Magic fail to hold fourth quarter lead... Game 2: Pistons 100 Magic 93
The Magic showed much more fight and competitiveness in Game 2 against the Pistons, coming from behind from a 50-36 second quarter deficit to take a 86-82 lead with just over six minutes remaining in the final quarter, but went cold down the stretch and could not execute offensively as the Pistons made their free throws and were able to take Game 2 100-93.
There was also a key officiating call against the Magic at the end of the third quarter as Chauncey Billups' three pointer was ruled good, giving the Pistons a 78-76 lead even though the clock did not tick down as the Pistons had the ball in play. If the clock had been running, replays confirmed the shot came after the clock would have read zero. Nevertheless, the Magic had the lead by four midway through the fourth but could not close.
The score was tied at the end of one quarter 22-22. The Magic had a horrible second quarter scoring a mere 11 points, shooting only 2 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 7 on threes and trailed at the half 50-40. In the third quarter, the Magic came to life and scored 36 points on 13 of 20 shooting, including a perfect 7 of 7 from the three point line. Down by just two entering the fourth, Magic shot 6 of 24 from the floor, including 1 of 9 from the three point line. Detroit didn't do much better, shooting 4 of 17 from the field but connected on 13 of 15 free throws for the final margin of victory.
Magic leading scorers:
Jameer Nelson 22 points (5 of 8 3 point FGs), 7 rebounds, 4 assists; Dwight Howard 22 points (8 of 11 FGs), 18 rebounds, 5 turnovers; Rashard Lewis 20 points (6 of 21 FGs), 5 rebounds, but 6 turnovers; Maurice Evans 13 points (5 of 7 FGs); Hedo Turkoglu 12 points (5 of 11 FGs), 7 assists, but 6 turnovers. Bench: Carlos Arroyo 4 points.
Detroit leading scorers:
Chauncey Billups 28 points, 5 rebounds; Rasheed Wallace 17 points; Tayshaun Prince 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists; Rip Hamilton 14 points; Jason Maxiell 11 points. Bench... Antonio McDyess 6 points.
The statistical breakdown:
FGs... DET 36 of 76 (47.4%) ORL 32 of 73 (43.8%) DET 76 ORL 75
3 PT FGs... ORL 11 of 26 (42.3%) DET 4 of 12 (33.3%)
FTs... DET 24 of 28 (85.7%) ORL 18 of 23 (78.3%)
REBS... ORL 40 (15 offensive) DET 35 (8 defensive)
AST/TO... DET 23/8 ORL 16/19
BENCH... DET 13 ORL 4
Other game stats and notes:
-Detroit's final 13 points all came from the free throw line.
-Pistons had the better shooting percentage than the Magic from the floor and free throw line, made more field goals and free throws, and had the superior assist/turnover ratio.
-Nelson and Evans combined for 35 points on 12 of 23 shooting; Billups and Hamilton combined for 42 points on just 12 of 37 shooting, but made 15 of 16 free throws compared to just 4 of 5 free throws for Nelson and Evans.
-Turkoglu and Lewis combined for 32 points on 11 of 32 shooting along with 9 assists and 8 rebounds, but 12 turnovers.
-Carlos Arroyo was the only Magic bench player to score. Keith Bogans, Keyon Dooling, and Adonal Foyle shot a combined o for 5.
-Bogans was scoreless in 26 minutes.
-Wallace and Prince combined for 34 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists.
Magic face a must-win situation Wednesday night in Orlando for Game 3.
There was also a key officiating call against the Magic at the end of the third quarter as Chauncey Billups' three pointer was ruled good, giving the Pistons a 78-76 lead even though the clock did not tick down as the Pistons had the ball in play. If the clock had been running, replays confirmed the shot came after the clock would have read zero. Nevertheless, the Magic had the lead by four midway through the fourth but could not close.
The score was tied at the end of one quarter 22-22. The Magic had a horrible second quarter scoring a mere 11 points, shooting only 2 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 7 on threes and trailed at the half 50-40. In the third quarter, the Magic came to life and scored 36 points on 13 of 20 shooting, including a perfect 7 of 7 from the three point line. Down by just two entering the fourth, Magic shot 6 of 24 from the floor, including 1 of 9 from the three point line. Detroit didn't do much better, shooting 4 of 17 from the field but connected on 13 of 15 free throws for the final margin of victory.
Magic leading scorers:
Jameer Nelson 22 points (5 of 8 3 point FGs), 7 rebounds, 4 assists; Dwight Howard 22 points (8 of 11 FGs), 18 rebounds, 5 turnovers; Rashard Lewis 20 points (6 of 21 FGs), 5 rebounds, but 6 turnovers; Maurice Evans 13 points (5 of 7 FGs); Hedo Turkoglu 12 points (5 of 11 FGs), 7 assists, but 6 turnovers. Bench: Carlos Arroyo 4 points.
