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.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Dominant fourth quarter helps lead Magic to win over Cavs

Heading into the fourth quarter down 72-69, the Magic (48-28, 25-13 road) outscored CLE 32-14 as the Cavs only shot 4 of 23 FGs in that final qtr as the Magic clinched the third seed in the East with a 101-86 victory. The Magic were able to overcome a poor offensive game from DHoward and being thoroughly outrebounded for the second game in a row.

Five players scored in double digits for the Magic, led by HTurkoglu with 23 pts (8 of 14 FGs), 5 rebs, 5 asts; RLewis 21 pts (5 of 10 FGs), 3 steals; JNelson 16 pts (7 of 12 FGs), 9 asts, 0 TOs; PGarrity off the bench with his best game of the season with 13 pts (5 of 9 FGs), and MEvans 11 pts (5 of 12 FGs). Howard scored 4 pts (1 of 8 FGs), but did grab 12 rebs.

LeBron James, struggling with back spasms, scored just 17 pts on 6 of 22 FGs. Zydrunas Ilgauskas led the Cavs with 19 pts.

The statistical breakdown:

FGs... ORL 36 of 77 (46.8%) CLE 34 of 88 (38.6%) ORL 83 CLE 73
3 PT FGs... ORL 11 of 26 (42.3%) CLE 5 of 17 (29.4%)
FTs... ORL 18 of 20 (90%) CLE 13 of 21 (61.9%)
REBs... CLE 48 (18 offensive) ORL 33 (6 offensive)
AST/TO... ORL 24/11 CLE 25/16
BENCH... ORL 26 CLE 16

Magic beat CLE in the season series 3-1, as the Cavs still have not clinched home court for the first round of the playoffs. The Magic, with their franchise-record 25 road wins, are the only NBA team with more road wins than home wins (23). The Magic will get a chance to add to their road win total, as they take on the woeful Knicks at Madison Square Garden Sunday evening.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 9:24 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 10:18 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Even though it wasn't very pretty at times for the Magic, especially in the second qtr when they were outscored 29-17, it was a nice comeback win for the guys on the road against a team still fighting for home court advantage in the first round.

    I thought it was going to be another bad game for Garrity when he got his first FG attempt swatted away by Ben Wallace, but whoever thought that Garrity would wind up nearly outscoring LeBron James? Kudos to Garrity for playing his best game of the season. If it wasn't for his 10 first half pts, the Magic would have been trailing at the half by at least 15 pts.

    Nice game by Nelson in his first game back after sitting out a couple games; when he is right, he is the best PG for this team; hopefully he can stay healthy now. Dooling and Arroyo will be ready when called on in reserve.

    Turk and Lewis had another effective game, combining for 44 pts, 9 rebs, 7 asts, and 5 steals.

    Nice to know that the Magic can win a game with Howard having such a bad game pointwise. If other teams try to double Howard down on the low post, the Magic will make those teams pay from the outside, as they did against the Cavs.

    Foyle scored as many points as Howard did.

    Unless the Cavs can get their act together, they may lose in the first round of the playoffs. James can't do it all himself, and if his frequent back spasms continue to bother him, it may be an early exit in the playoffs for them. I thought Szczerbiak would be much more of a factor than he has shown, and Ben Wallace continues to be a liability on offense, even though he can still be effective defensively. They got Daniel Gibson back from injury, but he looked awful. He and Szczerbiak combined to shoot just 2 of 14 FGs against the Magic.

    By the way, nice to see most of the regulars here on the blog back on board as the playoffs approach, and to all the visitors who check out the blog also.

     

  • At 4:08 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    I don't know what my problem has been. I haven't missed a single game all season. Even if I'm not watching it, I'm DVR-ing it and watching it later. But I just hit a "skid" where I felt I had nothing to say about the team. They haven't gone on any big win streaks. They aren't doing anything too impressive or anything too bad. I guess it also doesn't help for the fact that we've basically been a lock in the division for a while, and the Cavs never really challenged for the 3-spot.

    Anyway, on with the game... It was decent one even though I missed some of the first half. The damn rain down here was messing with the DISH, and then the power went out. Fortunately, ESPN loops their games and I'm watching the game all over again as I speak.

    Impressive win for the Magic considering Dwight played so bad. That's one advantage the Magic have; lots of weapons.

    Jameer was on cue after what I said about him a day or so ago. When he plays like he did, we couldn't ask for much more. But as we've come to learn, he’s up and down. But as Mike mentioned, as least we have Arroyo and Dooling ready to fill in when needed.

    Kinda crazy, but I think Hedo is my favorite player on the team. I mean, I have a signed Howard jersey (not bragging), but I absolutely love Turk's game. He really does it all. He is playing like one of the "stars" of the league, and it’s hard for me to think of other players I’d rather have than Turk.

    When asked about his play, Hedo usually references something to do with coaching, and the coach having the confidence to put the ball in his hands. He says he's always had this ability; he was just never given the opportunity. Two thoughts on that... One, Grant Hill wasn't good for Hedo, and I know I've said that before. Two, and more importantly, this is a perfect example of what a quality coach can do to a team and its players. There isn't a single player on our roster that isn't playing better than they were last season under Hill.

    Two more wins until 50!

     

  • At 2:45 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Too busy to do a preview for the Magic/Knicks game this evening... check out thirdquartercollapse.com or boldnblue.blogspot.com for the preview.

    GO MAGIC!

     

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