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, March 19, 2008

Turkoglu's career night can't save Magic from narrow loss to WAS

Celebrating his 29th birthday WED, HTurkoglu tried to do all he could to carry the Magic to a win, as he scored a career-high 39 pts (11 of 20 FGs, 7 of 9 3 pt FGs), but missed two crucial FTs in the final minute and also a last-second layup attempt that would have given the Magic (45-25, 22-13 home) the victory in a 87-86 loss to WAS (34-33), which came two weeks after a 30 pt Magic win at WAS. Turk got little help from his ice-cold shooting teammates, as the rest of the Magic combined to shoot a frigid 15 of 57 FGs (26.3%). In the fourth qtr, the Magic made only 5 of 21 FG attempts.

In addition to Turkoglu, only two other Magic players scored in double figures. KBogans scored 14 pts (5 of 10 FGs) off the bench and JNelson added 12 pts (4 of 9 FGs), 9 asts. DHoward (3 pts) and RLewis (7 pts) both had their worst offensive nights of the season as they combined to shoot 3 of 19 FGs for 10 pts.

WAS had four players in double figures, led by Antawn Jamison with 31 pts. Former Magic G Deshawn Stevenson added 14 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... WAS 35 of 82 (42.7%) ORL 26 of 77 (33.8%) WAS 76 ORL 66
3 PT FGs... ORL 14 of 35 (40%) WAS 6 of 18 (33.3%)
FTs... ORL 20 of 26 (76.9%) WAS 11 of 17 (64.7%)
REBs... ORL 45 WAS 45
AST/TO... ORL 19/13 WAS 17/11
BENCH... ORL 18 WAS 14

In a statistical oddity, the Magic made more 3 pt FGs (14) than 2 pt FGs (12). Magic shot just 28.6% on 2 pt FGs.

The Magic have their 5 game winning streak snapped, but still have won 13 of their last 17 games. Magic have THU off before hosting red-hot Philly FRI night.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:33 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 1:07 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Really wish we could have pulled it out there at the end; it would have been great if Turk had found a way to score the game-winner. The two misses at the FT line in the final minute by Turk hurt; but he did all he could with little help from his teammates.

    Can't blame the refs for this one either; the Magic had 9 more FT attempts than the Wizards and WAS was called for 6 more fouls.

    Let's face it though, the Magic didn't deserve to win this game. Whoever would have thought that both Howard and Lewis would have their worst offensive nights of the season on the same night, and that the whole team other than Turk would shoot so poorly.

    Howard still played over 31 mins despite his foul trouble, and still had only 6 FG attempts. Usually when the opposition stifles Howard defensively like that, our outside shooting makes them pay; however, against the Wizards it sure didn't. Other than Turk, only Bogans (5 of 10) and Dooling (1 of 2) shot .500 from the field.

    Arroyo and Dooling both split time at backup PG and neither did much of anything, combining for 2 pts and 0 asts.

    This is just one loss, though, and what are the odds that both Howard and Lewis will do so poorly on offense in the same game again. The Magic must bounce back in strong fashion against the 76ers FRI night, as they definitely don't want to lose two in a row to a possible playoff opponent.

     

  • At 2:42 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    We didnt deserve this one because we couldnt make free-throws. Turk wasnt the only one with misses late,jameer had a chance to tie the game and missed his second free-throw. Boy,we had two of our better shooters at the line late and neither could hit two in a row,thats how you lose games.

     

  • At 2:04 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    The poor officiating helped too.

     

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