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 29, 2007

Magic survive Wade's 48 pts to beat Heat in OT

In one of the more exciting games of the Magic season, the Magic (20-11, 14-5 road), led by DHoward's 29 pts (10 of 15 FGs) and 21 rebs, were able to come back from a 7 pt deficit late in regulation to take a 3 pt lead in the final seconds, only to see MIA (8-22) tie with a 3 pt FG to send the game into OT. The Magic took control in the OT and scored the final 7 pts for a 121-114 win, despite a huge game by Dwyane Wade (16 of 21 FGs, 16 of 23 FTs) who scored 48 pts with 11 asts, 7 rebs.

Seven players scored in double figures for the Magic; in addition to Howard, HTurkoglu scored 22 pts (8 of 18 FGs); RLewis 17 pts (6 of 20 FGs); KBogans 13 pts (5 of 12 FGs); CArroyo, who played most of the minutes at PG in the 4th qtr and OT, scored 13 pts off the bench with 7 rebs and 5 asts; MEvans and KDooling each scored 10 pts off the bench.

In addition to Wade, four other players scored in double figures for MIA, including Ricky Davis and Udonis Haslem with 17 pts each. Shaquille O'Neal and Jason Williams both missed the game due to injuries.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 43 of 94 (45.7%) MIA 43 of 85 (50.6%) ORL 98 MIA 91
3 PT FGs... ORL 12 of 34 (35.3%) MIA 5 of 13 (38.5%)
FTs... ORL 23 of 28 (82.1%) MIA 23 of 31 (74.2%)
REBs... ORL 52 MIA 35
AST/TO... MIA 25/10 ORL 24/16
BENCH... ORL 35 MIA 18

The Magic have now won consecutive games for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks and will try for their third in a row SAT night as they host CHA.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:42 AM  

11 Comments:

  • At 1:05 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I knew the Heat would be ready and give the Magic a tough game, but the Magic were able to respond and had several clutch performances from their players for a very hard-fought victory.

    Give credit to DHoward for making his FTs, in addition to everything else he did. I know CArroyo will never win any defensive player of the year awards, but you can't argue against his numbers that he put up this game... 13 pts (including a big three late in regulation)... 7 rebs... 5 asts... 0 TOs in 27 mins. I'm assuming that JNelson had trouble with his back spasms that he had before the game, and that's why he only played 19 mins.

    With 7 players scoring in double figures, that's what you call a real team effort.

    I didn't see the game; I wonder how many of the fouls that were called against the Magic on DWade were legit (I'm sure OVERWADED will have an opinion on that). Fortunately, he missed 7 of the 23 FTs; he's usually a lot better than that from the line. What a game he had though... he showed why he's one of the top players in the game.

    With just a few seconds remaining in regulation with a 3 pt lead, I was wondering if the Magic were going to intentionally foul in that situation to prevent a game-tying 3 pt attempt (remember our debate about "To foul or not to foul" sometime back). Well, I wish they would have fouled; what a clutch three by Daequan Cook to tie and force the OT.

    Finally the Magic are on a winning streak after losing 7 of 9 games.

     

  • At 4:08 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    My fellow Magicians, the state of the Magic is not strong. OVERWADED was absoulutely right that the Shaqless Miami should have never been allowed to stay close. Why was Jameer in the starting line-up inspite of his back spasm? Why was Carlos the main back-up with heavy minutes?

     

  • At 4:10 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    The Magic missed Carlos Arroyo...obviously not tonight, but while he was out.

    Tonight was the exact reason Arroyo gets my vote. When Nelson struggles, Arroyo has the ability to come in and run the offense the way a point guard should. The Magic do not win this game without Arroyo. Do you think there is any coincidence that the Magic's struggles really started while Arroyo was in and out of the lineup?

    Mike, I really don't think it was Nelson's back that kept him out in the end. This isn't the first time Stan has let Arroyo finish out a game. Hell of a good decision. Again, the Magic do not get this win this game if Arroyo isn't playing.

    As for Wade, I've never denied the guy has talent, but I just hate how he plays. What I hate even more is how the refs cater to his bull$hit. I've never-ever seen a player consistently play for the foul, rather than the shot the way he does. He does it with regularity and it makes me sick to my stomach. If he'd just play without all the flopping, acting, throwing himself into people, I could manage. But when a guy shoots more FT’s than FG’s in a game and his "signature move" is to throw his right shoulder into his defender and chuck up whatever shot he can afterwards; I just can’t appreciate his game.

    Now I’m not saying he didn’t have a nice game, because he did. His jumper was actually falling for once. And for the most part, shooting jumpers and "twitching" after the ball left his hand landed him 23 free throws tonight. Congratulations for your award; best actor. To me he is an extremely talented fraud.

