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.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Balanced scoring leads to decisive win for Raptors in Game 3... Raptors 108 Magic 94

Toronto knew they were in a must-win situation for Game 3 and played like it, as six Raptors scored in double figures as Toronto led throughout the game after falling behind briefly 6-2. Toronto held a 28-20 lead after one quarter, and their lead swelled to 61-40 at the half. The Magic attempted to get back in the game in the third quarter as they outscored Toronto 29-19 to cut the deficit to 80-69 after three. The Magic briefly cut the lead to single digits 80-71 in the beginning of the fourth quarter, but could get no closer as the Raptors cruised the rest of the way. The Magic again really struggled from 3 point range, shooting just 2 of 16 for the first half before finishing 6 of 27 from long range.

Magic leading scorers:

Hedo Turkoglu 26 pts (7 of 12 FGs), 7 rebs; Dwight Howard 19 pts (8 of 15 FGs), 12 rebs, but 6 TOs; Rashard Lewis 19 pts (8 of 15 FGs), 6 rebs. Bench... Keith Bogans 12 pts (4 of 11 FGs).

Toronto leading scorers:

T.J. Ford 21 pts, 5 rebs; Chris Bosh 15 pts, 5 rebs, 5 asts; Jamario Moon 11 pts, 10 rebs; Anthony Parker 10 pts, 6 rebs. Bench... Jose Calderon 18 pts, 13 asts; Jason Kapono 15 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... TOR 42 of 85 (49.4%) ORL 34 of 73 (46.6%) TOR 96 ORL 74
3 PT FGs... TOR 12 of 34 (35.3%) ORL 6 of 27 (22.2%)
FTs... ORL 20 of 27 (74.1%) TOR 12 of 14 (85.7%)
REBs... TOR 42 (13 offensive) ORL 34 (10 offensive)
AST/TO... TOR 31/12 ORL 15/14
BENCH... TOR 42 ORL 24

Other game stats and notes:

-The Magic starting frontcourt outscored the Toronto starting frontcourt 64-35.
-The Toronto starting backcourt outscored the Magic starting backcourt 31-6.
-The Raptors' guards outscored the Magic guards 56-28 on 20 of 38 FG shooting. The Magic guards shot just 7 of 25.
-Jameer Nelson did not score until 2:27 was left in the game.
-After the Magic made 9 of 11 3 pt FGs in the first quarter of Game 1, the Magic have made just 19 of 76 3 pt FGs since.
-The Magic, other than Lewis, shot 3 of 19 from 3 point range.
-Dwight Howard scored 13 pts on 6 of 9 FG shooting in the first quarter. The final three quarters, he scored just 6 pts on 2 of 6 FG shooting.
-The Toronto PGs, Ford and Calderon (or "Forderon") combined for 39 pts on 13 of 22 FGs, including 5 of 9 from three pt range, along with 16 asts and 4 TOs.
-The Magic PGs, Nelson, Dooling, and Arroyo, combined for 16 pts on 6 of 15 FGs, including 1 of 6 from 3 pt range, along with 8 asts and 2 TOs.
-Jamario Moon, starting for the first time in the series for Toronto, scored 11 pts with 10 rebounds.
-The Raptors outshot the Magic from the field, 3 pt range, and from the free throw line. The Raptors also outrebounded the Magic, and had a much better assist/turnover ratio.
-The Magic made eight more free throws than Toronto, but the Raptors outscored the Magic by 22 points from the field.

The Magic will try to get their act together for Game 4 Saturday afternoon in Toronto to avoid going back to Orlando tied 2-2.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:59 PM  

4 Comments:

  • At 4:03 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Well, our worst fears were finally realized in Game 3. The Raptors' PGs were outstanding, while our guards barely showed up; Howard wasn't as dominant as he was in the first two games, and the Magic continue to misfire from long range.

    Despite all that, it was only one loss, and the Magic still lead 2-1 and have the homecourt advantage.

    The Magic simply could not match the focus and determination the Raptors showed in Game 3. This was a must-win game for the Raptors, and they played like it, as they beat the Magic in virtually every major statistical category except free throws made.

    Magic have to re-establish Howard in Game 4, and obviously play much better defense. Hopefully, Nelson and Evans will show up too.

    Also, the Magic are too good of a three point shooting team to continue shooting at 25% since the second quarter of Game 1.

     

  • At 9:57 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Coaching coaching coaching. After the game i was going to rip into SVG for a FEW different things,but after listening to his press conference he owned up to the things i was going to mention. So basically what we have is two things. (1) obviously we played horrible,missed shots,turned the ball over,fouled to much,etc.(bad calls from the refs didnt help either). (2) Probably the most important thing to this game was the in-game match-ups. I said before the game that hedo and rashard at 6ft10 a peice should have a field day with guys like kapono and delfino only being 6ft5,but the only way to take advantage of the lack of height is to post hedo and rashard,which doesnt mean they have to take the shot,but more-so they have to draw double teams so that we can get better shots than we got last night. The line-up for the raptors that killed us during the late stretch where we cut the lead to 9 was a line-up of 4 guards and a power-forward. They played ultra small and we did nothing to combat against that. To be exact they used a point guard,WITH THREE SHOOTING GUARDS and bosh. How in the world did SVG expect us to be successful guarding them? Calderon,parker,delfino,kapono and bosh. calderon is about 6ft3,parker,delfino and kapono are all 6ft5,we couldnt stay with them on the perimeter playing our traditional line-up and rightfully so. To me if SVG wasnt going to post hedo and rashard,then he shouldve matched up. I wouldve liked to see a line-up of keyon,JJ,mo,keith and dwight to match-up. Now obviously hedo and rashard are big parts of what we do and i wouldnt expect them to be out of the game at the same time for any reasons,until last night. SVG has to be better with regard to his adjustments on their ultra small line-up,playing delfino and kapono at SF and PF won them game 3,give all the credit to Sam Mitchell he out-coached SVG in that game.

     

  • At 5:07 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Now that the Raptors have found a successful lineup and player rotation, we'll see if the Magic can make the proper adjustments, as Big Figure had some good ideas in his post.

     

  • At 2:39 PM, Blogger Lord Horatio said…

    God, I hope they do.

     

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