Complete second half collapse by Magic leads to loss at buzzer against Memphis
After falling behind 17-12 to Memphis midway through the first quarter, the Magic then woke up and outscored the Grizzlies 43-26 the rest of the half and shot over 60% as the Magic enjoyed a 55-43 halftime lead.
The second half, however, was a total disaster for the Magic. Their largest lead was 60-45, but it all went downhill after that. The Magic shot just 9 of 36 for the second half in scoring 29 points, as Rudy Gay's 18 footer at the buzzer won it for Memphis 86-84, after the Magic had a chance to win the game with 2.8 seconds left but had their inbounds pass stolen, as Hedo Turkoglu tried to get it underneath to Dwight Howard.
Magic leading scorers
Rashard Lewis: 23 points (8 of 18 field goals), 5 rebounds
Hedo Turkoglu: 18 points (5 of 10 field goals), 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 turnovers
Dwight Howard: 14 points (5 of 9 field goals), 14 rebounds, 3 blocks, 5 turnovers
Jameer Nelson: 11 points (4 of 12 field goals), 4 assists
Bench
Keith Bogans: 7 points (2 of 5 field goals)
Memphis leading scorers
Rudy Gay: 29 points, 4 rebounds
O.J. Mayo: 17 points, 6 rebounds
Game Stats
FG%: ORL 42.0% (29 of 69) MEM 39.5% (30 of 76)
3 PT FG%: ORL 34.5% (10 of 29) MEM 15.4% (2 of 13)
FT%: MEM 80% (24 of 30) ORL 61.5% (16 of 26)
REB: ORL 38 MEM 34
AST/TO: ORL 16/17 MEM 11/10
BENCH: MEM 23 ORL 15
Other Game Stats and Notes
-The Magic starting guards were outscored 46-18 by the Grizzlies' starting guards and shot a combined 5 of 18
-Rashard Lewis scored just 4 second half points
-Jameer Nelson scored just 3 second half points on 1 of 9 field goal shooting
-Mickael Pietrus scored just 3 points in 17 minutes with five fouls
-J.J. Redick went scoreless in 11 minutes
-Former Magic PF Darko Milicic, after committing three fouls in less than four minutes, scored 7 points along with 5 rebounds off the bench
-Magic outscored Memphis 68-62 from the field, but Memphis had a big edge in free throw shooting 24-16
-Even though the Magic outrebounded Memphis, the Magic only had 6 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots
-Memphis also took much better care of the ball than the Magic, with the Magic committing 17 turnovers
-Memphis started 3 rookies (Marc Gasol, Darrell Arthur, and O.J. Mayo), a second-year player in Mike Conley and a third-year player in Rudy Gay.
-Brian Cook, Marcin Gortat, and Courtney Lee did not play for the Magic
-Magic are averaging 84 1/2 points their first two games
For the complete box score, click here
Now 0-2, the Magic will try to pick up their first win of the season Saturday as they host Sacramento.
The second half, however, was a total disaster for the Magic. Their largest lead was 60-45, but it all went downhill after that. The Magic shot just 9 of 36 for the second half in scoring 29 points, as Rudy Gay's 18 footer at the buzzer won it for Memphis 86-84, after the Magic had a chance to win the game with 2.8 seconds left but had their inbounds pass stolen, as Hedo Turkoglu tried to get it underneath to Dwight Howard.
Magic leading scorers
Rashard Lewis: 23 points (8 of 18 field goals), 5 rebounds
Hedo Turkoglu: 18 points (5 of 10 field goals), 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 turnovers
Dwight Howard: 14 points (5 of 9 field goals), 14 rebounds, 3 blocks, 5 turnovers
Jameer Nelson: 11 points (4 of 12 field goals), 4 assists
Bench
Keith Bogans: 7 points (2 of 5 field goals)
Memphis leading scorers
Rudy Gay: 29 points, 4 rebounds
O.J. Mayo: 17 points, 6 rebounds
Game Stats
FG%: ORL 42.0% (29 of 69) MEM 39.5% (30 of 76)
3 PT FG%: ORL 34.5% (10 of 29) MEM 15.4% (2 of 13)
FT%: MEM 80% (24 of 30) ORL 61.5% (16 of 26)
REB: ORL 38 MEM 34
AST/TO: ORL 16/17 MEM 11/10
BENCH: MEM 23 ORL 15
Other Game Stats and Notes
-The Magic starting guards were outscored 46-18 by the Grizzlies' starting guards and shot a combined 5 of 18
-Rashard Lewis scored just 4 second half points
-Jameer Nelson scored just 3 second half points on 1 of 9 field goal shooting
-Mickael Pietrus scored just 3 points in 17 minutes with five fouls
-J.J. Redick went scoreless in 11 minutes
-Former Magic PF Darko Milicic, after committing three fouls in less than four minutes, scored 7 points along with 5 rebounds off the bench
-Magic outscored Memphis 68-62 from the field, but Memphis had a big edge in free throw shooting 24-16
-Even though the Magic outrebounded Memphis, the Magic only had 6 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots
-Memphis also took much better care of the ball than the Magic, with the Magic committing 17 turnovers
-Memphis started 3 rookies (Marc Gasol, Darrell Arthur, and O.J. Mayo), a second-year player in Mike Conley and a third-year player in Rudy Gay.
-Brian Cook, Marcin Gortat, and Courtney Lee did not play for the Magic
-Magic are averaging 84 1/2 points their first two games
For the complete box score, click here
Now 0-2, the Magic will try to pick up their first win of the season Saturday as they host Sacramento.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:59 PM
6 Comments:
At 4:07 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
I was very encouraged at the end of the first half with the Magic scoring 55 points and shooting over 60%, but the second half completely erased the good feelings from the first half.
