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.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Hot-shooting Bulls torch Magic

Chicago came out on fire, hitting 8 of their first 9 shots, and stayed hot the rest of the game, outshooting the Magic 56.5% to 44.9%, as the Magic had their worst effort of the year defensively in a 120-102 loss to the new-look Bulls, as new acquisitions Tim Thomas, John Salmons, and Brad Miller combined for 37 points off the Bulls bench.

The Magic had only two leads in this game, at 21-20 and 23-22. The Bulls led 63-54 at halftime, but the Magic made a run late in the third quarter, cutting the Bulls' lead to 83-82. The Bulls scored the last four points in the quarter to lead 87-82 going into the fourth, where they put the game away by outscoring the Magic 33-20.

Magic leading scorers

Dwight Howard: 26 points (10 of 18 field goals), 12 rebounds
Hedo Turkoglu: 16 points (6 of 14 field goals)
Courtney Lee: 14 points (6 of 9 field goals)

Chicago leading scorers

Derrick Rose: 22 points, 5 assists
Ben Gordon: 20 points, 5 rebounds
Tim Thomas (bench): 17 points

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: CHI 56.5% (48 of 85) ORL 44.9% (40 of 89)
3 PT FG%: CHI 36.4% (4 of 11) ORL 34.6% (9 of 26)
FT%: CHI 90.9% (20 of 22) ORL 72.2% (13 of 18)
REB: CHI 44 (9 offensive) ORL 38 (11 offensive)
AST/TO: CHI 25/11 ORL 18/15
BENCH: CHI 43 ORL 26

Other game notes and stats:

-The Bulls outshot the Magic by nearly 12 percentage points from the field, 18 percentage points from the free throw line, outrebounded the Magic by 6, had 7 more assists and 4 fewer turnovers than the Magic
-Mickael Pietrus sat out his second straight game with a sprained wrist, as Courtney Lee started at shooting guard
-Rafer Alston scored 10 points, but shot just 4 of 12 and had a 5/4 assist/turnover ratio
-Seven Magic players finished in double figures, with four players scoring ten points each
-Anthony Johnson and J.J. Redick led the reserves with 10 points each
-Seven Bulls' players scored in double figures also
-Four of the Bulls' starters shot at least 55% from the field
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Bulls' starting frontline 52-35
-The Bulls' starting guards outscored the Magic starting guards 42-24
-Rashard Lewis and Alston combined to shoot 7 of 24 from the field
-Lewis scored all ten of his points in the first quarter

The Magic will need to regroup in time for Wednesday night's game at the Knicks.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:04 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 12:43 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Some quotes after the game from Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, from Brian Schmitz's post-game recap on orlandosentinel.com...

    "I'm embarrassed and disgusted by what I saw," Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said.

    "There was no comparison in which team came prepared tonight. We were lucky it was even as close at it was. ... They were very good and our guys didn't try."

     

  • At 4:26 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I had a feeling the Bulls would come out strong, as I noted in my pre-game comments, but I had no idea they would dominate the game like that; they deserved to win this one.

    SVG must have been thoroughly disgusted by the defense the Magic played. The Magic gave up a season high in points, while the Bulls scored a season high, and shot a season high. Just a horrible defensive effort from the Magic.

    I was confident the Magic might be able to pull this one out, as they came to within one point late in the third, but the Bulls didn't panic, and put the game away in the fourth.

    Rafer Alston did not have the positive effect that he had the first two games he played with the Magic, as he struggled from the field and had a mediocre assist/turnover ratio of 5/4.

    Lewis started out like a house on fire, with 10 first quarter points, but then didn't score the rest of the game, missing his last 7 shots.

    Let's just hope this was just one of those nights that every NBA team has during the course of a season; the Magic definitely won't have it easy Wednesday night against a rested Knicks team in NY.

     

  • At 8:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well like mike said the bulls came out hot from the get go matching the magic's intensity and uptempo style game. Their 18-22 foot jumpers were on all night and drose had an all around great game. Like SVG said it was really a disgrace to watch, on the defensive end, it just seemed like they were faster offensively.

    The one bright point that i seen last night was dwight howard's sweeping hook, which he has almost perfected and is a tremondous addition to his offensive game. Patrick Ewings hard work is paying off.

    We made an 8-0 run in the 3rd and closed the lead to 1 but then completely fell apart afterthat giving up 7 unaswered and completely allowing them to run away with the game in the 4th. The rook played a good game on both ends of the court and he continues to establish himself as the set-in-stone starter at the 2 position.

    JJ came in and hit a couple shots showing exacly what we need from him on a daily basis........10-14 points off the bench. Defensively he is obviously trying to step it up but he is still a step slower than some of othe other 2 or 3s in the league(Gordon showed us that last night).

    Real tough loss because if we wanna play like an elite team this games are and should be no-brainers!!! Looking forward to the second part of the back-2-back against NY. Nate Robinson is averaging around 30 ppg since the all star break, so lets see how we stacked up against another eastern team that is beggining to make a run for the 7th or 8th spot.

     

  • At 4:54 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Big Figure said...
    Yea you guys basically covered everything. I thought we'd play alot better than we did,i figured the difference would be the depth that we have,and at some point it would be too much for a newly put together bulls team. Who knew we'd turn the ball over,not play any defense and their bench would play so well. SVG will have the guys focused for new york.

     

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