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.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

It's official... the Magic have the best winning percentage in the NBA!

With Cleveland losing to the LA Lakers Monday evening, the Magic have now replaced the Cavaliers as the team with the NBA's best winning percentage! Even though Boston gained a half-game on the Magic with their win over Phoenix, they still do not have a better winning percentage than the Magic. Here's how the top four teams in the NBA stack up:

1) Orlando 33-8 (.805)
2) LA Lakers 32-8 (.800)
3) Cleveland 31-8 (.795)
4) Boston 34-9 (.791)

Even though the Celtics are a game ahead of the Cavaliers in the standings, they are still percentage points behind them, which is kind of an oddity.

We can now say it for at least a day... the Magic are the best team winning-percentage wise in the NBA! When was the last time that could have been said about the Magic halfway through the season? I have a feeling this won't be a short-term thing either!

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 4:44 AM  

15 Comments:

  • At 4:59 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Obviously, this won't mean too much come playoff time because every team starts out at 0-0 then, but it sure makes me feel a heck of a lot better about the Magic's chances of advancing deep into the playoffs!

    I sure am not going to stress out about minor things such as the Magic's weakness at backup PG or Hedo Turkoglu's lack of defense; I'm just going to enjoy the ride and see how far the Magic can take us!

     

  • At 9:56 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    NICE! I wasnt sure if we'd ever get to the top of the league this year because boston and cleveland started out the year playing so well. It seemed like they'd never lose,but out of no where the magic started playing the same type of no lose basketball. How fun is this? Words cant explain. AJ and hedo are both our weaknesses,but i've been giving the home-court advantage angle some thought lately seeing as how the magic are leading the league in the standings. After some thought of how the games would go,i'll state that i think the magic could get out of the east but only with home court advantage throughout. looks like that will be possible,but at the same time if the magic have to go on the road for a semi-final/east final i wouldnt favor them. Reason:We depend so much on hedo that when play-off time comes if hedo gets locked down on the road like last year we struggle and rashard seems like the only option (last year against the pistons). In the play-offs you not only have to worry about hedo's lack of defense,but you also have to worry about whether tough defense will turn hedo into his streaky alter ego self. When tayshaun limited hedo from getting to the basket hedo turned into a streaky jumpshooter that had been taken out of his game and basically rendered useless,and this is after hedo having a career season. Playoff basketball is tough basketball and we'll see how much tougher he'll be this time around seeing as how otis has already stated he's not going to change the team any before the deadline. To me the measure will be how much he attacks his opponent and gets to the free-throw line,thats where play-off basketball is won because you cant turn into a streaky jumpshooter when the games are most critical. The thing about the magic that scares me is how are they going to respond when a team stands right in front of them and says were not going to let your starting cast hurt us and were going to play dwight one-on-one(points add up really slow that way). Slowing down the tempo and trying to get us into a possession game while not letting us get off three point shots which is a MAJOR part of our offense. Last year when this happened,only jameer,dwight and rashard came back with a high level of fight. Mo evans,hedo and carlos were all worthless while keyon,marcin and keith were tough but didnt offer many points as games were played in the 80-90's (which we only won one). This is a different team i'll agree,but at the same time what we have as evidence about some of our guys that still play here doesnt play into our favor come play-off time. Right now i think the magic is obviously good enough to win 60 regular season games and make it into the play-offs with a top seed (while proving their worth to outside observers),but here we have to look underneath the surface of the reular season and prepare ourselves for a team that could win 60 regular season games but still could lose a second round semi final match-up. I'm getting prepared now.

     

  • At 4:55 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    I wanted to write a lot more, and maybe I will later, but I'm just not motivated right now. So I'm just going to make a prediction.

    If the Orlando Magic has home court advantage, they'll make the NBA Finals.

    In the Eastern Conference, there is no shame losing in the Semi or Conf Finals, because there are three legit contenders. One of them has to lose in the second round; of course we just hope it's not the Magic.

    With that said, I will not be happy with a exit in the second round.

     

  • At 5:24 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Since we continue to go there... This is all I’m saying...

    Game 1:
    Turkoglu - 18 pts (8 of 16 FGs), 7 rebounds (led the team in points)
    Price - 12 pts, 8 rebounds, 5 assists

    Game 2:
    Turkoglu – 12 points (5 of 11 FGs), 7 assists (led the team in assists)
    Price - 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists

    Game 3:
    Turkoglu - 18 points (7 of 18 FGs), 6 assists (led the team in assists)
    Price - 22 points, 7 rebounds

    Game 4:
    Turkoglu - 20 points (7 of 14 FGs), 4 assists (led the team in points)
    Price - 17 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists

    Game 5:
    Turkoglu - 18 points (8 of 15 FGs), 9 rebounds, 7 assists (led the team in points and assists)
    Price – 10 points, 8 rebounds

    I'll take those numbers any day. Turk more than did his fair share of work in the series against the Pistons... But we've been here before... The position we got destroyed was at the 2 spot; no other.

