Bad shooting, turnovers, doom Magic against Nuggets
The Magic had no answers for Denver's ferocious, scrambling defense which forced the Magic to shoot 30.4% and caused the Magic to commit 24 turnovers in a low-scoring, painful to watch 82-73 loss.
The Magic took their only lead of the game at 2-0, then Denver took control and led 24-17 after one and 46-29 at the half, the Magic's lowest scoring half of the year. Denver's largest lead came in the third at 51-31 before the Magic started connecting on a few threes and cut the Nuggets lead to 63-51 at the end of three. The Magic made a run late in the fourth, as they had a chance to cut the Nuggets lead to two points with under a minute left, but missed two good looks on three point attempts as the Nuggets went on to a 82-73 win, their first win in Orlando since March of 1992.
Magic leading scorers
Dwight Howard: 16 points (4 of 7 field goals), 15 rebounds, 6 turnovers
Rashard Lewis: 12 points (4 of 13 field goals), 5 rebounds, 5 turnovers
Hedo Turkoglu: 11 points (2 of 12 field goals), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 turnovers
Courtney Lee (bench): 10 points (3 of 7 field goals)
Denver leading scorers
Carmelo Anthony: 29 points, 8 rebounds
Kenyon Martin: 13 points
Nene: 12 points
Overall game stats:
FG%: DEN 40.9% (27 of 66) ORL 30.4% (21 of 69)
3 PT FG%: DEN 33.3% (5 of 15) ORL 29.0% (9 of 31)
FT%: DEN 82.1% (23 of 28) ORL 75.9% (22 of 29)
REB: ORL 42 (11 offensive) DEN 38 (3 offensive)
AST/TO: DEN 13/17 ORL 12/24
BENCH: ORL 21 DEN 17
Other game notes and stats:
-The Magic were outshot from the field, the three point line, the free throw line, and had more turnovers than the Nuggets
-The Magic shot 10 of 34 in the first half, 11 of 35 in the second half
-The Magic scored just 12 second quarter points on 3 of 18 shooting
-The Magic scored 29 first half points and committed 15 turnovers
-The Magic shot 7 of 17 on three point attempts in the second half to help them get back in the game
-The Magic starters were outscored by the Nuggets' starters 65-52
-Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups combined to score 40 points on 11 of 40 shooting, but Anthony went 15 for 18 from the free throw line
-Anthony Johnson and Mickael Pietrus combined to score 13 points on 4 of 17 shooting
-Other than Howard, the Magic starters shot just 10 of 42
-Turkoglu, Lewis, and Howard combined to commit 16 turnovers
-New Magic reserve PG Tyronn Lue scored 5 points, but was just 1 of 5 from three point range
The Magic lose ground on both Boston and Cleveland, who won Tuesday night.
The Magic have five days off for the All-Star Break before they get back into action next Tuesday night.
For the complete box score from Yahoo! Sports, click here
The Magic took their only lead of the game at 2-0, then Denver took control and led 24-17 after one and 46-29 at the half, the Magic's lowest scoring half of the year. Denver's largest lead came in the third at 51-31 before the Magic started connecting on a few threes and cut the Nuggets lead to 63-51 at the end of three. The Magic made a run late in the fourth, as they had a chance to cut the Nuggets lead to two points with under a minute left, but missed two good looks on three point attempts as the Nuggets went on to a 82-73 win, their first win in Orlando since March of 1992.
Magic leading scorers
Dwight Howard: 16 points (4 of 7 field goals), 15 rebounds, 6 turnovers
Rashard Lewis: 12 points (4 of 13 field goals), 5 rebounds, 5 turnovers
Hedo Turkoglu: 11 points (2 of 12 field goals), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 turnovers
Courtney Lee (bench): 10 points (3 of 7 field goals)
Denver leading scorers
Carmelo Anthony: 29 points, 8 rebounds
Kenyon Martin: 13 points
Nene: 12 points
Overall game stats:
FG%: DEN 40.9% (27 of 66) ORL 30.4% (21 of 69)
3 PT FG%: DEN 33.3% (5 of 15) ORL 29.0% (9 of 31)
FT%: DEN 82.1% (23 of 28) ORL 75.9% (22 of 29)
REB: ORL 42 (11 offensive) DEN 38 (3 offensive)
AST/TO: DEN 13/17 ORL 12/24
BENCH: ORL 21 DEN 17
Other game notes and stats:
-The Magic were outshot from the field, the three point line, the free throw line, and had more turnovers than the Nuggets
-The Magic shot 10 of 34 in the first half, 11 of 35 in the second half
-The Magic scored just 12 second quarter points on 3 of 18 shooting
-The Magic scored 29 first half points and committed 15 turnovers
-The Magic shot 7 of 17 on three point attempts in the second half to help them get back in the game
-The Magic starters were outscored by the Nuggets' starters 65-52
-Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups combined to score 40 points on 11 of 40 shooting, but Anthony went 15 for 18 from the free throw line
-Anthony Johnson and Mickael Pietrus combined to score 13 points on 4 of 17 shooting
-Other than Howard, the Magic starters shot just 10 of 42
-Turkoglu, Lewis, and Howard combined to commit 16 turnovers
-New Magic reserve PG Tyronn Lue scored 5 points, but was just 1 of 5 from three point range
The Magic lose ground on both Boston and Cleveland, who won Tuesday night.
