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.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Magic hang on to edge CLE in OT

In what was probably the most exciting game of the NBA season, the Magic (7-2), thanks to two clutch FTs with 5 seconds remaining in OT by DHoward, held on as HTurkoglu forced a jump ball with LeBron James with 2 seconds left and enabled the Magic to edge CLE 117-116 in OT, despite a triple-double by James.

Howard offset James' huge game with a huge game of his own, with 35 pts (11 of 17 FGs, 13 of 16 FTs), 16 rebs. James scored 39 pts (15 of 27 FGs, 7 of 9 FTs), 14 asts, 13 rebs. Both players had help, though. The Magic had 5 other players in double figures: JNelson 21 pts (8 of 17 FGs), 11 asts, 1 TO; RLewis 20 pts (7 of 18 FGs); HTurkoglu 13 pts (5 of 15 FGs); KBogans 11 pts (3 of 6 3 pt FGs), and CArroyo off the bench with 10 pts. For the Cavs, former Magic F Drew Gooden scored 23 pts, 13 rebs; Zydrunas Ilgauskas 18 pts, 11 rebs; and Daniel Gibson 16 pts.

A statistical breakdown:

FG... CLE 45 of 99 (45.5%) ORL 41 of 86 (47.7%) CLE 97 ORL 93
3 PT FG... ORL 11 of 30 (36.7%) CLE 7 of 16 (43.8%)
FT... ORL 24 of 32 (75%) CLE 19 of 22 (86.4%)
REB... CLE 49 ORL 42
AST/TO... ORL 30/14 CLE 25/15
BENCH... ORL 17 CLE 16

Great Sign for the Magic to win this game after letting a 4th qtr lead slip away. This is the first time the Magic have started a season at 7-2 since 1998-99. After a day off THU, Magic play at NJ FRI.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:59 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 11:29 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    It was exciting enough to follow the 4th qtr and OT on the internet; I could only imagine how exciting it was on TV (hope you guys could see it).

    The Magic should have won this game in regulation, but Bogans and Howard missed 3 FTs in the final 16 seconds; however, both redeemed themselves in the OT, with Bogans hitting a big three and Howard the FTs to give the Magic the lead.

    I was kind of wondering what Coach VG would have the Magic do in the final 5 seconds of regulation with a 3 pt lead and CLE with the ball... would he have the Magic intentionally foul to prevent a 3 pter or would he just take his chances and let the Cavs try a three. The last thing he probably wanted was to foul with LeBron taking the three and he gets awarded the three FTs.

    I guess it was a really close call at the end of OT when Hedo tied up James to force the jump ball... that it could have been called a foul on Hedo instead. I haven't seen SportsCenter yet; I'll be anxious to see that play. I would think that LeBron might get that call at home, but maybe it was just an excellent defensive play by Turk.

    In addition to the monster game by Dwight, Jameer needs to be called out also because of the fantastic 11/1 AST/TO ratio to go with his 21 pts.

    Turk and Lewis both struggled from the floor, shooting a combined 12 of 33 FGs and 5 of 16 3 pt FGs, yet we were still able to win.

    Good thing the Magic have tomorrow to recuperate, as the starters must be exhausted. Four of them played at least 43 mins. Arroyo led the bench with just 17 mins, and did fairly well with 10 pts.

    Magic cut their TOs almost in half from yesterday, and had 30 asts... great job passing the ball!

    Great road win against the defending Eastern Conference champs!

     

  • At 8:42 AM, Blogger WeRDevos said…

    It's only 1/10th of the season but there is so much to be encouraged about.

    Dwight is currently 21.9/14.6 with 2.5 blocks a game vs 17.6/12.3 last year. It's early, but that is just the kind of leap superstars are expected to make at age 21.

    The ESPN guys said SVG is Coach of the Year so far. Of course, BH was 13-4 last year and got himself fired.

    For the record the team was 15-26 on the road last year, 25-16 at home. Only 7 road wins against playoff teams. Of the great 13-4 start last year there were 5 wins against playoff teams, only 1 of which was on the road. The Magic have 3 road wins against last years playoff teams this season WAS, TOR, and CLE.

     

  • At 9:14 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    This was a great win for the Magic. I think one of the most intricate side of coaching job is motivation and encouragement. Coach Van Gundy seems to have that quality which will make the players to go out of their way to make the coach happy.

    On that issue of "foul or no foul", SVG was pointing all along to foul. I guess James knew that too and that is why as soon as he caught the ball he was turning and rising to shoot, and Hedo could not time his fouling properly not to foul him in act of shooting.

     

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