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.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Magic move to within a game of WAS after close win

Despite blowing a 12 pt halftime lead, trailing by 4 pts going into the 4th quarter, and losing DMilicic to a sprained ankle in the first half, the Magic (39-42, 15-26 away) scored 7 of the final 8 pts of the game to beat injury-plagued WAS (40-41, 26-15 home) 95-89. Of course, WAS has been without All-Stars Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler. The Magic have won 8 of their last 12 games, while WAS has lost 9 of their last 11.

The Magic were led in scoring by HTurkoglu with 26 pts, 6 rebs; DHoward 17 pts, 12 rebs, 3 blocks but 6 TOs; GHill 13 pts; and KDooling off the bench with 9 pts. The Magic survived a season-high 48 pts from WAS's Antawn Jamison. Jamison added 9 rebs, but shot just 15 of 24 from the FT line. Jarvis Hayes was the only other WAS player in double figures with 15 pts. Former Magic G Deshaun Stevenson added 9 pts, but shot just 2 of 14.

The Magic (33 of 66, 50%) outscored WAS (28 of 80, 35%) from the field 69-64. WAS shot 8 of 26 from 3 pt range, while the Magic shot 3 of 9 from long range. The Magic shot FTs well (26 of 31) compared to WAS (25 of 44). The Magic had a slight edge rebounding 43-42, even though WAS had a 18-10 advantage on the offensive boards. WAS had the better AST/TO ratio of 16/9, compared to 16/17 for the Magic. The Magic bench had the decisive edge 28-10.

The Magic will get the 7th seed in the playoffs if they can beat MIA WED night and WAS loses at IND.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:32 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 11:59 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Again, not a pretty win, but the Magic did what they had to do. WAS's ineptness had a lot to do with them losing the game... shooting just 3 of 18 FGs in the 4th quarter and 35% for the game, and just 56.8% from the FT line. Meanwhile, the Magic shot FGs well (50%) and FTs well (83.9%).

    How many times this season has poor FT shooting by the Magic cost them a win? Nice to see the other team shoot FTs poorly.

    Too many TOs for the Magic though with 17, but the Magic's superior depth really helped the Magic pull this one out.

    I hope Darko's sprained ankle isn't serious, and he'll be OK for the playoffs. Magic will really be hurting for size if Darko's out for any length of time.

    One thing I was encouraged with this game is that BHill played Dooling off the bench for more minutes (25) than starter Nelson played (22). Keyon scored 9 pts with ZERO TOs, while Jameer scored 7 pts with 5 asts, but 3 TOs. By the way, nice job by Arroyo with 4 pts, 4 asts, and 0 TOs in just 12 minutes.

    Also good to see Redick back in the rotation and hitting a 3 pt FG.

    No doubt the Magic will win easily WED night against the Heat, who have nothing to play for. The question is, will IND, with nothing to play for, have enough motivation to beat the Wizards?

     

  • At 2:27 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    You know, I still hate Brian Hill, but at least he showed he has half a brain tonight. Tonight, a lot of things went wrong, especially in the 3rd quarter. Tonight's 3rd quarter looked like our 4th quarter against Boston. And I'm finding it hard not to point the finger at Jameer Nelson. Tonight, as the game was closing out, I was dreading the typical substitution of Jameer coming back into the game, yet it didn't happen. Arroyo played point, ran the team, and he did a good job. Dooling was playing 2, which I normally don't agree with. But our rotations were all screwed up tonight, since Darko went down, and Ariza got into some bogus foul trouble. In turn, it was nice to see Bogans actually land some playing time, and deliver pretty nicely. My only concern now, once again, is with Redick. He had a sore quad 3 games ago, and that's why he didn't play. Yet, he was good to go against Boston, and obviously tonight, and has only played a total of 7 minutes. He is one of the many players that Brian Hill just doesn’t know how to utilize properly.

     

  • At 10:04 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Once again jameer plays more like himself and holds our offense hostage for the whole third quarter,carlos who hadnt played all game was fresh and ready to go like a pro should be and played well,i guess this is what we have,on nights that jameer is playing well he'll play and finish,on nights that he's struggling we can go to our closer,and if someone's got it going from the point guard spot we can move keyon over there,it aint pretty but i guess it gets the job done seeing that we limped into the playoffs,but waiting for jameer to be benched or treated like anyone playing bad should be treated just isnt going to happen under this moron!!!!

     

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