Magic hold off furious Knicks' second half comeback
The Knicks started off fast, going ahead of the Magic 9-4, but then proceeded to make just 3 of their next 22 shots, as the Magic held a 25-15 lead after one. The Magic attained their largest lead of the game at 45-28 in the second, and had a comfortable 57-43 halftime lead. The Magic were able to maintain a double digit lead in the third quarter, and led 81-71 going into the fourth. The Magic had a 106-97 lead with 90 seconds remaining, before the Knicks hit a flurry of buckets to cut the Magic lead to 109-107 and 111-109; fortunately, the Magic were able to make most of their free throws late and held on for a 114-109 win.
Hedo Turkoglu scored a season-high 33 points and Dwight Howard dominated with a 24 point, 21 rebound game.
Magic leading scorers
Hedo Turkoglu: 33 points (11 of 17 field goals)
Dwight Howard: 24 points (8 of 15 field goals), 21 rebounds, 4 blocks
Rashard Lewis: 17 points (6 of 17 field goals), 6 rebounds
Courtney Lee: 15 points (6 of 9 field goals), 6 rebounds
Rafer Alston: 15 points (4 of 9 field goals), 4 steals
New York leading scorers
Nate Robinson (bench): 32 points (11 of 26 field goals)
Wilson Chandler: 27 points, 5 rebounds
Al Harrington: 26 points, 7 rebounds
Overall Game Statistics:
FG%: ORL 51.3% (39 of 76) NYK 41.4% (41 of 99)
3 PT FG%: NYK 44.8% (13 of 29) ORL 30.4% (7 of 23)
FT%: ORL 76.3% (29 of 38) NYK 73.7% (14 of 19)
REB: ORL 46 (8 offensive) NYK 42 (15 offensive)
AST/TO: NYK 21/11 ORL 15/14
BENCH: NYK 46 ORL 10
Other game notes and stats:
-The Magic starters outscored the Knicks' starters 104-63
-The Knicks outscored the Magic from the field 95-85
-The Magic outscored the Knicks from the free throw line 29-14 and had twice as many attempts (38-19)
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Knicks' starting frontline 74-36, and outrebounded them 31-17
-Turkoglu and Lewis combined for 50 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists
-Harrington and Chandler combined to shoot 21 of 39 for the Knicks; the rest of the Knicks' starters shot a combined 4 of 20
-The Magic used a nine-man rotation, with Tony Battie and J.J. Redick leading the reserves with 4 points each
-The Magic allowed 66 second half points to the Knicks, 38 in the fourth
-Howard had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the first quarter
-Howard made 8 of his 9 free throws
The Magic host the struggling Pistons on Friday evening.
For the complete box score, click here
Hedo Turkoglu scored a season-high 33 points and Dwight Howard dominated with a 24 point, 21 rebound game.
Magic leading scorers
Hedo Turkoglu: 33 points (11 of 17 field goals)
Dwight Howard: 24 points (8 of 15 field goals), 21 rebounds, 4 blocks
Rashard Lewis: 17 points (6 of 17 field goals), 6 rebounds
Courtney Lee: 15 points (6 of 9 field goals), 6 rebounds
Rafer Alston: 15 points (4 of 9 field goals), 4 steals
New York leading scorers
Nate Robinson (bench): 32 points (11 of 26 field goals)
Wilson Chandler: 27 points, 5 rebounds
Al Harrington: 26 points, 7 rebounds
Overall Game Statistics:
FG%: ORL 51.3% (39 of 76) NYK 41.4% (41 of 99)
3 PT FG%: NYK 44.8% (13 of 29) ORL 30.4% (7 of 23)
FT%: ORL 76.3% (29 of 38) NYK 73.7% (14 of 19)
REB: ORL 46 (8 offensive) NYK 42 (15 offensive)
AST/TO: NYK 21/11 ORL 15/14
BENCH: NYK 46 ORL 10
Other game notes and stats:
-The Magic starters outscored the Knicks' starters 104-63
-The Knicks outscored the Magic from the field 95-85
-The Magic outscored the Knicks from the free throw line 29-14 and had twice as many attempts (38-19)
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Knicks' starting frontline 74-36, and outrebounded them 31-17
-Turkoglu and Lewis combined for 50 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists
-Harrington and Chandler combined to shoot 21 of 39 for the Knicks; the rest of the Knicks' starters shot a combined 4 of 20
-The Magic used a nine-man rotation, with Tony Battie and J.J. Redick leading the reserves with 4 points each
-The Magic allowed 66 second half points to the Knicks, 38 in the fourth
-Howard had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the first quarter
-Howard made 8 of his 9 free throws
The Magic host the struggling Pistons on Friday evening.