     

  • At 11:12 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    It seems like I forgot the "n"...

     

  • At 12:06 AM, Blogger Hall Monitor said…

    It's about time the rest of the league started to notice the Magic. Commentators have spent so much time drolling over the Celtics, Kobe and LeBron this year, that Orlando has quietly been destroying teams, and setting records in the process. It'll be an exciting second half. When their players are hot on offense, I doubt that can be beaten.

     

  • At 4:52 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I am much more confident of the Magic's chances of advancing deep into the playoffs this season than I was last season for a couple of reasons... 1) this Magic team is a much better team than last season's, with four legitimate weapons on offense and an outstanding rookie defender and good shooter in Courtney Lee; 2) this Magic team is much better defensively than last season, as the Magic are 5th in opponents' points allowed and third in opponents' field goal percentage; 3) this Magic team has an excellent chance of having homecourt advantage for at least the first two rounds. Even if they don't, or if they happen to lose a home game in a series, the Magic have the best road record in the NBA; 4) the Magic have much better depth (which obviously didn't show against Denver) with Redick, Battie, and Gortat playing well off the bench and also the addition of Mickael Pietrus after he gets back from his injured wrist will improve the depth that much more.

    OVERWADED, thanks for looking up the stats for last season's playoffs against the Pistons that show Hedo Turkoglu's numbers were more than respectable. Turk outscored Prince 86-78 for the series, and while Prince had more rebounds, Turk had more assists and was getting his teammates involved.

    Anyway, last season is over and done with, this Magic team is much better and has the capability of going a long, long way!

     

  • At 11:01 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    You can take those games if you want,but to me as much as hedo has the ball those games arent that great. Looking at the shooting percentages he was missing alot of shots even though he outscored tayshaun,i think since the pistons won the series you'd have to say advantage tayshaun because he caused hedo to have just average scoring nights. If hedo's going 6-8 or 6-9 and getting those point totals then that's a much more respectable night,which would show that he's beating his defender routinely,but the guy was shooting 14,15,16,18 shots a night and barely getting to 50%,that shows that the defense is working making our best scoring perimeter player struggle,and c'mon who couldnt get those totals shooting the ball that much,he only scored twenty once and he's our go to guy (basically our shooting guard). The only thing that makes those games respectable is the rest of his floor game,mainly the assists which i'll give him credit for but to me tayshaun made hedo miss just as much as he made so thats a win for the defense. If that happens again this year we will lose in whatever round the opponent can make hedo struggle to those type of numbers,if hedo's shooting that many shots he better be scoring close to 30 points (like against denver). We'll see though,just like the guys said on NBA coast-to-coast last night we still have to prove we can win in the play-offs and hedo will be a big part of why we win or lose. I'm going to reserve my judgement on hedo till playoff time,then i'll be watching every position very closely and just so i'm on the record saying this "i hope that hedo's defense isnt a reason we lose,i'd rather not have to report that his defense was bad".

     

  • At 3:50 PM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    Barely shooting .50%? And you say that’s bad? You really need to think about that one.

    “6-8, or 6-9 is respectable.” Can you please tell me a perimeter player that shoots .66% to .75% consistently; not one game, or a hot streak, consistently?

    I’ll answer that question below...

    “50%,that shows that the defense is working making our best scoring perimeter player struggle.”

    I typically will not say it like this, but BIG, you are wrong. When a team shoots .50% or higher on you, it’s the opposite; your defense is NOT working.

    Want to piss your coach off, let the guy you’re defending shoot .50% from the field.

    When a team shoots .50% from the field, odds are they’re winning the game.

    Here is a fact, when a player is shooting close to .50% from the field, especially a perimeter player; he is playing damn good basketball.

    I’m not sure where you’re getting your way of thinking as it relates to field goal percentage, but the players that are always at the top in the NBA in shooting percentage are typically shooting .60% from the field, which is also why big men are always at the top. For example, Dwight Howard shot .581% from the field last postseason.

    Obviously you got me thinking... So here is the answer to the question from above.

    Here are some of the top perimeter player’s field goal percentages from 07-08 playoffs. I’ll even put them in order.

