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.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Another fourth quarter comeback lifts Magic to win over Nets

Five Magic players scored in double figures, led by Dwight Howard's 26 points and 15 rebounds, as the Magic turned a 95-87 deficit with under 7:30 remaining to a 105-102 victory, as they outscored New Jersey 18-7 to pull off the win. This was the third game in a row the Magic have trailed entering the fourth quarter, and the third game in a row they have come back in the fourth quarter to win.

The first half was played at a brisk pace, with the Magic holding a 32-29 lead after one, with their largest lead at 52-44 in the second quarter before settling for a 60-59 lead at the half. New Jersey held the advantage 86-83 going into the fourth, and the Magic outscored the Nets 22-16 in the final quarter to pull off yet another comeback victory.

Magic leading scorers

Dwight Howard: 26 points (12 of 14 free throws), 15 rebounds, 5 turnovers
Rashard Lewis: 21 points (8 of 18 field goals), 5 rebounds
Hedo Turkoglu: 13 points (4 of 14 field goals), 8 rebounds
Mickael Pietrus (bench): 14 points (3 of 6 three point field goals), 7 rebounds
Rafer Alston: 11 points (4 of 10 field goals), 6 assists

New Jersey leading scorers

Devin Harris: 25 points, 9 assists
Vince Carter: 19 points (8 of 22 field goals)
Yi Jianlian: 12 points, 6 rebounds

Overall Game Statistics:

FG%: NJ 49.4% (38 of 77) ORL 42.7% (35 of 82)
3 PT FG%: ORL 37.5% (9 of 24) NJ 37.5% (9 of 24)
FT%: ORL 81.3% (26 of 32) NJ 77.3% (17 of 22)
REB: ORL 48 (13 offensive) NJ 33 (4 offensive)
AST/TO: NJ 19/11 ORL 19/15
BENCH: NJ 33 ORL 29

Other game notes and stats:

-The Nets outscored the Magic 85-79 from the field, but the Magic outscored the Nets from the free throw line 26-17
-The Nets made only 1 of their final 10 shots from the field in the final 6 minutes
-The Magic starting frontline outscored the Nets' starting frontline 60-25 and outrebounded them 28-13
-Turkoglu and Lewis combined to score 34 points with 13 rebounds and 7 assists; Turkoglu scored 8 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter
-The Nets' starting guards outscored the Magic starting guards 44-16
-The Nets shot over 58% in the first half
-Howard scored 12 first quarter points, and was 9 for 9 from the line in the quarter; he hit his first 10 before missing
-In addition to Pietrus, Anthony Johnson also played well off the bench, scoring 9 points along with 4 assists
-Former Magic guard Keyon Dooling scored 7 points for the Nets, and added 3 steals on defense
-There were 16 lead changes in the game

Magic start a tough back-to-back Sunday at Boston followed by a trip to Detroit Monday.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 3:33 AM  

3 Comments:

  • At 3:45 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    The Magic winning streak with me in attendance now goes up to 9 games!

    It appeared to be in jeopardy there in the fourth quarter with the Nets holding an 8 point lead, but then came the big 18-7 closing run by the Magic.

    Great seeing Pietrus come off the bench and contribute nicely. He had a couple nice drives to the basket too, in addition to his threes.

    Great seeing Dwight come through big-time at the free throw line; if he only makes 8 or 9 of 14 instead of 12 of 14, the Magic wind up losing.

    I give the Nets credit for playing a good game; they only lost to Boston by 4 the other night, and now they just lose to the Magic by 3. It says a lot for the Magic that they have won their last three games all after trailing entering the fourth quarter.

    Now comes the really tough part... back-to-back games at Boston and at Detroit.

     

  • At 10:14 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I'll give the nets a ton of credit also for playing harder than i thought they'd play. Their guards who we knew would be tough to stop played well,and their bench was pretty good also. Boy the magic played some tough defense down the stretch though,somehow i never felt we were out of the game. SVG to me has to do a better job of calling plays earlier for rashard and hedo,waiting so late in the game just feeding dwight for three quarters slows the game down to a snail's pace.

     

  • At 10:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Great win at home against a jesey team that showed up with a lot more in the tank than what i expected. The Magic seemed to be in cruise control in the first half but kind of reminded me of the brian hill days(era 2) when we kind of started to come apart that 3rd quarter, largely in part of the jersey bench! But great run late against a team that is trying to make a push for those last 3 spots in the east.

    One thing that I am starting to realize is that it will not get easier from here, almost every team on our remaining schedule( I did say ALMOST) is either in the hunt for a spot or is fighting for position i.e home court!!! The road ahead is rough but like i mentioned before we can still make a run for one of those top two spots in our conference, and this weekend will begin that road.
    Great game from Howard, Lewis. Turk came on late and did what he does best.....he read the switch when harris came over and knocked down huge shots over a smaller defender. Not the typical turk stats line but a good game overall.
    AJ, i personally think is beggining to play his best basketball of the season, you can tell he is back comfortable at the backup position. MP did show me a little of what we need from him but now lets see his consistency.

    Mike, thats 9 in a row!!!! No thought to extending your vacation into the playoffs!!!LOL!!!

     

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