For the complete box score, click here
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:09 AM
4 Comments:
At 10:43 AM,
Anonymous said…
Well, where to start......
Good road win in the second part of a back2back against an ok eastern conference opponent. SVG's rant after the bulls lost must of put soem kinda fir in our players behinds' cause they cam eout playing very well, establishing themselves on the defensive side of the ball immediately with 2 blocked shots from Howard in the first 4 minutes. Our starting lineup is really one not to be messed with and I believe is just as good if not better than any one starting lineup in the league.
But.... last night i really got worried the last 4 minutes of the game because it felt as if we deliverately let them back in the game, allowing a rookie to hit 3 huge jumpers that were not even close to being contested, and allowing nate robinson to slash right down the middle of the lane with under a minute left. SVG was flipping out on the sidelines and so was I on my couch because that is something that we havent allowed all season long, and it felt as if we were just kind of riding it out defensively. Against an elite team in this league we would have lost that game fair and square.
Well now for the good stuff......Turk had a season high in points last night coming up big hitting jumpers at the end of the game that ultimately won the game for us, great game for turk and it really feels like his game is coming around at the right time of the year. Dwight Howard, well you can say much more other than ......BEAST.........he had a huge 20/20 night in MSG once again showing why he IS the best center in the NBA!! Not to mention his great day at the charity stripe.
Alston could of played a little bit better offensively, but had an awesome game defensively inputing 4 steals and countless great defensive plays. Lewis gave us a so/so effort last night but the will be ok as the season processes.Lee continues to impress me more and more every game offensively but honestly this road trip was rough on him defensively, having ben gordon and then robinson last night made him look slow but we all know he will get his act together defensively.
Battie came in last night and hit the boards head on last night doing a very good job, JJ cam ein gave us a good outing but like I mentioned before we need between 10-14 ppg from him off the bench, he will get the open shots he just has to knock them down! Last Night i was really impressed with Marcin Gortat, he came in and did his thing playing great defense and cleaning up the boards, him and AJ got a little lob thing going off the pick that has worked for them the last two games, it doesnt look the greatest but at the end of the day its 2 points.
Well looking forward detroit goes into Amway without Rwallace and having lost 8 straight and not looking good at all with new head coach Michael Curry.
At 6:29 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Yeah, I don't blame Coach Van Gundy for flipping out on the sidelines late in the game. It looked like the Magic got their act together defensively in the first quarter, as gomezmagic12 mentioned, as the Knicks could only score 15 points in that quarter. The Knicks proceeded to score 94 points in the next three quarters, though, including 66 in the second half.
120 points allowed against the Bulls, followed by 109 against the Knicks, by far the worst two game defensive stretch for the Magic this season.
Turk was awesome on offense; I bet he's glad he doesn't have to assume the "point forward" duties, as his offensive game has really picked up since Alston's arrival.
Alston had his best game scoring-wise since he came to the Magic, and hit a couple big shots in the fourth when the Knicks were making their run, but he needs to do better from the free throw line than 6 of 10, and I'd like to see his assist total around 7 or 8 a game; Lewis had 4 assists to lead the Magic.
Thank goodness the Magic were able to shoot so well as a team from the free throw line; that made the difference between a win and a loss.
At 7:58 PM,
Ken said…
I was sweating those last few minutes as well.. Matt and David, the two Magic announcers where saying that these guys think they can just turn the defense on whenever they need to. Not that that is a good thing. It may work for them some nights, or for short periods of time, but I hope they don't start to depend on it.
Welcome to the blog gomezmagic12, It's always nice to see someone as passionate about the Magic as the guys are here.
You are right about Lewis, he had a so/so night. He seems to have these little mini slumps all season. But he always breaks out of them at the right time just when the team needs him. Same with Turk, he will go into a funk for a few games then all of a sudden, hit a hot streak.
Those who only passively follow the Magic or just don't care, have NO idea what it means to have a player like Dwight Howard on our team. What can I say that hasn't already been said about him? I'm just thankful he is on OUR side...
I'm not worried about off nights by Alston. The guy is a veteran and knows what it takes to win games. He led Houston on their 22 game win streak last year. Just think of the alternative who could be out there at PG. I don't think any of us would want to see Lue as our starting PG for the rest of the season and during the playoffs.
At 1:16 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Ken, haven't heard from you in a while... thanks for checking in!
You mentioned about Dwight Howard... the scary thing is, for the rest of the league... he's only 23, and will only get better! He could potentially lead the league in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots in the future!
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