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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.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Lewis the hero in dramatic last-second Magic victory over DET

In a close game throughout, the Magic held a 3 pt lead in the final 10 seconds before DET's Chauncey Billups tied the game with a long 30+ ft 3 pt FG with 6 secs left. After a timeout, RLewis took the inbounds pass from HTurkoglu and pulled up for a 12 footer at the buzzer, and it went in and was confirmed by replay for the win. This win by the Magic (26-17, 10-8 home) broke a 9 game losing streak to DET (29-13).

Four players scored in double figures for the Magic, led by HTurkoglu with 26 pts (7 of 16 FGs), 8 asts, 5 rebs; DHoward 23 pts (7 of 11 FGs), 8 rebs, 3 blocks; RLewis 16 pts (7 of 16 FGs), 6 rebs; and KDooling off the bench with 12 pts (3 of 6 FGs).

Six players scored in double figures for DET, with Rip Hamilton scoring 21 pts and Tayshaun Prince 20 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... DET 35 of 80 (43.8%) ORL 33 of 65 (50.8%) DET 77 ORL 74
3 PT FGs... ORL 8 of 17 (47.1%) DET 7 of 13 (53.8%)
FTs... ORL 28 of 37 (75.7%) DET 23 of 30 (76.7%)
REBs... ORL 36 DET 34
AST/TO... ORL 19/12 DET 14/11
BENCH... ORL 27 DET 15

DET had been 18-0 in games where they score at least 100 pts. The Magic maintain their 2 game division lead over WAS, and next do battle at MEM WED night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:44 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 3:02 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    In the headline for my post I wrote that Lewis was the hero; but really, this was a team effort from start to finish; all the guys did something to contribute to the win.

    What a close game statistically... the 5 pt margin at the FT line for the Magic wound up being the difference, with DET outscoring the Magic from the floor by 3 pts. The Magic's strong FG% really helped too.

    At the end, it looked like the Magic were trying to foul Billups before he took the three, but the refs wouldn't call it; then it looked like Billups traveled and the refs missed that; but that was a heck of a shot by Billups to tie.

    Great play by Lewis to make the winning shot... he put a good fake on the defender and he was able to bank it in for the win.

    Brian Cook made another significant contribution off the bench with 7 pts (5 in the second half), 2 rebs and 2 asts in just 15 mins.

    I thought Arroyo and Dooling made a good tandem at PG, combining for 18 pts, 6 asts, and just 2 TOs. Arroyo did a better job distributing the ball than in the previous 2 games, and Dooling provided a big spark off the bench with his 12 pts.

    Some +/- numbers for the game... Bogans +11, Turkoglu and Foyle +3, Dooling and Cook +2... Evans -6, Lewis -4 (obviously, Lewis more than made up for the negative rating with his game winning shot).

    Magic have now won 3 in a row at home... a very positive sign with all the home games coming up the rest of the way. Also, this is the first time all month they have won consecutive games.

    Coach Van Gundy finally seems to have found a solid lineup and bench rotation (except for not finding any time for Redick); let's hope that when Nelson returns, that won't mess too much with the rotation and the chemistry with the way it's developing. If Jameer is right, that should only help the Magic even more.

     

  • At 3:14 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    By the way, props to Big Figure for his excellent pre-game analysis. He said the Magic bench would have to outplay the Pistons' bench in order for us to have a chance (Magic bench outscored the DET bench 27-15). Also, he said that Lewis would have to come up big, and give Turk some help. That was prophetic, considering what happened at the end.

    In the first game the Magic and Pistons played, "Flip" Murray came off the bench and scored 19 pts for DET. He was nowhere to be found against the Magic MON night, and hasn't played in more than a month. He's not hurt, as far as I know. Wonder what happened to get him in Flip Saunders' dog house.

     

  • At 11:16 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Win or lose,that was a great game. Big-time effort from the guys. Thanks for the props mike,and i agree with everything you've already said,i'll just add to that by saying that SVG's decision to switch rashard and hedo's defensive match-up's (having rashard guard mcdyess and hedo guard rasheed)was critical,what it actually did was made rasheed have to stay with hedo in transition anytime the pistons missed a shot,then the magic raced the ball up court all night so the pistons couldnt find their men,which in turn made rasheed have to guard hedo sometimes and we all know that hedo takes it to the rim better than anyone on our team,rasheed couldnt handle defending hedo from 20+ feet out and hedo was able to get lay-ups down the stretch,kudos to SVG,what a great between the lines coaching move. Also,technically this is a much different team than the one that was swept in the first round by the pistons. SVG,rashard,mo and brian coached and played without any mental involvement in our past 9 losses or playoff sweep and that had alot to do with me picking the magic to win,those four guys in magic uniforms are 1-1 with the pistons,very respectable. Lets keep up the effort,i can except losing if they come with these kinda efforts. GO MAGIC!!!!

