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.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Magic come to life in second half against NY to finally win at home

It was another typical slow start for the Magic (19-11, 6-6 home), as they fell behind NY (8-20, 1-11 road) by 5 pts after one qtr and fell behind by as many as 9 pts in the second qtr before trailing by 1 pt at the half. In the second half, The Magic outscored the Knicks 60-45 for a 110-96 victory.

Five players scored in double figures for the Magic, led by HTurkoglu with 26 pts (10 of 15 FGs), 6 rebs, 6 asts; RLewis 25 pts (9 of 17 FGs), 6 rebs; DHoward 16 pts (4 of 6 FGs), 11 rebs, 5 blocks; KDooling off the bench with 12 pts (4 of 7 FGs); and KBogans 10 pts (4 of 14 FGs), 7 rebs.

NY, with a change in their starting lineup, was led by Jamal Crawford with 29 pts, 8 asts. Zach Randolph, coming off the bench, added 22 pts. David Lee, a newcomer to the starting lineup, had a double-double with 11 pts, 14 rebs. Eddy Curry, who also started, played less than 5 mins and scored just 2 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 40 of 75 (53.3%) NY 35 of 87 (40.2%) ORL 88 NY 78
3 PT FGs... ORL 8 of 24 (33.3%) NY 8 of 20 (40%)
FTs... ORL 22 of 30 (73.3%) NY 18 of 22 (81.8%)
REBs... ORL 45 NY 37
AST/TO... ORL 24/16 NY 18/12
BENCH... NY 41 ORL 27

The Magic are now 14-1 when holding the opposition under 100 pts. This was the first of 8 consecutive games against teams under .500 for the Magic, who play at MIA FRI night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:37 AM  

8 Comments:

  • At 1:00 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Well, Coach Van Gundy decided to stick with JNelson as the starter at the point, with Arroyo the backup, and Dooling as the backup shooting guard. Both Dooling and Arroyo had good games coming off the bench, while Nelson had a very good AST/TO ratio of 7/2, despite scoring just 6 pts in 34 mins of playing time.

    I didn't see the game, so I don't know how well Nelson did defensively. Jamal Crawford did score the 29 pts with 8 asts, but only shot 9 of 22.

    Some positive things for the Magic... RLewis is hopefully back on track, as he had a good shooting night. Turk had another good game statistically, and DHoward had a rather quiet but very effective game.

    Maybe James Augustine has found a regular spot in the rotation, as he had a good game off the bench with 6 pts, 2 rebs, and a steal in 15 mins. In fact, good performance from everyone who came off the bench for the Magic against the Knicks.

    Both teams had the same AST/TO ratio of 1.5/1, but the Magic had 6 more asts.

    We can all stop worrying now... WeRDevos is back with us, so that means the Magic will go back to their winning ways (wish it were that simple). Magic need to continue to gain momentum in the following 7 games, all against sub-.500 teams.

     

  • At 11:26 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Well mike,jameer struggled again defensively and offensively. Crawford got whatever he wanted against jameer which i kinda expected,but what i didnt expect was little 5ft7 nate robinson to out play jameer. Jameer's biggest problem is his non-ability to challenge jumpshots,everybody is hitting three's over him. Nate robinson and crawford were killing jameer last night,against boston rondo was killing jameer hitting his first two three's of the season,its as if your not doing much if you dont get your career high against jameer. Good win for the team,but change at the point guard needs to be made.

     

  • At 11:34 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Van Gundy: Poor play may put Nelson on the bench!
    Van Gundy said before the game that changing his lineup might have been the only way to curtail his team's slow starts. One of the changes that Van Gundy was considering,and still could,involved benching point guard Jameer Nelson. Coach Stan Van Gundy might have to decide if Friday's game at Miami is the time to make a change. His two options --- Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling.

    Arroyo often runs the team better than Nelson, but isn't much better of a defender and also has turnover issues when not under control.

    Dooling has been Orlando's best player off the bench --- and Van Gundy might hate to move him out of that role despite the fact he is bigger (6-3) and a better defender than Nelson and Arroyo.

    The problem is that the Magic really don't have a point guard that consistently gives a team so many qualities it needs: size, playmaking, defense, leadership.

    Nelson was solid in helping the Magic jump to a 16-4 start, but his play has tailed off.

    "He (Nelson)simply has not played to that level in the last three weeks and that’s a concern right now," Van Gundy said. "And you want to stick with guys as long as you can because players sometimes. . . .their performances go up and down, but he has to get it going pretty quickly."

    Van Gundy has talked to Nelson, trying to get him to play with more aggression.

    "There’s been times where he’s played aggressively. It may be confidence. That’s something we’ve tried to talk to him about," Van Gundy said. "He has to deal with it on his own now. He’s a fourth-year NBA player. He’s got to be able to handle the ups and downs and get back to playing the way he was, playing better defense, taking care of the ball better and getting our team up and down the floor better."