The Magic have five days off for the All-Star Break before they get back into action next Tuesday night.
For the complete box score from Yahoo! Sports, click here
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:55 PM
5 Comments:
At 4:01 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
From the game recap from cbssports.com:
"We got absolutely dominated," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Not one guy had a decent night offensively. Our starters, every single guy had three turnovers. We couldn't even keep from getting the ball taken out of our hands. It was an embarrassing night for our players, for me, for everybody."
That quote sums up the game really well from the Magic standpoint.
I was able to watch the game on one of the League Pass channels on my digital TV, even though I don't even subscribe to League Pass; it wasn't pretty to watch as both teams' offenses really stunk it up, especially the Magic, with probably their worst showing under SVG.
I can imagine all of Otis Smith's critics will be very vocal during the All-Star Break, as the two PGs he obtained, Anthony Johnson before the season started and Tyronn Lue last week, combined to score 9 points on 3 of 11 shooting, barely half of Jameer Nelson's average.
Lue had shot the three ball well in Milwaukee, shooting almost 47% from long range, but shot just 1 of 5 against the Nuggets from long range. On one three, he was so wide open, instead of shooting the ball in rhythm, he hesitated, looked down, and then shot and missed.
Lue wasn't the only culprit, though. Turk shot terrible (2 of 12), Lewis (4 of 13, Pietrus (3 of 12), and Johnson (1 of 5) also.
We knew the Magic's offense would take a hit with Nelson's unfortunate injury, but I certainly didn't think it would be as bad as this.
Denver's D deserves a lot of credit, but the Magic were nowhere near as sharp running their offense as they should be.
Maybe it's good the All-Star Break is here. The team can take five days off, refocus, and hopefully come out strong after the break.
SVG is too good a coach to let the Magic continue playing this poorly and I expect him to have the team ready come next week. Maybe that will involve lineup changes or changes in the rotation; who knows?
I, for one, would seriously think about starting CLee at the point, with Pietrus at SG and Redick the first SG off the bench, with Johnson and Lue splitting the backup PG duties.
At 10:35 AM,
Anonymous said…
I like your suggestion of starting CLee at point. ONE ... ONE assist between the two PGs last night is just downright horrible.
At 6:15 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
You're right; it's simply unacceptable.
I know Lee is a rookie and is not a natural PG, but he has seen some action there and can do better than what Anthony Johnson has done the last three games.
At 2:28 AM,
OVERWADED said…
I agree with you Mike; the Magic would be better off starting Lee.
Honestly, I was never thrilled with Johnson, but he was decent as a backup, and I was able to live with him. But now Smith went out and got Lue, probably one of my least favorite point guards in the NBA.
Without Nelson, the Orlando Magic are in trouble as it relates to this season.
I'm going to go ahead and copy & paste a comment I made over at thirdquartercollapse.com just a moment ago to save some time...
Without Nelson, or a respectable point guard in his place, the playoffs are not going to have much meaning this season.
With Nelson, there was a real “hope” for a championship, without there is NONE...
The chance to contend for a championship doesn’t always come around or last as long as one often thinks. Not making a move, will make it impossible for us to contend. If Smith finds no solutions, he’s pretty much writing the season off as far as an NBA title goes.
“Asked if he had any plans to make fixes to the roster before the NBA trade deadline next week, Magic general manager Otis Smith said, "the only thing we need fixed is a torn labrum.”"
Nelson’s injury shouldn’t be used as an excuse...
As of today, the Magic are good, will finish 3rd in the East, and lose in the 2nd round...AT BEST... However, land a Pistons team in the 1st round, and we might not even make it that far...
At 5:54 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Ditto about Johnson, OVERWADED. I was able to live with him as the backup to Jameer, if for no other reason than for him to play 10-12 minutes a game and give Jameer a chance to rest.
With Johnson starting, though, it's a whole different story.
I can't argue with anything in your post (DSK on 3QC also wrote a good post just before yours); you bring up some good points regarding Otis Smith and him "writing off the season" if he doesn't make any further moves before the trading deadline.
Otis is leaving himself wide open for criticism if he fails to make any more moves by the deadline, thereby negating much of the good that he did in putting the team together this season before Nelson's injury.
Poor efforts such as the game against Denver illustrate how the Magic are not the team they were with a healthy Jameer Nelson.
Post a Comment
<< Home