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.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Magic erupt in second half for big win over Cavaliers

It was Cleveland who was the dominant team early. The Cavaliers led 32-25 at the end of one and extended their lead to 43-33 in the second quarter before settling for a 56-55 halftime lead. The Magic then buckled down on defense in the second half, as the Magic went on a 44-18 run spanning the third and fourth quarters before the Cavaliers scored the final 14 points of the game to make the final a little more respectable as the Magic won 99-88.



Magic leading scorers

Dwight Howard: 22 points (9 of 15 field goals), 18 rebounds
Hedo Turkoglu: 19 points (8 of 22 field goals), 11 rebounds
Rashard Lewis: 19 points (6 of 16 field goals), 5 rebounds, 5 assists
Jameer Nelson: 18 points (6 of 11 field goals)

Cleveland leading scorers

LeBron James: 23 points (10 of 27 field goals), 8 rebounds, 8 assists
Wally Szczerbiak (bench): 14 points (5 of 6 field goals)

Overall Game Stats

FG%: ORL 45.0% (36 of 80) CLE 41.5% (34 of 82)
3 PT FG%: CLE 50% (7 of 14) ORL 35.5% (11 of 31)
FT%: ORL 88.9% (16 of 18) CLE 65% (13 of 20)
REB: ORL 48 (11 offensive) CLE 39 (8 offensive)
AST/TO: CLE 17/6 ORL 17/11
BENCH: CLE 34 ORL 13

Other game notes and stats:

-The Magic allowed only 32 second-half Cleveland points on 13 of 38 shooting
-Szczerbiak scored all of his points in the first half
-The Cavaliers' bench was held to nine second half points after scoring 25 first half points
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Cavaliers' starting frontline 60-34 and outrebounded them 34-19
-The Cavaliers' starters combined to shoot just 21 of 59
-James and Mo Williams, who combined for 66 points Tuesday, combined to score just 39 points on 14 of 42 shooting against the Magic
-The Magic starters outscored the Cavaliers' starters 86-54
-The Magic played an eight man rotation, with Anthony Johnson leading the reserves with 9 points
-In addition to Szczerbiak, J.J. Hickson also scored in double figures off the Cavaliers' bench with 13 points
-Mickael Pietrus scored just 4 points off the Magic bench in 27 minutes after scoring 27 points against Indiana Tuesday
-The Magic went the final 5:20 of the game without scoring
-The Cavaliers played without center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and guard Delonte West

The Magic now trail Cleveland by just 1/2 game in the East, and Boston by 2 games.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:22 AM  

3 Comments:

  • At 2:19 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    I was able to watch the second half of the game after I found out it is available in our area. It was about 6:30am local time. The difference was the defense. Magic was brilliant in rotating on defense.

    CLE fell in the trap of thinking that they can out-shoot the Magic as they did in the first half; nobody can, period. Also Magic felt in the first half that they could operate without defense which was corrected in the second half; brilliant coaching. Magic defense in the second half was probably the best that I have seen from a Magic team in a long time.

     

  • At 5:22 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    First off, congratulations to Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis for being named reserves for the Eastern Conference All-Stars!

    Matt, you sure picked the right time to tune into the game; what a brilliant second half from the Magic. As you noted, coaching and defense deserves lots of credit.

    Big Figure, you called the game right, predicting a solid Magic victory.

    I like how Coach Van Gundy called out Nelson and Dwight Howard earlier this week, citing their play as one of the main reasons why the Magic lost to the Celtics and Heat last week. Both guys responded with solid games against the Pacers and Cavaliers.

    I knew Cleveland was undefeated this year when scoring 100+ points, so I was a little worried when Cleveland was scoring so often in the first half (Wally Szczerbiak looked like an All-Star), but boy, did the Magic tighten the D in the second half.

    Of course, we have to concede the fact the Cavs were without "Big Z" Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Delonte West, two key players for the Cavs, and the Magic took advantage.

    TNT analyst Mike Fratello said during the broadcast that Mickael Pietrus told him before the game that his wrist bothered him from when he aggravated it late in the Pacers game. It must have, because Pietrus's scoring went down from 27 against Indiana to 4 against Cleveland.

    How dominant were the Magic in the second half? The Cavaliers scored the final 14 points of the game and the Magic went the final 5 minutes without scoring, yet the Magic STILL won in double figures!

     

  • At 11:06 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    First the game. Bout what i expected seeing as how the cavs are down some guys,the magic played a lil sloppy defensively early but really turned it on in the second half. At one point during the second quarter though,mike brown isolated wally against hedo four straight possession's and got a basket each time. Reggie (miller)and mike (fratelo)were calling the game and saying that opposing coaches are all starting to go at our one defensive weakness,hedo. Even the guys doing the pre-game and halftime in the studio with ernie were saying (gary payton for example)if a guy was iso'd against them four straight times they would have at least fouled the guy,but surely wouldnt have let him score four straight times. This just goes to show how everybody is saying it now,not just me. And on to the all-star nod's. WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Were the only team in the east with three all stars,amazing!!! Kudo's to the coaches who got it right because jameer and rashard were deserving. Congrats to jameer,rashard and dwight THE SUPER FRIENDS.!!!! GO MAGIC!!!! And CL shouldve been on the rookie team,almost forgot that!!!!!!!

     

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