    Chris Paul - .502
    Tony Parker - .497
    Deron Williams - .492
    Kobe Bryant - .479
    Richard Hamilton - .470
    Steve Nash - .457
    Paul Pierce - .441
    Allen Iverson - .434
    Ray Allen - .428
    Tracy McGrady - .425
    Manu Ginobili - .422
    Lebron James - .411
    Joe Johnson - .409
    Chauncey Billups - .401
    Carmelo Anthony - .364

    I think that covers some of, if not most of “the best” perimeter players in the NBA. We got league MVP’s, Finals MVP’s, future MVP’s, and a list of NBA All-Stars.

    Now here is what our top 3 perimeter players did in comparison.

    Jameer Nelson - .504
    Hedo Turkoglu - .447
    Rashard Lewis - .436

    Not bad... Actually, pretty good...

    That’s all I got. I’m exhausted. Ha-ha.

     

  • At 6:46 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Nice research, OVERWADED!

     

  • At 8:39 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Good stuff intro! Dont worry i'm going to leave hedo alone for now. Players shoot 6-8 or 6-9 all the time,obviously they wont shoot like that every night,but in a series where hedo would total 5 or 6 points for three quarters then we give him the ball the whole 4th quarter and score his final 10 points or so aint all that great,sorry to tell you. He basically just took shots out of dwight's hands with all those jumpers he takes and renders everybody else into spectators. What i actually did was because we all know sometimes statistics dont always tell a true story i went back and read all the posts from last years series with the pistons. After reading the game summaries vision's started to come back to me,my main problem with hedo offensively wasnt that he didnt score enough,it was more that he bailed the defense out to much with weak drives to the basket on game winning field goal attempts. One you could say was a bad call (still a miss though),but the other he held the ball and tayshaun treated him like a step-child and bloked his shot at the rim. He wasnt getting to the free-throw line like they were,one game they finished the game with 13 straight free-throws,but anytime hedo had a chance to beat them with a game winning shot,his attempts to me were soft and basically cop-outs. Mydyess also killed us on the boards as their PF position hurt us with hustle and grit,hedo wouldnt even try to get in front of him to box out anytime rashard shot the ball (vision's of SVG coming undone). Turnovers and missed free-throws by jameer also hurt but things FOR ME are much clearer now because nobody for us really played that well,hedo had his moments offensively i'll give him credit for that.

     

  • At 2:43 AM, Blogger OVERWADED said…

    It's late, so I'm not going to look anything up...

    But in game 5, Rip went 16-16 from the free throw line right?

    McDyess also played well against the Magic for most of the series.

    What do either of those positions have to do with Hedo Turkoglu?

    You're right though; players do have games where they shot 6-8 or 6-9 from the field. Of course the next game they come back and 3-8 or 4-9.

    There are no questions here as is relates to NBA FG%; because it always balances out. Hell, even Michael Jordan shot a career .48% in the playoffs.

    So you went from Turk getting outplayed by Prince (which didn't happen), to him shooting a low percentage (which didn't happen either), to him having the ball to much in his hands, which restricted everyone else...

    Three of the five games against the Pistons Turk led the Magic in assists, so I'm not sure how valid that statement is.

    Another thing, I'm pretty sure you're a fan of SVG. If Turk dominated the ball so much, and restricted everyone else, yet SVG did nothing about it; wouldn't that mean SVG wasn't doing a good job?


    As for this season...

    Howard and Nelson are maturing.

    Lewis is better.

    Our shooting guard position is stronger.

    Battie and Gortat give us some extra strength off the bench.

    And we still have Turk.

    With another year together, the growth and experience; I'm confident this team will be fine.

    Last year Turk was often the only option. This year, that is no longer the case. Nelson has grown into one of the premiere point guards of the NBA. Howard is already the best big man in the game, but he continues to improve. Lewis is stepping up and looking more comfortable in his role everyday. And we have a very respectable group of players at the shooting guard position. The pressure is off Turk, and this team is dangerous...and I know we both agree on that!

    I'm jacked for the Celtics game tomorrow!

    I'll tell you guys where to look for me on TV once Mike gets his pre-game post on! ;)

     

