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, February 13, 2008

Howard responds in a big way in Magic win over DEN

The Magic head into the All-Star Break with a 33-21 record after outscoring DEN (32-20) 61-50 in the second half for a 109-98 victory. This was the Magic's 15th consecutive home win over DEN.

After Magic Coach Van Gundy singled out DHoward for his lack of defense after MON night's loss to CLE, Howard responded with a huge 23 pts (8 of 13 FGs, 7 of 14 FTs), 24 rebs, and 2 blocked shots performance. Four other Magic players scored in double figures, led by RLewis with 25 pts (9 of 14 FGs), 7 rebs; HTurkoglu 18 pts (8 of 17 FGs); BCook off the bench with 18 pts (7 of 9 FGs, 4 of 5 3 pt FGs), 5 rebs; JNelson 13 pts (6 of 15 FGs), 5 asts, 2 TOs. KDooling added 8 pts (3 of 9 FGs) off the bench.

The high-scoring duo of DEN, Carmelo Anthony (32 pts) and Allen Iverson (21 pts), combined for 53 pts. Kenyon Martin added 17 pts, 9 rebs.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 43 of 93 (46.2%) DEN 33 of 75 (44.0%) ORL 94 DEN 73
3 PT FGs... ORL 8 of 22 (36.4%) DEN 7 of 19 (36.8%)
FTs... DEN 25 of 33 (75.8%) ORL 15 of 23 (65.2%)
REBs... ORL 51 DEN 35
AST/TO... ORL 18/18 DEN 18/15
BENCH... ORL 28 DEN 20

The Magic end their 5 game homestand at 2-3, and will now enjoy 5 days off for the All-Star Break (except for Howard, who will have a busy All-Star Weekend). Their next game is a tough test at DET next TUE.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:31 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 4:12 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    A promising way to end what had been a disappointing homestand. Howard has his first 20/20 game since JAN 16th, and Lewis scores over 20 pts for the first time since JAN 15th. Also, the Magic hold one of the highest scoring teams in the league to under 100 pts.

    The Magic dominated the boards 51-35, including 16-7 on the offensive boards. That helped the Magic attempt 18 more FGs than the Nuggets, which led to a 21 pt advantage from the floor by the Magic.

    The Magic were able to overcome Evans' ejection from the game in the third qtr; Evans and Bogans combined to shoot just 2 of 15 from the field for 4 pts.

    Nice to have Dooling back; he provided his usual spark coming off the bench.

    Another nice performance offensively off the bench from Cook with 18 pts. He has made 19 of his last 32 3 pt FG attempts for an amazing 59.4%.

    Some +/- numbers for the game... no one on the Magic had a negative rating... Lewis +14; Howard, Turkoglu, Dooling, Bogans all +8.

    Barring a trade or injury, it looks like this will be the nine-man rotation we see for the rest of the season. It's not necessarily fair to guys like Arroyo and Redick, but as long as the Magic win, that's what matters most.

    This upcoming 5 day break should really help the Magic come back ready and refreshed after the All-Star Break. Hopefully Howard will have fun at the All-Star Weekend, and will come back with the renewed focus he showed against DEN.

     

  • At 2:07 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I guess dwight got the message. SVG should start calling someone out once a week...LOL. Good game,good win. Our back-court still stunk it up last night and thats not good,keyon was really the only bright spot.

     

  • At 8:19 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Hey Mike! We're trying to do a preview of the Raps/Magic game next week over on Hoops Addict and we wanted to know if you could help us preview the game. If your up for doing this please drop me an email (hoopsaddict [at] gmail.com). Thanks, and sorry for leaving this in your comments section but I couldn't find your email on the site

     

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