    In the end, I don't care. The Magic won the game and the Heat are one of the worst teams in the east. That's all that matters to me.

     

  • At 4:16 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Matt, I wish I was wrong about my prediction with this being a close game.

    The Magic got the W though. It was a great game to watch; although much of it pissed me off. Arroyo really did step up when we needed him though.

     

  • At 5:43 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    OVERWADED, I still am not able to see the games but my views for the starting PG is based on the assumption that we need more defense than offense on our backcourt. If Carlos was as good as you say, why the game with a Shaqless Miami missing their starting PG was so close?

     

  • At 11:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    A very hard fought win for the magic despite dwyane wade going off for a career high 48. I watched every last second of this game and there is alot to talk about.

    First, finally we see arroyo playing at his best. He played 30 minutes last night scoring 13 of which 11 came in the 4 or the OT periods, but most importantly he did not commit a single turnover! Yes thats right not one! He played with an intensity last night that we havent seen from him in a long time. Late in the fourth going to the charity stripe and drilling two clutch freethrows to give us a three point lead which was later erased by miami's hot shooting rookie daquan cook. Arroyo, if he plays like he did last night he will no doubt have to in the run for a satrting spot after all last night nelson played 19 minutes scoring 5 points and turning the ball over twice which ended up in 4 heat fastbreak points.

    Now dooling still played a great game as bogans backup at the 2 position going 4 from 6 from the field and scoring 10 points but most importantly containing ricky davis to only 17 points which isnt bad considering what he did to us in late november. Augustine played a couple of solid minutes once again sacrificing himself for the ball and keeping the ball alive on the offensive boards. Mr. Lewis gave a good effort scoring 17 including a huge three pointer late in regulation, and he seems to want the ball late in the game which is a good sign to me. And Dwight Howard just played ike the beast that he is, coming in late in the game and making freethrows like the allstar that he is.

    Jnelson needs to wake up and realize that his starting job is on the rocks and after last night we have a strong candidate for it in arroyo. Well tonight we have another divison rival coming into amway with a different rotation from what we last seen of them now adding nazr mohammed to it.

     

  • At 11:30 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    To his credit,carlos is a better than average back-up in this league,but a starter should be able to defend well period. If carlos was the perfect choice or at least the smartest choice,dont you think he would have un-seated jameer by now??? Furthermore,jameer even when playing bad is still a better defender than carlos because he can move his feet,the obvious defensive choice's would be jameer or keyon. If any fan would like us to play an offensive player (who happens to be the worst defender of the three) at point guard to start games,that fan isnt paying any attention to what has us losing games,OUR DEFENSE. Plus carlos coming off the bench and running the offense so smoothly is the exact reason he should stay in that role,wouldnt make any since to get rid of your back-up plan (who's playing so well) at point guard. Right now were winning with sub-par performances from jameer,can you imagine if we put keyon out their starting,we could run the offense through hedo (so keyon doesnt have the play-making responsibility) and be able to stop people at the same time so that when the subs come in they have leads to protect. I mean dont get me wrong,carlos played well IN RESERVE where his shortcomings arent abused as much,against carlos's spotty defense cook hit a few big three's,and if he were out there with the starters he'd get abused way to much early in games and we wouldnt be able to get off to good starts defensively. Good solid victory,the fact that shaq didnt play made it a much tougher game to win with them playing through wade instead of shaq. They just didnt have an answer for dwight or hedo.

     

  • At 1:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Nelson turns the ball over!! And let me make a correction to what bigfigure said..... we WERE winning with nelson having sub-par performances, we have only won 5 of our last 12 games in which nelson averaged 3.2 turnovers during the 12 game span!!!! THis is the national basketball association and scouts are scouting off of our weakness.....nelson!!!!! Look at what rondo, dwilliams and harris did to him the last couple of weeks!! Our defense is not what is hurting us right now......our 15 turnovers average per game is killing us and it all begins with the point!!!! After all do we not have the #1 defensive rebounder in the league right now......how do you think we are able to get dwight his defensive rebounds............GREAT TEAM D!!!!

    I hope you see where i am coming from guys nelson is just too careless with the ball, and too be honest with you he really aint a great defender after all we do play a weakside man defense with howard holding down the paint.....its all around great team defense, we are losing games cause we turn the ball over too much, and that was our problem last year and its our problem this year with the young team which otis has assembled. You donthave to be a great individual defender in the defense which orlando runs, take turk as an example!!! he hasnt played sit down defense since his days in sacramento but he is still great for the system in which we play!!! Well lets hope for a win tonight!

     

  • At 4:43 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Magicpaul, I pretty much see things your way. Our team has shown they can play good team defense. The main reason for that is we have Howard anchoring it all.