    Nelson was signed to a five-year, $35-million contract extension before the season.

     

  • At 2:34 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     

  • At 2:36 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Crawford and Robinson did the same thing to whoever was guarding them in the 1st half; Jameer wasn't the only one.

    Van Gundy's quotes were before last night's game. His quotes for last nights were a little more positive.

    As for Jameer, he had two stupid turnovers. But he did a decent job of running the team, especially in the 4th quarter.

    Dooling had another solid game, but at times looked sloppy. Last night some of his plays reminded me why I'm suspect of him being our starting point guard. Regardless what I think, I still can’t imagine it happening.

    Back to Jameer, here are some stats:

    1st 15 games of the season:
    PPG 13.8
    FG% 47%
    AST 6.4
    TO 2.4

    Last 15 games
    PPG 9.2
    FG% 43%
    AST 5.7
    TO 2.8

    He's obviously slumping and the team is slumping with him.

    The main thing that justifies the idea of Dooling starting is the fact that when we play any kind of defense, we win. Whether it’s that in all of our wins Dwight averages over 3 BPG, and in our losses he only average 1.5. Or that Jameer is a liability. Whatever may be the case? The team needs to start defending consistently, and I think it relates to playing hard and energy more than anything. This team had a tough early schedule, and they played hard and well. They got a little tired, complacent, and thought they were going to be able to "cruise" through some games; and that's just not possible.

    Final Thoughts:
    -I like what I'm seeing out of James Augustine.

    -It hard for me to think positive of this win. The best thing about this win was that we pulled away in the 4th quarter. But the Knicks SUCK, and are a total mess, so it's hard for me to feel great about this W.

     

  • At 2:53 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I didn't expect anyone to be doing cartwheels over this victory, with it coming against a team that had only one road win all year.

    In this 8 game stretch against all sub-.500 teams, I expect the Magic to do no worse than 6-2 to get some momentum going again.

     

  • At 9:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    A very much needed win at home in front of a sellout crowd(didnt look like a sellout). Once again a quiet but very effective performance from mr. howard inside and actually a performance which we have all gotten accustomed to, dwight scores 16 and snatches 11 last night against a defense that doubled and tripled teamed him all night long with david lee and randolph and at times richarson, jones and jeffries.I agree with all of you when you guys blog about james augustine, he is just like van gundy said in the post game......" a player that leaves it all out on the court everytime he steps on it". I believe that he has more than earned a spot in the rotation, 6 to 12 minutes a game would not hurt us at all, actually it would help us on the defensive end with his hustle and sacrifice of his body for loose balls.

    Finally....... God has been listening to all my complaining and my whining about the 118 million dollar man. He finally decided to show up last night scoring 25 and combining with turk going 7 of 10 from beyond the arc.

    OK....As we all know, what hurts turk the most season after season is his inconsistency, but so far this year there really hasnt been much of it. And he so far this season has more than earned himself a spot on the all star team, when coaches go to vote in players.....turk has to be at the top of their list!!!! lets not beat around the bush neither gents we are 30 games in and we can say that our go to scorer is HEDO TURKOGLU!!!! just a thought guys, blog and let me know how you feel about my compsomption regarding this topic.

    Now, turk last night played great once again scoring 26 and looking like a real leader when we went on that run towards the end of the third and the start of the 4th. Arroyo came off the bench and played solid minutes off the bench proving once again that he can and will be a great point off the bench and can be counted on to run the offense. Bogans played solid giving us around the same of what we have seen of him as of late.

    Jnelson did get outplayed last night by robinson in the first half. Robinson scored all 16 of his points in the first half and didnt do anything in second half. Crawford has always found a way to score and he did that last night, you cant really blame nelson for crawford's 29 because its obvious that zeke has given crawford the green light when open, and he will get open he has been doing it his whole career;in his seven years as a pro he has averaged nearly 20 points per game with 19.2 ppg.

    Nelson played pretty much the same he has been playing the last 11 games or so, the only difference was a big shot in the 4th. He has to step it up or i believe SVG will make drastic changes to the lineup and i think that the changes would not be changes which any of us are expecting. The stats which overwaded posted are really mind boggling, if that doesnt yell inconsistency i dont know what does!!!!!

    Like Mike said we need at least 5 of the 7 and definetly victories at home against charlotte, new jersey and houston. After all we go west in early january for 4 games, i believe we will lose 2 of those against denver and utah but i hope for the best like always. HAve a good one!

     

  • At 10:39 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Dont expect any line-up changes. Jameer can play as bad as he wants and there arent going to be any changes (he cant play any worse right now anyway). Listening to SVG's pre-game comments over the radio broadcast he stated that he's looked over the roster a few times looking for the right change in the line-up,quote "i've looked for a change in the line-up that would make since but i just dont see it" said SVG. So there you have it,keyon's his best off the bench,carlos is the back-up at point,and if we get solid performances from jameer were pretty good. So this is who we are,at this point all we can do is grit our teeth and bare it.

     

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