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, December 12, 2007

Magic misfire badly again in loss to MIL

For the Magic (16-7, 11-3 road), this game was virtually a carbon copy of the previous game against ATL, only this time the Magic shot even worse. The Magic started out slow, as MIL led throughout, then scored the first 12 pts of the 4th qtr to cut the MIL lead to two, only to fade in the last several minutes as MIL (9-12, 7-2 home) scored 25 of the final 38 pts in a 100-86 win to break a four game losing streak.

The Magic had four players in double figures, led by DHoward with 20 pts (6 of 13 FGs), 13 rebs, 5 TOs; RLewis 20 pts (7 of 18 FGs); HTurkoglu 18 pts (4 of 11 FGs) and KDooling off the bench with 14 pts (4 of 9 FGs).

MIL had five players in double figures, led by Michael Redd with 27 pts (9 of 17 FGs), 10 rebs. First round draft pick Yi Jianlian added 18 pts (7 of 11 FGs).

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... MIL 35 of 70 (50%) ORL 26 of 77 (33.8%) MIL 75 ORL 62
3 PT FGs... ORL 10 of 30 (33.3%) MIL 5 of 15 (33.3%)
FTs... MIL 25 of 36 (69.4%) ORL 24 of 39 (61.5%)
REBS... MIL 48 ORL 38
AST/TO... MIL 24/21 ORL 15/18
BENCH... ORL 23 MIL 21

Not one Magic player who played could make half their shots. Howard and Dooling combined to shoot 10 of 22 FGs; the remaining eight players combined to shoot an icy 16 of 55 FGs. The Magic have now lost three in a row and will look look to try and get something going at CHA FRI night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:18 PM  

9 Comments:

  • At 12:18 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Very discouraging loss once again, especially against a team that had lost 8 of their previous 9 games.

    As much as I respect JNelson, we are not getting good play at the PG position from him, pure and simple. 2 of 9 FG shooting and 6 TOs is unacceptable. Nelson has now shot 4 of 17 FGs combined in his last two games, with a poor 11/9 AST/TO ratio. Prior to this losing streak, Jameer was doing more than a respectable job at the point, as he was shooting relatively well, distributing the ball decently, and limiting his TOs, culminating in his outstanding game at GS. What happened all of a sudden? Jameer has got to get his act back together quickly.

    KDooling did a decent job off the bench, and did play the point for several minutes with Nelson and Arroyo on the bench. Arroyo did not play at all, as Big Figure has been advocating. Still, no difference in the outcome. JRedick also did not see any playing time.

    Even though the Magic forced 21 Bucks TOs, the Bucks still had the better AST/TO ratio and did a much better job of running their offense than the Magic did.

    Poor FG shooting (33.8%) and poor FT shooting (61.4%) by the Magic, just like in the ATL game, will always lead to a loss. To make matters worse, the Magic were thoroughly outrebounded.

    DHoward struggling with his FTs is not a good sign either. He is now 14 of 30 on FTs the last two games. 20 pts and 13 rebs is a pretty good statline for Dwight, but he can't do it all himself.

    Maybe FRI at CHA will be the night the Magic can get their act together.

     

  • At 5:28 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    A few notes:

    The play from the “role players” has dropped off drastically.

    Dooling brings great energy off of the bench, but he just doesn’t look like a back up point guard. In certain situations, he plays the position well in a defensive role; but he just doesn't do it for me with "running the offense". Example: Arroyo didn’t play tonight, and Dooling finished with 1 assist.

    The officials have got to get a better handle of two calls; charging and 3 seconds.

    First off, charging has become a joke in the NBA. In tonight's game alone, Bogut, the Bucks “7 FOOTER”, took 4 charges...riiight.

    As for 3 second calls; they've been calling this on Dwight all year. At points, it’s getting pretty damn stupid. Sometimes, like one play tonight when they called it, the play from out of bounds started and ended with barely 3 seconds going off of the clock. You know, I get it, if a guy camps out down there all the time... But Dwight makes an obvious effort to step out of the lane, and still, they call him for 3 seconds; and I'm just about tired of seeing it called...and hearing Matt Guokas chuckle about it.

     

  • At 10:23 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Well we can officially say the guys are struggling. I was glad to hear SVG's post game comments (in which he stated if the defense doesnt get better some changes to the line-up will be made)because i thought he coached the game VERY VERY well. We started out running the offense through jameer like we should (which i was looking for),the only problem is that jameer looked 100% scared to put any shots up when running pick and roll for fear of getting his shot blocked because he's so short. Everytime we ran pick and roll we basically got nothing out of it but alot of dribbling around the court by jameer. Also because of injury we got to see keyon play some back-up point,he did a good job defensively and if everybody around him is playing well that would have been enough as we closed withing two points with him out there. The next two games are gonna tell us a whole lot about our guys,SVG is giving them a two game leash.

