DET/Magic preview
The Pistons come into ORL FRI night at 1-0 coming off a 91-80 victory at MIA. Rip Hamilton missed the game to attend to a family matter, but Tayshaun Prince scored a career-high 34 pts on 13 of 23 shooting. Chauncey Billups added 19 pts and 11 asts; and Rasheed Wallace 11 pts, 8 rebs. Jarvis Hayes led the reserves with 10 pts, 5 rebs. The status of Hamilton for tonight's game is not known. Rookie Arron Afflalo will start if Hamilton won't play.
The probable starting lineup for DET: G Billups... G Afflalo or Hamilton... F Prince... F Antonio McDyess... C Wallace. Top reserves... Hayes, Jason Maxiell, Nazr Mohammed, and Ronald Murray
The Magic will be looking to build off their impressive 102-83 opening night win over MIL. They should have extra motivation for this game, knowing that the Pistons swept the Magic in embarrassing fashion 4-0 in last season's playoffs. DET also swept the Magic 4-0 in the regular season last year. This will be a far different Magic team than the one that walked off the floor more than six months ago after getting swept by the Pistons.
The probable starting lineup for DET: G Billups... G Afflalo or Hamilton... F Prince... F Antonio McDyess... C Wallace. Top reserves... Hayes, Jason Maxiell, Nazr Mohammed, and Ronald Murray
The Magic will be looking to build off their impressive 102-83 opening night win over MIL. They should have extra motivation for this game, knowing that the Pistons swept the Magic in embarrassing fashion 4-0 in last season's playoffs. DET also swept the Magic 4-0 in the regular season last year. This will be a far different Magic team than the one that walked off the floor more than six months ago after getting swept by the Pistons.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 3:25 AM
3 Comments:
At 3:49 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
With 24 of their next 37 games on the road, a 2-0 start for the Magic would be fantastic heading into that tough stretch, especially over a top team like the Pistons, who have beaten the Magic in eight straight games.
The Magic have got to take advantage of teams that play in MIA one night, then fly into ORL and play the next night. That hasn't always been the case in the past where the Magic would win in that situation.
Coach Stan should have no problem getting the team up for this game, unlike his predecessor, who was a very poor motivator.
After receiving limited minutes against the Bucks, will Trevor Ariza and J.J. Redick get more playing time? I believe that at least Ariza will see much more playing time, as the Magic will need his good defense and high energy against DET.
Regardless of whether or not Hamilton plays, I'm looking for a close game with the Magic winning... let's say 96-92.
At 8:20 AM,
Matt said…
If Magic plays a faster pace game not allowing DET to dictate a half-court game, we will win. Rashard should constantly attack Wallace forcing him to play defense. Jameer should be used the least having Keyon and Trevor - or Keith - to defend DET's guards, which would be a lot easier if Hamilton doesn't play. Last but not least, we cannot allow Prince to take off on us using Hedo's length and Trevor's quickness.
This is one of those games that we cannot win on defense, but rather have to match the opponent's offensive output. I expect this to be a high scoring game dictated by Magic's faster pace. Magic 106-98
At 2:58 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Yep, Jameer will definitely need help defensively against Billups. I'm sure the Pistons will try to exploit the size mismatch between the two as often as possible until the Magic can come up with an answer defensively.
The Magic are favored by 3 pts.
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