    Nelson has been the problem. The Magic's struggles started shortly after his struggles started. If you recall, Nelson played solid the 1st 15 games of the season. On the west coast road trip was when he really started to struggle. Well guess who was there to step in, Carlos Arroyo. He was the point guard in when the game was on the line, making the decisions, and posted a 31/4 assist/turnover ratio in a stretch of 4 games.

    Then his daughter got sick, and we still managed wins in LA and GS due to Dooling stepping in. We then had a break, Arroyo played a little but was rusty, Dooling received a DNP-CD, and that's when the losses started. Arroyo's injury followed at the same time, and the Magic' struggles were in full effect.

    What it really comes down to is that Nelson isn't doing what he should be doing on a regular basis and it's costing the team. Sometimes Dooling brings what we need, sometimes Arroyo does. And yes, there are still times when Nelson does, but it's been a while since he's been on his game.

    As long as we have Arroyo and Dooling for insurance behind Nelson, I think we'll be OK. At the same time, if Nelson's play doesn't improve, his minutes are going to continue to go down, and he might lose his starting job. Personally, I think it'd be a nice wake up call for him. SVG has given him plenty of time, and he hasn't responded. He also has the potential to be a nice spark off of the bench.

    By the way, playing 30 minutes, all of the 4th and overtime isn't what I consider being played as a "reserve"; regardless if Arroyo came off the bench of not.

    Also, I know Arroyo's defense isn't the best, but it's not nearly as bad as you're saying it is. He's just as good of a defender as Nelson, and because of his extra size, he gets the edge.

    Since when in the NBA has the point guard position been known for it's dominate defense? Of course they'll always be a few of them out there, but even some of the better defending players at the point guard spot are not great defenders. Do we have one “defensive stopper” in the NBA that plays point? The best I can think of is Billups, and I don’t even consider him a “defensive stopper”.

    To me it's a spot where you need a smart player, a leader, someone to direct traffic, get everyone involved, limit turnovers, and make a play when needed. Not to say that Arroyo can do this on a regular basis (nobody knows), but what we need in a point guard is EXACTLY what Arroyo did for us last night against the Heat, period. If you need a reminder, watch the 4th quarter and overtime again, he was great.

    I don't understand the idea that Arroyo has had his chance to start in this league and has failed? He's only been in the league for 6 years. He played behind Stockton and Billups for most of his career. Then he came to Orlando under Brian Hill in a system that made him look awful. This is the first legit time he's had the opportunity to start in this league (keeping in mind he did start an entire season for Utah after Stockton retired under Jerry Sloan).

    Remember, it took 5 teams in 6 seasons before Billups found a starting position in the league.

    Nash is even more interesting to look at in this regards. He went from NOTHING in the NBA for years, to an MVP.

    Now I'm not saying that Arroyo will ever be anything near the level of Nash or Billups, but do I think he can be an effective starter in the NBA? Yes I do.

    In the end, we all agree on one thing, Jameer Nelson is not performing right now, and that is our biggest problem.

     

  • At 6:18 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Give the Magic credit in the OT for finally being able to stop DWade... he didn't score at all in the OT! That just shows the Magic CAN play defense when they put their minds to it.

    Tonight's game against the Bobcats won't be easy, with the Magic coming off a hard-fought OT win and three of the starters playing at least 44 minutes, so the bench will have to play well like they did against MIA. This will be CHA's second of a back-to-back also.

    It'll be interesting to see who gets the most minutes at PG tonight... if JNelson continues to struggle, CArroyo will and should get the majority of the minutes.

    The Magic have beaten CHA 5 games in a row at home, with DHoward having big games twice already against the Bobcats this season. He may have a tougher time this time, with Mohammed at C now for CHA.

    I'm confident the Magic will win tonight, and not suffer a letdown, as CHA has only one road win and has lost 13 of their last 17 games overall.

     

  • At 6:51 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    It sounds like Nelson is going to sit out with a sore back. Arroyo will get the start tonight.

    SVG expressed a lot of confidence in Arroyo before the game saying: "Carlos is the guy on our team that sees the floor the best. I don't think there's any question about that. He really reads the defense well, sees other people’s rotations, and is able to get the ball to the right people".

    He went on to say that he likes it he went Arroyo pushes the ball, because he's very-very good at it, rather than waiting for a pick-n-roll.

    I hope to see the rest of the team running with Arroyo tonight; as there should be plenty of fast break opportunities.

    Dooling will play backup minutes tonight at both 1 and 2 spots.

    It'd be nice if we could have a Redick sighting tonight. With Nelson out, Dooling should come in at the 1, and Redick would fit nicely next to him at the 2.

    It should be interesting to see how the Magic start out tonight’s game, and how the team does without Nelson. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an improvement in both areas.

    Magic by 11.

     

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