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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Second-half collapse to CHA leads to yet another inexplicable loss for Magic

The Magic (24-17, 16-9 road), trying to build momentum after their rousing win against CHI TUE night, looked like they were well on their way after leading at the half 56-41 over CHA (15-23) and shooting over 50%. Things looked even more promising after the Magic went up 60-41 to start the second half, but the Magic suddenly and stunningly collapsed and were outscored 58-33 the rest of the way, as they made only 14 of 42 FGs in the second half (7 of 24 in the 4th qtr), to lose 99-93 to the Bobcats.

Five players scored in double figures for the Magic, led by DHoward with 24 pts (8 of 15 FGs), 21 rebs, 4 stls; CArroyo, replacing an injured JNelson in the 3rd qtr, 17 pts (6 of 13 FGs), 2 asts; HTurkoglu 16 pts (7 of 18 FGs); RLewis 14 pts (5 of 14 FGs); MEvans 10 pts (4 of 7 FGs). BCook, after providing a big spark against CHI off the bench, did not see any action at all against CHA.

Only three players scored in double figures for CHA, but it was more than enough, led by a great performance from Gerald Wallace with 36 pts (12 of 30 FGs), 14 rebs, 5 asts, 3 stls, and 0 TOs; Jerome Richardson with 26 pts, and Matt Carroll off the bench with 13 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 35 of 81 (43.2%) CHA 35 of 87 (40.2%) CHA 78 ORL 76
3 PT FGs... CHA 8 of 22 (36.4%) ORL 6 of 17 (35.3%)
FTs... CHA 21 of 24 (87.5%) ORL 17 of 24 (70.8%)
REBs... ORL 48 CHA 41
AST/TO... CHA 24/10 ORL 12/18
BENCH... ORL 27 CHA 21

Magic have now lost 6 of their last 8 games, and are now at the midpoint of the season with a 24-17 record, holding on to a 2 game lead in the SE over WAS. After a few days off, Magic host much-improved POR on SAT night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:37 PM  

7 Comments:

  • At 11:18 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    This game was almost as bad a loss as the loss at SAC last week. Even though CHA has played outstanding ball the last few weeks, there is absolutely no excuse for the Magic blowing a 19 pt 3rd qtr lead to any team.

    I've been praising the playmaking abilities of Arroyo the last several weeks here on the blog, but he sure didn't do well against CHA and that was a big factor in the loss... only 2 asts in just 32 mins... that just won't cut it for any pt guard. Arroyo did provide an offensive spark in the 2nd qtr with 12 pts, but then shot just 2 of 9 in the second half.

    Again, the opposing team had a superior AST/TO ratio against the Magic... 24/10 for CHA and a bad 12/18 for the Magic.

    Just as we thought that Lewis might be finally emerging as the solid, consistent scorer the Magic thought they were getting when they signed him, he scores just 14 pts in 43 mins.

    And what's up with SVG? After Cook provided a big spark against the Bulls the previous night with 14 pts off the bench, this is how he he gets rewarded... with a DNP-CD? Why didn't he get some playing time off the bench? SVG's inconsistent bench rotations are not helping any.

    It's now officially the midway point of the season, and you would expect by this time, the Magic would learn how to bury teams that they have a big lead against; it's just so frustrating to see them losing these types of games when you look at the talent that is on this team. Hopefully, the Magic and Coach Van Gundy will somehow get this straightened out the second half of the season.

     

  • At 5:11 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    My thoughts:

    I think Arroyo did a nice job tonight. He got the ball moving. He could have easily tallied up plenty of assists if it were not for opposing players fouling or our players missing shots.

    Evans has been doing a great job as a starter. However, this is the 2nd time I haven't seen him on the floor at the end of the game. I have nothing against Bogans, but Evans has been better, and he gives us things that Bogans hasn't.

    Dooling's defense is bogus. I know the guy is quick on his feet, but I've been watching him game after game, and his defense is phantom. He's quick, but he doesn't stop anyone. The way he uses his quickness is to get himself shots; and that's all I see.

    Get Dwight Howard the ball.

    We've seen flashes in the last few games; but I want to see Rashard Lewis playing a lot more aggressive. He needs to stop deferring to Howard, and especially Turk, and just take over...pending he has that ability...but I've seen him do it before in Seattle.

    Cook looked good last night, why no Cook tonight?

