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, December 15, 2007

Magic can't stop hot-shooting MEM in stunning loss

In a close game throughout, the Magic (17-8, 5-5 home) built a 9 pt lead in the second half, and held a 2 pt lead over MEM (7-16, 3-9 away) with around five minutes remaining in the game. MEM scored 22 pts in that span to finish with 38 pts in the final qtr and 68 second half pts on their way to a stunning 123-119 win over the Magic, who could not sustain the momentum of their win the previous night against CHA. The Magic played without RLewis and CArroyo, while MEM was without Pau Gasol.

The Magic could not take advantage of another huge game from DHoward with 31 pts (10 of 11 FGs, 11 of 17 FTs), 20 rebs. In addition, HTurkoglu scored 24 pts (8 of 17 FGs); JNelson 18 pts (7 of 13 FGs) 8 asts; KBogans 16 pts (6 of 12 FGs); and JRedick off the bench with 12 pts (4 of 7 FGs). KDooling added 8 pts 6 asts from the bench.

Talented young F Rudy Gay led MEM with a career-high 32 pts with 7 rebs, while Juan Carlos Navarro also had a career night with 27 pts. Former Magic first round draftee Mike Miller added 19 pts, 8 rebs, 8 asts. Darko Milicic was barely a factor, scoring just 4 pts in 16 mins, but did block 3 shots.

The statistical breakdown:

FG... MEM 45 of 85 (52.9%) ORL 42 of 82 (51.2%) MEM 102 ORL 92
3 PT FG... MEM 12 of 32 (37.5%) ORL 8 of 25 (32.0%)
FT... ORL 27 of 35 (77.1%) MEM 21 of 26 (80.8%)
REB... ORL 45 MEM 34
AST/TO... MEM 26/10 ORL 25/14
BENCH... MEM 30 ORL 22

The Magic allowed Navarro to score 17 pts above his season average and Gay 14 pts above his season average.

With the WAS victory SAT night, the Magic have just a 3 game lead in the SE now, with a very tough week coming up starting MON at DAL.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:38 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 1:14 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    So much for the momentum that was built with the great second half performance against the Bobcats FRI night.

    We can't use the excuse that we were without RLewis and CArroyo, because the Grizzlies were without Pau Gasol.

    Looking at the stats, it's easy to see why MEM won the game... they outshot the Magic from the field, from 3 pt range, shot a better FT %, and had a better AST/TO ratio.

    It's not like the Magic did poorly in any of those categories; they simply could not stop MEM defensively resulting in career games from Gay and Navarro and solid games from their other players.

    This coming week, things only get more difficult for the Magic, with games at DAL, HOU, and BOS and a home game against UT. If they can't play better defense in those games, we'll be looking at an ugly losing streak and everyone saying how the Magic were a fluke the first month, just like last season.

    I believe this is a much better team than last year, and will find a way to get back on track. They found the way against CHA, they need to sustain it for more than just one game.

     

  • At 10:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It seems like everytime we(Magic)take a step forward, we take two backwards. Damn!! what a great looking win that was on friday night against charlotte even with all the mayhem around the bobcats with espn and all. But we come home 24 hours later and loose to a sub .500 team that did not play with their leading rebounder and second leading scorer. Yes im very aware that rlewis did'nt play but against memphis still not a good enough excuse to loose to a home crowd that still hasnt seen a convincing home victory all season!! After all we lost to detroit, phoenix, indiana, atlanta and now memphis!! SVG has to work with a very young team and teach them boys consistency as a team because we will not be in the elite of the NBA until we learn that you cannot get comfortable this early in the season especially the way that washington is playing without arenas!!!! They are only going to get better!!!

     

  • At 10:54 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    First off SVG is still struggling with rotations. Against memphis his first mistake took place before the game even starterd,choosing to start evans with lewis out was a huge blunder,one guy is 6ft5 and the other is 6ft10. Evans cant guard power forwards so hedo at the last minute had to change roles and play the four spot which when it comes to toughness isnt an ideal situation for hedo,with him there our defense loses alot of toughness with rashard doing a pretty good job there all year. Doing that means everybody has to change roles which didnt work defensively. SVG shouldve started a traditional PF (cook or augustine),that way dooling,redick and evans couldve remained playing together off the bench because as i've stated before them playing together at the 1 2 3 (with foyle also) is our best bench rotation. Second its time to get jameer out of the line-up. One night he plays defense and the next he gets lax and doesnt create any pressure,lowry ran around at will on jameer. We cant have lax defensive efforts from night to night and be a good team,with three point shooters at the 2 3 and four (bogans,turk,lewis) we need defensive players at the other two spots (point guard and center) more than anything else,dwight fits the bill but jameer just isnt getting it done. At this point i want to see keyon take over the point guard position because we know he'll bring energy and defense,i think with starters minutes he can average just as many assists as jameer because jameer assist totals arent that high. I never want the magic to lose,but if losing will bring change then im all for it.

     

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