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, April 01, 2007

Career game by Davis helps MIN edge Magic in OT

Despite another tremendous effort from their bench, the Magic (34-40, 22-15 home) failed to hold a 6 pt lead with under 1:30 left in regulation and lost 105-104 in OT to MIN (31-42, 11-27 away), as Ricky Davis scored all 7 MIN pts in the OT, including the game winning 3 pointer with 11 seconds left. JNelson's game winning running layup attempt was blocked by Kevin Garnett.

Davis wound up with 36 pts on 13 of 21 FGs and 7 of 7 FTs, and scored the final 13 MIN pts in regulation and OT. Kevin Garnett had his usual solid effort with 22 pts, 14 rebs, and 8 asts. Mike James added 12 pts.

For the Magic, GHill was the only starter to score in double figures, with 23 pts on 10 of 16 FGs. Off the bench, DMilicic scored 18 pts with 10 rebs; TAriza also had 18 pts with 6 rebs; KDooling 11 pts; and JRedick added 9 pts. DHoward was held to 8 pts, but with 19 rebs; JNelson also scored just 8 pts, but added a season-high 8 asts. However, Nelson missed the potential game-winning shots at the end of regulation and OT.

The Magic (41 of 87, 47.1%) outscored MIN (37 of 80, 46.2%) from the field 83-82. MIN connected on 8 of 16 3 pt FGs, while the Magic were a woeful 1 of 11 from long range. MIN (23 of 28) had the edge at the FT line over the Magic (21 of 31). The Magic rebounded well, with a 50-38 advantage over MIN. The Magic cut down on their TOs with 15, but MIN still had the better AST/TO ratio of 21/12. compared to 18/15 for the Magic. Magic bench had the huge advantage over the MIN bench 56-18.

Magic now trail NJ by 1/2 game for the 7th seed, and are only 1 1/2 games ahead of IND for the 8th seed, as IND surprised SA. The Magic are now 0-3 in OT this season. They have 2 days of rest to shake off this very tough loss before TOR comes to ORL on WED.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:08 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 10:30 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    It seems like so long ago, earlier this season, that the Magic were winning most of these close games.

    Too bad the Magic didn't have anyone to stop Ricky Davis, who scored more than twice his season average. Magic just couldn't make the plays they needed to make to win the game, despite playing a pretty good game. They cut down their TOs, shot the ball relatively well, and the bench came up big once again.

    The negatives... blowing a 6 pt lead with less than 90 seconds remaining in regulation; mediocre FT shooting (67.7%), and Turkoglu, Battie, Howard, and Nelson combining to score just 25 pts.

    Take out Turkoglu's and Nelson's combined 7 of 26 from the field, and the Magic shot well over 50% at 34 of 61.

    Take away Davis's 13 of 21 FG shooting, and the T-Wolves shot just 24 of 59, barely 40%.

    Magic should not get too discouraged from this loss, though it was arguably their toughest loss of the season. They still control their own destiny, and could still finish 7th in the East.

     

  • At 10:44 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    All i know is,when keyon's on the court at the point the magic look pretty good.

     

  • At 10:45 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I'm ready to see jameer come of the bench.

     

  • At 1:53 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Howard was held to what? I don't think anyone holds Howard. He only got 5 shot attempts; THE ENTIRE GAME!?

    Someone needs to tell Jameer that he's not nearly as good as he thinks he is. STOP SHOOTING; you're not Isiah Thomas.

    Great overtime... B Hill stuck with the Nelson, Hill, Ariza, Darko, and Dwight lineup. Once again, I love how B Hill surrounds our bigs with no shooters.

    When Redick is on the floor, things happen. Take a look at the 1st half; we didn't come back until Darko, Redick, Dooling, and Ariza were out there together. But that’s because that group of players actually attempts to play together. They all compliment one another, as long as Dooling is playing the point.

    Brian Hill really pisses me off. He doesn't understand the simplest things that make a team. He either puts what he considers his best 5 on the floor, or his group of VETS on the floor. And while I love Dwight, Darko, Ariza, and maybe even Nelson out there together... You got to at least have 1 shooter out there. This crap has been happening all year, but it just happened in the last game, and it didn't work in the last game either. Its obvious Hill understands Ariza needs to be on the floor, but he doesn't understand that he shouldn't be out there with Grant. It turns everything into a traffic jam.

    While I was hoping Grant Hill might be around here a little longer, and used as a bench player; I’m moving on from that. I don’t ever see that happening, and I’m tired of seeing him off and on, in and out. I hope this is Grant’s last year. I’m done with him. I’d rather see Redick on the floor, or even the forgotten Bogans.

    In the end, I guess I still care, because I'm on here posting. But I’m sick of the Magic, and I'm getting really close to not caring. For the past few weeks, I haven't even known what day’s games were on, because I'm just sick of watching what Brian Hill is doing to this team; or should I say, group of players.

     

  • At 2:56 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    I think towards the end Hill found some combination of players that might have worked with minor tweaking, as OVERWADED has pointed out. The problem is strategic blunders that causes inferior teams to push ahead or stay close, and then if some players get hot they may pull an upset. The first strategic blunder is not starting Darko where Battie was ineffective guarding Garnet, and that opened up opportunities for Ricky Davis. To Hill's credit the first player off the bench was J.J., but he did not remain loyal to playing him alongside Keyon, and at some point pulled him out in Jameer's favor. The second strategic blunder is sticking with Hedo when his offensive output does not offset his defensive liability. He corrected that later by sticking to Trevor, but then you need to take Grant out and put a shooter in, which he didn't. By the way Trevor's jumpshots look better and better. Ricky Davis's 3-pointer tying the game was similar to that of Donneyl Marshal's in that game that we lost to CLE in overtime, both being hit with plenty of time left on the clock which you don't expect. The only difference was that instead of Garrity (as in CLE's game) we had the right defender in Trevor on the floor. In either case, if the shot had not gone in, the game was over.

     

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