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.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

No second half collapse this time as Magic beat POR

The Magic (25-17, 9-8 home) started off fast, taking advantage of a POR (24-16) team that had just played the night before, as they jumped out to a 39-18 lead midway through the second qtr. Naturally, the TrailBlazers made a run and cut their deficit to just 4 pts late in the third qtr. The Magic were able to hold on in the fourth qtr thanks in part to 7 of 8 FTs made in the final minute and won 101-94.

Five players scored in double figures for the Magic, led by HTurkoglu with 20 pts (9 of 16 FGs), 8 rebs, 5 asts; RLewis 16 pts (5 of 10 FGs), 5 asts; MEvans 15 pts (7 of 10 FGs), 5 rebs; KBogans off the bench with 13 pts (5 of 10 FGs); and DHoward 10 pts (3 of 7 FGs), 14 rebs and 4 blocks.

Brandon Roy led POR with 25 pts, 7 asts; and Travis Outlaw added 22 pts off the bench.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 40 of 80 (50%) POR 38 of 91 (41.8%) ORL 88 POR 85
3 PT FGs... POR 9 of 16 (56.2%) ORL 8 of 21 (38.1%)
FTs... ORL 13 of 23 (56.5%) POR 9 of 11 (81.8%)
REBs... ORL 48 POR 37
AST/TO... POR 23/6 ORL 19/11
BENCH... POR 39 ORL 32

Magic begin the second half of the season on a positive note, and increase their SE division lead to 2 games over WAS. Three of the next four Magic games are against East favorites DET and BOS, with DET first TUE night in ORL.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 1:13 AM  

5 Comments:

  • At 4:28 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    In his pre game comments Mike said that "it’s time for the Magic to stop talking about how much better they need to focus on defense and keeping their intensity, and to start performing that way on the court. Actions speak a lot louder than words!"

    Well Mike, I couldn’t have agreed with you more, and tonight, the Magic couldn’t have done much better of a job than they did in that regards.

    While there were plenty of positives in tonight’s game, I’m only going to mention one for now, because it’s not often that I can say this.

    The Orlando Magic played defense tonight.

     

  • At 5:35 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Let me try to expand on the positives... OVERWADED brought out the most important one.

    In addition... the Magic shot the ball well (50%); outrebounded POR by a considerable margin (48-37); hit their FTs late; three different players (Turkoglu, Lewis, Dooling) had 5 assists, which indicates good ball movement on offense; the bench really helped out with 32 pts, and good job taking care of the ball with just 11 TOs. It's not often you see a team with a 23/6 AST/TO ratio, like POR had, lose that game; that just shows how effective the Magic were in other areas to counter that.

    Individually, nice to see Turk have an outstanding all-around game after struggling the last several games; Coach Van Gundy called out Howard and Lewis for playing very good defensively; and nice job by Dooling as the backup pt guard with 5 asts to just 1 TO.

    SVG also did a much better job on his bench rotation, for example Brian Cook saw action in the first half and contributed 8 pts with 5 rebs; also I think Coach made a smart decision going with Dooling at the pt in the fourth qtr, instead of starter Arroyo, as he (Dooling) was doing a good job running the team and playing defense.

    I'm a little concerned now about Arroyo, as this was the second straight game he was not effective with his usual good playmaking skills. He didn't have a single assist in over 22 mins, and to make matters worse he had 3 TOs. In his last 2 games, Arroyo has just 2 asts and 4 TOs in 54 mins; his season AST/TO ratio was better than 3 1/2 to 1 before these last two games. I will say, though, that Arroyo did provide an offensive spark in the first qtr, as I believe he scored all 8 of his pts there.

    Some +/- numbers for the game... 7 Magic players had positive numbers for the game, including Foyle +14, Cook +8, Bogans +7. Only 2 players had minus ratings... Howard at -7, and Turk -5, but both those players did more than enough to offset the negative rating.

    The Magic really needed this game with 3 of the next 4 games against DET and BOS. It would be great to see the Magic win 2 of those 3 games, but at the very least, I hope they can show they can compete with both teams.

     

  • At 1:43 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    The assists from Turk, Lewis, and Dooling were impressive.

    Despite forcing some shots, Dooling did a solid job tonight. This is about as good as I’ve seen him at the point guard spot. He played solid defense. He actually looked to pass some. He got on the boards, and got to the line. Nice game for Keyon.

    Arroyo looked good offensively, but I'm not happy with his lack of playmaking as of late. He looks like he’s a little discouraged, which usually leads to less focus. In turn, he’s shooting a little more, playing somewhat careless, and forgetting what he does best. Whether it’s because of his sporadic playing time or ever changing role, I’m not sure.

    The sad thing is, all three, Arroyo, Dooling, and Nelson go through these phases where they forget they're running point and just start chucking shots.

    While I'm on the topic of point guard; did anyone else "not miss" Jameer Nelson last night? He was easily forgettable, and that's not a good thing.

    As mentioned, our team played some good defense. Dwight had 4 blocks, but we've seen him do that before. The player who stood out to me was Rashard. Statistically, he finished with 2 blocks and 1 steal. The steal isn't much of a surprise, but both of his blocks were impressive. Remember that he only averages .3 bpg, and it really stands out that he was making a conscience effort to defend.

     

  • At 10:06 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Good effort from the guys,when we defend were tough to beat. Carlos is doing his best,but crafty is guardable,i'd rather have less handle with good quickness because at least then you could get by people,but carlos relies on the defense making mistakes to get his baskets,when they go under the screen that makes him a shooter instead of a passer playing into the defenses hands while your not getting anybody involved. The first couple of games carlos passed the ball well because the competition wasnt good and the magic were able to rebound and run alot because of that,carlos in the open floor becomes a good passer,but if a team takes away our break carlos becomes useless because within an offensive set he cant drive and kick (because he cant get by anybody routinely),he runs the pick and roll with dwight but he never makes the bounce pass through the defense,he usually goes left and takes the shot. In the play-offs where the game slows down you can forget getting production from carlos,right now he's all we got untill jameer gets back,and depending on the opponent some nights he can be good,like for example blake didnt penetrate which played into carlos's hands (or should i say defensively got him off the hook for a game). Also,mo evans in my opinion has taken over the two guard spot with his athletic ability,i love what he brings to the table,great game from mo all around. Keyon,mo,keith,dwight and rashard all played well defensively. I called for brian cook before the game and he came up big,i think SVG still couldve used JJ.

     

  • At 5:14 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    I think Arroyo's struggles have more to do with him rather than what any opposing defender or team is doing.

     

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