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, March 13, 2009

Magic depth wears down Wizards

Six Magic players scored in double figures, which was enough to overcome Antawn Jamison's 36 points, as the Magic scored 13 of the game's final 19 points to beat the shorthanded Wizards 112-103 to sweep the season series 4-0. In addition to Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood, who are both out for the season, guard DeShawn Stevenson missed the game and Caron Butler sat out the second half with an injury.

The Magic led 30-25 after one, and 60-52 at the half. The Magic had a 66-54 lead in the third, but saw the Wizards come to with 91-90 in the fourth quarter. It was 99-97 Magic with 3 1/2 minutes left before they pulled away.

Magic leading scorers

Mickael Pietrus: 21 points (8 of 14 field goals), 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks
Rashard Lewis: 19 points (6 of 13 field goals), 6 rebounds
Dwight Howard: 18 points (6 of 9 field goals), 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 blocks
Rafer Alston: 18 points (6 of 11 field goals)
Tony Battie (bench): 13 points (6 of 8 field goals), 7 rebounds

Washington leading scorers

Antawn Jamison: 36 points, 6 rebounds
Nick Young (bench): 20 points, 5 rebounds

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: ORL 51.2% (41 of 80) WAS 48.8% (39 of 80)
3 PT FG%: WAS 60% (6 of 10) ORL 35.3% (12 of 34)
FT%: WAS 86.4% (19 of 22) ORL 66.7% (18 of 27)
REB: ORL 49 (17 offensive) WAS 32 (7 offensive)
AST/TO: ORL 24/14 WAS 21/10
BENCH: WAS 45 ORL 31

Other game notes and stats:

-The Magic starters outscored the Wizards' starters 81-58
-Howard's 7 assists was a career-high
-Courtney Lee was the only Magic starter not to score in double figures, with 5 points on 2 of 10 shooting
-The Wizards' starting guards, Mike James and Butler, combined to score just 8 points on 2 of 12 shooting
-Hedo Turkoglu once again sat out to rest his sore achilles
-Pietrus and Lewis combined for 40 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals
-J.J. Redick added 10 points off the bench in addition to Battie's 13
-The Magic bench combined for 31 points on 13 of 23 shooting along with 13 rebounds and 6 assists
-Other than Jamison, the Wizards' starters combined to score 22 points on 7 of 23 shooting
-In addition to Howard's 7 assists, Pietrus had 6 assists and Anthony Johnson 5 assists

The Magic host Utah Sunday evening.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:28 PM  

3 Comments:

  • At 4:48 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Admittedly, it was a closer than expected victory for the Magic against one of the worst teams in the NBA in the Wizards, who were missing several injured players.

    Still, there were some positives to be gained for the Magic in this victory:
    -Mickael Pietrus's strong performance
    -Rashard Lewis bouncing back from an awful game against the Bulls
    -Dwight Howard with a career-high in assists to counter the Wizards' double-teaming of him
    -another strong performance from the Magic bench
    -Rafer Alston's best offensive performance since the Magic acquired him

    The Magic stay within a game and a half of the Celtics for the second seed.

     

  • At 12:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey guys, last week was reallt busy for me and i was not able to blog but hey im back,

    Finally, the day came when my magic came to town and i enjoyed every minute of it. Great seats even got tlue's warmup jersey on his way out the game but NEwayz....

    Another road win against arguably the most dissapointing team in the NBA. Wizards have had a rough year with out AGENT 0 and a scorekeeper as an interim coach but they will be back next year with a good draft pick and arenas back i expect them to be this years' miami heat next year.

    For my Magic we are still in the hunt for that second spot inching a game and a half behind the celts, getting that second spot would put an exclamation point on the season, but honestly, i just want to stay as far away from the pistons as possible come playoff time. Now about last night......MP showed up last night played huge and i feel is starting to come around at the right time, alston continues to impress me, he just seems in-synch with the offense and the team chemistry. Howard played huge once again and like mike mentioned is starting to read the double team ala hakeem dishing it off to the open shooter. JJ came in and as much as i have a problem with him defensively he is showing vast improvements on that side of the ball and his playing time is showing it. Clee is struggling a little bit as of a late but we all knew we had to get at least a minor setback from our fave rook at one time or another, but he will be fine as SVG continues to rely on him as a starter which is a great move for a rookies confidence! And it was great to see lewis have a better night offensively even hitting s big trey late in the fourth.

    The one negative i have about the game is that we didnt put them away in the 3rd like we should of instead allowing them to hang around but a win is a win. I got a chance to speak to otis smith due to the fact i sat right next to the tunnel where he watched the game and i asked him how many he thinks we can win this year si he smiled and said "59 and three quarters" ......which i thought was pretty funny since biannchi of the sentinel have riding the magic about the big 60 this year. Great win and very happy to be there.

    GO MAGIC!

     

  • At 2:23 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Sounds like you had a great game experience, gomezmagic12, watching a Magic victory and getting Lue's warmup jersey and talking to Otis Smith... nice that you were able to attend!

     

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