  • At 10:56 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    The points you just made about the difference in this year's team versus's last years team are exactly the reason i'm leaving hedo alone for now. What a difference a year makes. "So you went from Turk getting outplayed by Prince (which didn't happen), to him shooting a low percentage (which didn't happen either), to him having the ball to much in his hands, which restricted everyone else"... Yeah,i figured you'd post that i changed my stance a few times,knew that was coming. My fault for not posting exactly what i meant the first time,thats why i went back and read everything i posted then. I know i'm not crazy and after the series i was just as mad at SVG for not drawing up something better as i was at hedo for bailing out the defense with weak attempts. But i would be willing to bet that isnt the first time SVG has wondered why hedo either held the ball or forced a bad shot (he's done it this year already a couple of times). No matter what you post those feelings were there about hedo,SVG has proved his worth to me and furthermore when i started saying things about hedo's defense on those nights SVG's coaching wasnt in question. So here's exactly what the problem was. Intro you stated that only the SG position hurt us(WRONG). Now your saying mcdyess played well the whole series,cant have it both ways. The truth is this. I'll give the pistons credit for being tougher than us because they just straight up got physical with us and we didnt respond well. SG,SF,and PF killed us. The magic were only using 8 guys at the time and the pistons if you remember correctly used jason maxiell off the bench at SF,i thought hedo should be able to control him,but NO maxiel had his way with hedo and made hedo look super soft. Maxiell was unstoppable dunking left and right (even hitting his jumpshot)pushing hedo all over the place just using brute force,mcdyess as well because sometimes when the match-ups got switched from running in transition,hedo wouldnt keep him off the boards,at one point i can remember detroit getting like 4-5 offensive rebounds on one play,statistics dont paint the picture of how we were beaten soundly. Rebounding is toughness and hedo and mo evans layed an egg last year,their jobs are to help rashard and dwight who are under the rim all night,sometimes dwight isnt just gonna be able to get to every shot. Thank the lord for CL this year because so many times i've seen him go up over hedo and anybody else other than dwight to get a rebound down low. Rip killed mo evans but at the same time tayshaun may not have been scoring throughtout the games but when they needed a game winning shot hedo couldnt stop him,if i'm not mistaken tay went right around hedo in orlando and layed the ball up for a game winner,more proof that hedo defense was/is suspect. And also in detriot tay had a few big jumpshots as time was winding down(even more evidence),the pistons hit big shot after big shot(in game two i beleive)and hedo had him straight up. And also hedo had some very high turnover games along with those assists you keep mentioning,so how can you give him credit if he gets 7 assists but turns it over 6-7 times??? Then saying that you'll take shooting 50% (50% doesnt mean much if a guy goes 3-6 for 6 points)with 6-7 turnovers,barely any freethrow attempts and not playing any defense with a level of toughness,you can take those games by your self. Hedo plays the one position that would be considered the meat of your team,SF is the closest to being a big while being able to handle the ball so this position should probably be your toughest. Well for us its our weakest and the pistons MAXimized that making sure maxiell got match-ed up with hedo,rashard stuggled too but not to the same extent. Most of the time rashard was trying to get by rasheed on the offensive end while dwight fought down low with their back-up center and even had a super dunk over him. I'll say again,stats dont tell the true story and all of the things that i can describe for you actually happened,you can choose to overlook them if you want but i will always report what i see because i'm only being honest and it aint personal.

     

  • At 11:07 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    "The pressure is off Turk, and this team is dangerous...and I know we both agree on that"! Well there's two statements in there,i agree that the team is dangerous but not that hedo's off the hook. Boston and cleveland will expose whatever is there to expose,(opinion)i can see it now Leon Powe coming off the bench and playing physical basketball with hedo. They'll probably just use him as a defender as they get enough points from the big three,but if you are an opposing coach wouldnt you do the same? They will find someone that will try and punk hedo that doesnt have to score(even though maxiel did just that which was an unexpected bonus for the pistons),and powe seems like a maxeill type maybe not as thick but just as relentless and gritty the type of player that gives hedo nightmares. Cleveland i watched play the other night is trying something new for them,they've gone small starting delonte west at SG (west was injured the same night). That means hedo wont be able to be switched off of labron,CL will have to guard delonte. UH OH,king james for hedo,bad luck for hedo seeing as how labron's intensity and defense are at an even higher level this year,the play-offs will expose if there's something there to expose and i cant wait. I like all of our guys,but if a change needs to be made to get us over the hump then so be it.

     

  • At 4:01 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    So you went from Turk getting outplayed by Prince (which didn't happen), to him shooting a low percentage (which didn't happen either), to him having the ball to much in his hands, which restricted everyone else... Ok (1)first thing first,where did i say tayshaun outplayed hedo??? My statement was he locked hedo down,so your wrong in trying to put words into my mouth. Proof:"We depend so much on hedo that when play-off time comes if hedo gets locked down on the road like last year we struggle and rashard seems like the only option (last year against the pistons). We'll thats true anybody else with a smart basketball mind would agree,when we needed a bucket tayshaun was stuffing hedo. (2) where did i say that hedo shot a low percentage??? You went and looked up all the stats but no-where in the post above those stats did i say hedo shot a low percentage. Wrong again! The only thing you were right about is that i think hedo being a hit-or-miss scoring player limits the other players,i truely beleive that and i'm entitled to my opinion. Seems like in defending hedo your trying hard to break down my comments and put words into my mouth while finding useless stats to back up your defense of him,but again stats dont tell the true story and if you think stats do,then have fun with them.

     

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