     

  • At 10:33 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Keith's fighting a little injury so he gets a pass,dwight is the league leader in rebounds so he's doing his part on the defensive end. But hedo and jameer are just getting torched by opponents,guys are shooting right over jameer (which is another indication that his height may keep him from being an elite point guard as people are taking away his comfort spots on the floor),and hedo doesnt have any toughness to him defensively (mason and simmons were pushing him around and taking offensive rebounds from him,and on the other end muscling shots up through him). I'll give rashard the benefit of the doubt because he had to guard Yi (which is seven foot),but two of those three need to put on their hard hats or they could find themselves on the bench. Keith-best defender,rashard-best shooter and dwight-best center in the league,are almost locks to stay on the floor no matter what,jameer and hedo i cant say the same for.

     

  • At 1:22 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    The holes that I was talking about at the start of the season are showing up and being exploited by the opposing teams. When Hedo and Rashard are out-shooting the opponents the team wins but when they are not it shows how thin we are defensively at the PF. Rashard is still relatively solid but Hedo has gone back to his own inconsistent self. Jameer is being exploited by point guards who are looking for their offense (Parker, Billups and likes) and Magic has to look for shooters to cure the ills. While Keith was the answer before, with the injury he might not be so we have to get J.J. in there. This team as it is built right now, is not going to win games with defense but rather by out-shooting the opponents.

     

  • At 4:03 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    I won't blame Hedo. I know he hasn't blown up on the offensive end, but he's remained solid. Last night he had 18 points and 9 rebounds. He also was 7-10 from the free throw line, not a great %, but getting to the line that many times means he is doing what he is suppose to on the offensive end. Unlike Rashard who shot a total of 18 shots, 14 of which were 3's!?!?

    Still, our front court is doing what they should be, and what they've been doing all season.

    The change in play has all been in the backcourt. Nelson and Bogan’s offensive games have been none existent.

    Nelson had been making up for his lack of offense by dishing the ball, and limiting turnovers. However, that was before, as he's been playing careless with the ball again.

    Bogans, despite being a solid defender, will not last long as a starter if he can't at least put up some points. However, with our current roster, I expect him to stay in the starting 5 because he is a good defender. But to credit Bogan’s, he isn’t out there to try to score. He’s out there to defend, and take open shots, and that is what he has been doing.

    If anyone loses his starting spot, it'll be Nelson. Dooling and Arroyo have both, in different ways and games outplayed Nelson. Sure, Nelson has had some good nights, but it's become few and far between.

    Dooling brings more size, energy, defense, and even scoring with his quickness. We'd lose some play making, but he wouldn't turn the ball over as much as Nelson.

    Arroyo on the other hand can really dish the ball, and unlike Nelson, he's usually consistent about taking care of the ball. And despite not being the best defender, he does have more size than Nelson.

    I honestly think Nelson has a problem remaining focused. I don’t think teams figure him out. I think he loses focus.

    I’m happy Stan is going to hold players accountable.

     

  • At 9:11 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I'm willing to give JNelson the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer. He has gone through unthinkable tragedy the last few months with the sudden, mysterious death of his dad, who he was very close with. It was just a week and a half ago that the locker room had to be cleared when Nelson broke down after reading a text message about his dad.

    That being said, if Nelson continues to put up poor offensive numbers with high TOs, and has a tough time defensively, a change has to be made at the starting PG. I would not argue with Dooling or even Arroyo being made the starter at PG, if this keeps up.

    If Arroyo is available FRI night, which he should be, I look for him to play at least 20-25 mins at PG, depending on Nelson's effectiveness, with Dooling probably playing the backup SG.

    I want JRedick to see playing time too, but it appears that the only way this will happen is if Dooling plays at the backup PG and Arroyo sits, which I don't think will happen.

     

  • At 11:08 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Mike thats not the case either. Against the bucks keyon played the back-up point and mo evans was played at the back-up shooting guard. It would have been a perfect game to get JJ in with redd not being a post up guy,but SVG apparently still doesnt have confidence in JJ. In that game SVG went with keyon,evans,cook,augustine and foyle which is a horrible bench rotation. Hedo and rashard both played 40+ minutes,and one of them was always on the floor. Cook and augustine were used to give hedo and rashard little breaks throughout the game,but neither got alot of minutes. JJ can be used,SVG is making a choice not to use him whether carlos is there or not. SVG has to do a better job with the rotation,after 20+ games he should have figured out a good rotation and hasnt.

     

  • At 2:36 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    That's true too. With Dooling as the backup PG, SVG could have used Redick at the backup SG, but instead he used Evans. That would have been the ideal scenario to put in Redick, but instead he went with Evans. If Arroyo is available to play against CHA, the chances of Redick seeing any playing time are even less.

     

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