's proven he can stay healthy and be effective, which is encouraging.

    I better keep my big mouth shut, he may get hurt in the remaining 3 games.

     

  • At 6:32 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Grant has looked great as of late, and it's hard for me to argue with him not playing important minutes. Still, he just can't play starter minutes and remain effective the whole time anymore. It showed in Detroit. He had a 90's flashback in the 1st half, and was a ghost in the 2nd half.

    But as it stands right now, the season is all but over. This is the longest he's lasted in 7 years. Why change now? Change now would just be stupid. Let Grant play out the season, and the playoffs. Who knows, it might be his last games.

     

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