     

  • At 10:31 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    IMO,carlos was good for about a quarter,after the half very few points and no assists,basically turning into what intro describe's keyon as being,a shoot first point guard who doenst get anyone involved,carlos got up 9 shots after half but no fancy passes and his defense wasnt very good down the stretch. But thats about as long as he'll help you,12-16 minutes and carlos can be very good,but playing him 30+ minutes,well you see what happens he can be easily guarded and our offense and defense bog down over time,losing jameer at the half was the biggest factor in the game,carlos having to play extended minutes really killed us. SVG could have really helped carlos by giving him a break at some point and played keyon at the point for a spell and use JJ at the two which wouldve given everybody a rest,i'm sure carlos was getting tired down the stretch. In one sequence,felton penetrated and was getting by carlos,keyon had to come over to cut off the lane so there wouldnt be an easy basket which left carroll open for three and he hit the shot,SVG was beside himself. If carlos could at least keep people in front of him other guys on the perimeter wouldnt have to help as much and our defense wouldnt get broken down by the dribble penetration. If anybody wants to see this sequence,it was about the 6:00 mark in the fourth quarter. Anytime we have to play carlos for extended minutes were in BIG trouble,charlotte's comeback was done with carlos leading us. Oh and this aint all about carlos,hedo's defense or lack there of is getting old,at least carlos has an excuse(he just isnt that quick),but whats hedo's excuse for letting a guy just totally dominate him,wallace's numbers were off the charts. And whats up with the rotation,how can SVG play a guy one night,then the next not even give him a look? Whats up with using only 9 guys(only eight after losing jameer). Char found time for carroll,wouldnt that have been a great match-up for JJ to play? Rashard's offense,where'd it go? SVG is struggling right along with his team,we score enough points we have to have people on the court that will defend,calling for mo evans to finish some games is a good start,we can see what his presence does to the starting line-up.

     

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

    Mike i guess you and i were watching the same game,or if you didnt watch,we sure have the same feeling on the lack of production from arroyo in his last few games,his play offensively and defensively wont cut it. I was wondering why you didnt include +/-'s in your post as usuall? I dont think anybody will have a good +/- for this game,maybe dwight. Hopefully jameer will be back soon,if we have to go with arroyo for extended minutes against portland,detroit(twice)and boston,chalk those up as losses.

     

  • At 3:40 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Big Figure, the reason why I didn't include any of the +/- figures from the game last night was because the only Magic players to have a positive rating were Nelson (+3) and Foyle (+2), and neither of them played significant minutes. The worst +/- last night belonged to Arroyo (-9), followed by Evans (-8), Howard (-8), and Dooling (-5).

    Compare that to CHA, who saw a +15 from Matt Carroll and +9 from Gerald Wallace.

    Unfortunately, the only time I can see the Magic on TV is when they are nationally televised or whenever they play the Bulls (and whenever I'm lucky enough to come down to Orlando and stay with relatives). I think I'm pretty good at interpreting stats, that's what I base most of my conclusions on. I do realize that stats don't tell the whole story, so if you guys think there's something I missed that I would have seen had I watched the game, let me know.

    OVERWADED brought up that Arroyo would have had more assists if his teammates would have made their shots. That may be true, but still, I think Arroyo is much better than to wind up with just 2 asts in 32 mins.

    Big Figure brought out something I think is valid... why didn't Coach Van Gundy give Arroyo some more rest in the second half? Look at how effective Arroyo was in the second quarter when he was fresh... he scored 12 pts, made all his shots, and helped lead the Magic to the 15 pt halftime lead. However, in the second half, he was much less effective. Since Nelson was out, it probably would have been a good idea to put Dooling at the pt (like Big Figure said) for maybe 6 or so minutes in the second half to give Arroyo a break; Arroyo probably would have been fresher and much more effective in the final qtr had that happened.

    This sure isn't totally Arroyo's fault for what happened against CHA. As Big Figure brought up, Turk was awful defensively (the rest of the guys too in the second half, allowing 58 pts) and SVG's substitutions and bench rotation (not playing Cook and Redick) were poor (how many times did we bring this up about Brian Hill last season?).

    Oh well... I'm trying to remain optimistic for the second half of the season, based on everyone, including SVG, learning from their mistakes.

     

  • At 4:41 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    I agree with you guys in regards to Arroyo. He didn't do anything great in the 2nd half, but that can be said for plenty of other guys. At least he had an amazing 2nd quarter and only had 1 turnover in the entire game.

    Something to think about... Here is Arroyo's playing time over the last 6 games (16, 7, 10, 0, 20, 32).

    Call me crazy, but almost any player is going to struggle to be consistent with playing time that is that up and down; especially a guy who goes from being a productive starter for 4 games, to not playing at all in another.

     

  • At 8:51 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Exactly... that's why SVG has to do a better job with the player rotation and the minutes he allows each player to play from game to game.

     

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