Detroit leading scorers:
Chauncey Billups 28 points, 5 rebounds; Rasheed Wallace 17 points; Tayshaun Prince 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists; Rip Hamilton 14 points; Jason Maxiell 11 points. Bench... Antonio McDyess 6 points.
The statistical breakdown:
FGs... DET 36 of 76 (47.4%) ORL 32 of 73 (43.8%) DET 76 ORL 75
3 PT FGs... ORL 11 of 26 (42.3%) DET 4 of 12 (33.3%)
FTs... DET 24 of 28 (85.7%) ORL 18 of 23 (78.3%)
REBS... ORL 40 (15 offensive) DET 35 (8 defensive)
AST/TO... DET 23/8 ORL 16/19
BENCH... DET 13 ORL 4
Other game stats and notes:
-Detroit's final 13 points all came from the free throw line.
-Pistons had the better shooting percentage than the Magic from the floor and free throw line, made more field goals and free throws, and had the superior assist/turnover ratio.
-Nelson and Evans combined for 35 points on 12 of 23 shooting; Billups and Hamilton combined for 42 points on just 12 of 37 shooting, but made 15 of 16 free throws compared to just 4 of 5 free throws for Nelson and Evans.
-Turkoglu and Lewis combined for 32 points on 11 of 32 shooting along with 9 assists and 8 rebounds, but 12 turnovers.
-Carlos Arroyo was the only Magic bench player to score. Keith Bogans, Keyon Dooling, and Adonal Foyle shot a combined o for 5.
-Bogans was scoreless in 26 minutes.
-Wallace and Prince combined for 34 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists.
Magic face a must-win situation Wednesday night in Orlando for Game 3.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 1:28 AM
5 Comments:
At 3:56 PM,
Big Figure said…
Turnovers killed us. We spend most of the time with the ball in hedo's hands which shows the lack of confidence our coach has in our point guard. We turned the ball over a ton against the raptors,now we're doing it again,except this time its the pistons and you wont beat them with that many gifts. Bad calls,timely stoppage of the clock,poor shooting in three out of the four quarters,you name it it happened and we still we're up four in position to win the game. Do i think we are good enough talent wise to beat them? Yes. Do i think we are good enough at the fundamental things it takes to win this series? No. We are way to dependent on our forwards doing our point guards job,and at six ten a piece (hedo and rashard) the only way to take advantage of their size is to put them on the block,and i havent seen any post-ups for them in either of the first two games. What we've seen is a smaller group of perimeter players (rip,tayshaun,maxiell) get under our taller perimeter players and create turnovers. Hopefully we'll take better care of the ball at home,and maybe SVG will put someone else beside's dwight on the block for a change. We showed we can play with them,and it seemed like SVG found a decent strategy to attack them which was keeping dwight on the move setting screens all around the horn instead of just running into the lane to post-up. It worked well and dwight was able to crash the glass alot more being on the move.
At 4:03 PM,
Big Figure said…
At this point statistics say the series is over. I thought going in that we had to steal one in detroit to have a chance. So bottome line,i hope the magic can at least win game three so that we have to play in detroit again,i think if we could win in detroit that would propel us into having the confidence we need to beat them anytime we play them.
At 9:50 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
You said it regarding the turnovers, Big Figure.
I was hoping the Magic could win one of the first two in Detroit; now, the Magic may have to win four in a row to take the series; it would be next to impossible to win a Game 7 in Detroit.
One game at a time... let's win Game 3 first.
At 10:39 PM,
Big Figure said…
Good points mike. I also wanted to say that i think the magic losing B. Cook at the end of the regular season is alot bigger than most experts think,heck nobody is even mentioning it when they speak about the magic. He was a vital part of our rotation,and when we were playing our best B. Cook was coming off the bench making big shots and more importantly giving us another big body in the line-up when rashard comes off the floor,now we basically dont even sub in a big at power forward,we just use keith and sub rashard or hedo out when he's in the game meaning hedo or rashard are now always playing the PF which drastically weakens our second unit strength wise. Our bench has been outplayed in both of the series up to this point without him and a four point output last night just cements that point. Now i expect keith and keyon to play better at home,but foyle isnt giving us much and neither is gortat when it comes to point production,and the carlos experiment was a waste of time he didnt create anything which is his best attribute. We sorely miss B. Cook and what he brought to our second unit,we are playing the pistons a man down when it comes to the rotation SVG used during the regular season and i have no doubt in my mind if we were whole going into the play-offs we would have won one of those first two in detroit.
At 4:31 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Cook was a big spark off the bench in several games with his accurate long-range shooting. Even though he's not a great rebounder for his size, I do agree the Magic miss him not being in the rotation.
From what I've read, his hand is still pretty sore and he'll be lucky at all to play later in the series.
Post a Comment
<< Home