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.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Late surge lifts Magic over Raptors

After a lackluster first half which saw the Magic ahead just 44-41 on 40% FG shooting, the Magic (39-23, 18-11 home) came alive in the second half, making 23 of 34 FGs (67.6%), including 12 of 16 FGs in the final qtr, for a 102-87 triumph over TOR (32-27), which was playing without All-Star Chris Bosh. The Magic were without defensive stopper KDooling, but JNelson returned to the starting lineup and KBogans, who was doubtful going into the game, played 25 minutes. The Magic also made 5 of 7 3 pt FGs in the second half.

The Magic had four players in double figures, led by HTurkoglu with another outstanding all-around game of 24 pts (9 of 16 FGs), 8 asts, 7 rebs; RLewis 22 pts (9 of 13 FGs); DHoward 19 pts (7 of 10 FGs), 16 of which came in the fourth qtr, 14 rebs; and JNelson 13 pts (5 of 11 FGs), 6 rebs, 4 asts. CArroyo led the bench with 7 pts (3 of 7 FGs); KBogans and BCook each added 6 pts.

Four TOR players scored in double figures, with T.J. Ford coming off the bench to lead with 20 pts; Anthony Parker added 19 pts. Rasho Nesterovic, starting in place of Bosh. scored just 2 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 40 of 76 (52.6%); TOR 36 of 88 (40.9%) ORL 88 TOR 74
3 PT FGs... ORL 8 of 23 (34.8%) TOR 2 of 14 (14.3%)
FTs... ORL 14 of 20 (70%) TOR 13 of 19 (68.4%)
REBs... TOR 47 ORL 41
AST/TO... ORL 18/15 TOR 15/13
BENCH... TOR 40 ORL 22

With the win, the Magic clinch the season series over TOR 2-1, and are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Raptors in the conference standings. The Magic have won 7 of their last 9 games, and 5 home games in a row. Magic go right back at it WED night, traveling to WAS.

3 Comments:

  • At 11:20 PM, Blogger MagicManEvan said…

    Thanks for the comment, Mike from Illinois.

    Nice blog here too. I've checked it out before, but sure will be coming by more often to check you guys out. Hope you guys could drop by my blog (boldnblue.blogspot.com) every once in a while.

    I'll make sure to link your blog on mine sometimes too. I always look out for my fellow Magic fans 8)

     
  • At 4:18 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Sounds good Magic Man... thanks!

    Nice win for the guys, even though it wasn't the most impressive win you'll ever see. I thought we let TOR hang around a bit too long, with just a 3 pt lead heading into the 4th qtr; but Howard and Turk really turned on their game in that final qtr to help the Magic pull away.

    Some statistical notes:

    The two PGs, Nelson and Arroyo, combined for 20 pts on 8 of 18 FGs, 6 asts, and 3 TOs.

    Lewis and Turk continue to impress, combining for 46 pts on 18 of 29 FGs, 11 rebs, 9 asts.

    The Magic starting frontcourt outscored the Raptors' starting frontcourt 65-14 on 25 of 39 FGs, compared to 5 of 25 FGs for TOR.

    The Magic were outrebounded 47-41, including 12-2 on the offensive boards.

    The Magic were very efficient otherwise, shooting a better percentage than TOR from the field, 3 pt line, and FT line.

    Even though TOR's T.J. Ford scored 20 pts in just 16 mins off the bench, he committed 7 TOs also in that short amount of time.

    Our last two losses have come on the road on the back end of back-to-back games; hope we can change that WED night against the Wizards.

     
  • At 2:28 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    With bosh out the magic have to win this game,you lose to them without bosh it basically means they're just better than us and i dont beleive that. Im glad the guys got interested enough in the fourth quarter to put the game away as we struggled to do that for three quarters,it will go down in the books as another solid victory that gave us a tie-breaker. Nice to have that in the back-pocket just in case.

     

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