     

  • At 8:08 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Hell of a game for many people to miss! I'm with BIG, win or lose it was a great game.

    Mike, you're right, the Magic did try to foul Billups, SVG confirmed that in his post game comments.

    Even worse, Billups did travel on the shot; it was close to 4 steps. But it was a hell of a shot, and I seriously doubt anyone was thinking about watching his feet as he was pulling up from 35 feet.

    We currently have a solid rotation going on. Arroyo starts, and plays similar to Nelson. Dooling, although struggling to get the team into the offense, was good on the defensive end. SVG recognized that Dooling was struggling, in turn, put the ball in Hedo's hands almost every time down, and he played point-forward (8 assists).

    But we’re bring Dooling, Bogans, Cook, and Foyle coming off the bench. Which keeps either one of Turk or Lewis out there, and we have a solid rotation.

    I feel like I should mention Brian Cook. I’m glad to see him out there hustling. He looks like he’s gotten into better shape, and it’s really showing.

    What worries me is that when Nelson comes back, the rotation getting screwed up, because we’ve yet to have a good rotation with him in the lineup. The best I can hope for is that it just moves Dooling over the the 2, and Bogans over to the 3, and we have a 10 man rotation.

    But against a team like Detroit, we're better off without Nelson. Billups usually feasts on Nelson. Arroyo has a little more size, but Dooling, Bogans, and Evans match up with Detroit’s backcourt much better.

    It should be interesting to see how it all pans out. All I know is now; we're not missing Jameer at all right now.

     

  • At 2:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well guys i havent been around for like 6 games but im finally back and man what a game to come back on!!!! Great TEAM effort last night, probably a game that we will all look back at as a turning point with the magic coming through and getting a huge win at home against a team that we have had no answer for as of late. 3rd straight win at home and honestly the last three were legitemate wins. Dwight once again shows up and just does what he does scoring 23 and snatching 8, gents.....come MVP voting time the press is gonna have no choice but to have dwight in the running for this award, now im not saying he is going to the win the MVP award but im saying he is definetly in the top 3 for the award hands down. Night in and night out he puts up these numbers that some of us cant even do on the playstation and has literally put the magic on his back and has carried us 27 victories halfway through the season.

    Last night i could not be any happier when the ball came to the 118 million dollar man at the end of the game. If you guys remember i had beeen asking for SVG to take the scoring load off of hedo at the end of the game and as of late it seemed as if the defense would collapse on hedo when the game was on the line and lewis seemed open for one on one situations. Then come last night, it happens hedo was used as decoy and opened up a one on one situation with rip hamilton and rashard and lewis came out on top hitting a great shot off the glass and establishing himself as a scoring threat here in the east!!!! I know that he would light the scoreboard up when he was out there in seattle but no matter what anybody says rashard lewis' scoring ability since he has been with the magic has not been respected but hopefully last night shows everyone that he can score and he will score. It is really nice having two versatile, tall scorers that can score off the dribble it really compliments SVG's offense but our inconsistency is our weak point right now and if we dont deal with it fast it could cost us the division. Washington is playing solid basketball and are only a couple weeks away from getting their allstar back in arenas. We have the team to win the division and have home court advantage at least in the first round but our inconsistency could hurt us tremoundously as teams around the league start to make their mid season push and flat out become better basketball teams. Well looking forward the schedule is on our sides when it comes to traveling west and degree of difficulty, we are not going no farther west then the mississippi and have a whole lot of games at home.

     

  • At 4:11 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    With Cook making solid contributions off the bench the last few games, and Evans becoming entrenched as the starting two guard, the trade the Magic made with the Lakers is starting to look better now.

    Tough break for Ariza, though, breaking his foot. He was really starting to show all the potential with the Lakers that he showed with the Magic last year.

    Great observations in your posts, guys.

     

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