That probably had to be the worst second half the Magic have played under SVG. What else can you say about blowing a 15 point lead to a team that had one of the worst records in the NBA last year.
Quote from Magic Coach Van Gundy:
"Turnovers and forced shots killed us. When the game was on the line, we didn't even jump for rebounds... we had no energy, no ball movement."
Quote from Dwight Howard:
"We'll get over it... we've got to take a couple of these tough blows and get ourselves refocused."
The Magic are obviously nowhere close to playing at the level they need to be a contender to win the East. Titles are not won the first week of the season, but the Magic need to start showing positive results on the court soon; that better come Saturday against Sacramento who lost to the Heat by 26 points Friday.
At 5:23 AM,
Matt said…
I am not concerned about the results of a game or two. My main concern is the low scoring in both games which shows that the offense has been out of sync. I can't see the games and as such would not be a good observer. Could somebody explain to me what happened to one of last year's top scoring teams in the league?
At 7:53 AM,
Anonymous said…
Well another hurtful lost came last night at the hands of a very, young inexpierenced grizzllies ballclub that just seemed to do everything right in the 4th quarter.
Our Magic showed the brilliance we became so accustomed to last year at times last night in memphis but truly lacked depth from the bench.
Bogans came in and surprised me with his play defensively that remind me of him two years ago when he was our go-to defensive player circa brian hill days. Bogans went 2for 3 behind the arc showing me that he still is a legit backup 2 or 3. Redick came in and grabbed three rebounds but the memphis defense allowed to only get one shot attempt,you gots to give credit where is earned and redick came back looking stronger and he is TRYING to play defense this year but we will see where that gets him.
Lewis showed in the first half why he is such a threat scoring pretty mch at will and draining a couple of those beautiful three balls.
Gortat just as I expected was DNPCD, SVG went with battie at the 5 and slid lewis to the 4 while Howard got his breather on the bench. And Nelson was completely outplayed again by the memphis backcourt holding him to 3 second half points. Turk had a nice statiscal game but just not enough to get us over the hump as he did so many times last year.
Gents, i love the Orlando Magic, i am a true fan but the reason i point out these issues with nelson and the BU center position is because we are truly not legitemately eastern conference contenders without fixing these issues that have already hurt us in the past.
Looking forward, sac is coming in suffering an ugly loss in miami last night, so i will be looking for the Magic to come out playing their game early and not look so flat early in the game as they have the last 2.
At 11:07 AM,
Big Figure said…
Well said mike. Matt you and i were thinking exactly alike. Two games,and in both we've struggled to get to 80+ points. Whats wrong you ask? Well after watching the first two games its obvious to me that its gonna take some time for this team to gell. I told myself i was going to post this no matter if we won or lost because at times last night it didnt seem like the magic were playing any better than they did against the hawks,it just seemed like memphis was bad enough in the first three quarters that we could beat them with our D game. Thats the grade i wouldve given the magic for effort,without rashard hitting a few first half three's the game wouldve been close because no one on our team was scrapping. Right now the truth about the low scoring has a few reason's. (1)Our regular's arent playing that well. Jameer isnt aggressive enough,hedo and rashard dont exert themselves at times,and dwight who was much better early last year from the free-throw line has regressed. (2)Turnovers. If you dont protect the ball how are you gonna score,18 more last night which is just unacceptable for a starting unit that only changed one player. For these guys to have played all last year together the lack of focus is surprising. (3)Bench experience. JJ has never had meaningful minutes,battie didnt play at all last year,AJohnson is brand new to the team,cookie came in out of shape,marcin is still young,CLee is still young and adonyl and the other two guys dont dress. So that leaves Keith Bogans as the only experienced option off the bench who's played meaningful minutes in SVG's system. Dealing with this is gonna take time. (4)Rotation's. SVG is searching for the right combo's,first off the bench twice has been JJ and SVG's got nothing out of him which has got to be hurting JJ's chances at proving his worth. Battie has been second off the bench and clearly is still trying to work his way back into a rhythm,his usual 10-12 feet jumpers are still a little off but i think he'll come around. AJohnson hasnt hurt us,just been average. KB has been the best off the bench with his defense and hustle,plus we all know he can hit open shots. Nobody else has been a factor in the rotation as of yet,so there you have it. The starters are struggling to get into a groove,the bench is struggling with experience,and the rotations are hurting because of it which lead to low scores.
At 11:17 AM,
Big Figure said…
This team is gonna take some time,so many new bodies. Last year's squad was not a better collection of talent IMO,but the one thing last years squad had as an advantage was the element of surprise. New coach with a new system and some good players,we were able to sneak up on teams that got out of the boxes slow,not this year,now were the hunted and a team like memphis snuck right up on us.
At 4:28 PM,
OVERWADED said…
I'd say BIG hit the nail on the head.
Out of sync... No rhythm.... Lack of familiarity with most of the bench....
Although they did look better in the first half than they did in the whole game against Atlanta. So I thought I saw some improvements. Both Turk and Lewis looked better, I think mainly because they were more aggressive in spurts.
I'll be very surprised if Orlando doesn't come ready to play against SAC. Even if they're still out of sync, I expect a lot of hustle. Not only was SVG pissed, but after 2 losses, and seeing Memphis taunting after they hit the game winner, I'm hoping we'll have a group of highly motivated players tonight.
The only problem is, SAC should be a motivated team also.
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