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.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Magic hang on to beat stubborn Knicks

New York came into the game against the Magic following an embarrassing 27 point home loss to Sacramento the night before, and to make matters worse, center David Lee would miss the game against the Magic because of knee problems, and starting guard Larry Hughes would exit the game in the second quarter because of a jammed big toe.

The Knicks played hard and competed all night, though. The Magic led 29-28 at the end of one, and went into the half with a 59-52 lead. The Magic opened the game up in the third and had their largest lead of 80-65, but the Knicks came back to cut their deficit to 86-80 going into the fourth. The Knicks got as close as 100-98 and 102-100 late in the fourth, but the Magic held on to win 110-103, as all five Magic starters scored in double figures.

Magic leading scorers

Rashard Lewis: 27 points (11 of 18 field goals), 4 assists
Hedo Turkoglu: 20 points (6 of 13 field goals), 9 assists, 7 rebounds
Rafer Alston: 17 points (5 of 10 field goals), 3 steals
Dwight Howard: 15 points (4 of 7 field goals), 7 rebounds, 3 blocks
Courtney Lee: 13 points (6 of 12 field goals), 4 assists

New York leading scorers:

Quentin Richardson: 33 points, 7 rebounds
Nate Robinson (bench): 27 points, 5 rebounds

Overall Game Statistics:

FG%: ORL 48.7% (38 of 78) NY 42.4% (36 of 85)
3 PT FG%: ORL 38.2% (13 of 34) NY 28.6% (8 of 28)
FT%: NY 76.7% (23 of 30) ORL 67.7% (21 of 31)
REB: NY 47 (17 offensive) ORL 38 (9 offensive)
AST/TO: ORL 25/15 NY 16/20
BENCH: NY 48 ORL 18

Other game notes and stats:

-The Magic starters outscored the Knicks' starters 92-55
-The Magic starting backcourt outscored the Knicks' starting backcourt 30-4, as Chris Duhon and Hughes combined to shoot 1 of 9
-Other than Richardson, the four other Knicks' starters combined to shoot 8 of 29 from the field
-Richardson scored 24 of his points in the first half
-Lewis and Turkoglu combined for 47 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds, and 3 steals
-The Magic used a nine-man rotation, with J.J. Redick leading the reserves with 6 points
-Tony Battie, along with Lue and Richardson, did not see any action
-Marcin Gortat led the Magic with 8 rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench
-Howard had just 7 field goal attempts in 30 minutes before fouling out.

The Magic remain one game behind Boston for the second seed in the East, as the Celtics won at Memphis Saturday night.

The Magic and Knicks play the rematch Monday night in New York.

For the complete box score, click here

2 Comments:

  • At 5:22 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    It may not have been the blowout that most people expected, but the Magic did what they had to do to win the game.

    The Magic shot a higher percentage from the field and from the three point line than the Knicks, and also had 5 fewer turnovers.

    However, the Knicks had 9 more rebounds than the Magic, and also shot 9 pct. points better from the free throw line than the Magic; those are areas the Magic will have to improve on in future games.

    Great seeing Lewis shooting well and leading the team in scoring; the time off for him the last couple days because of the tendinitis in the knee really seemed to help him. SVG will have to watch Lewis's playing time and practice time, so the tendinitis doesn't get any worse.

    What a fourth quarter for Turk; he really dominated! Outstanding all-around game for him.

     
  • At 9:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    51 wins are in the books with 13games left!!! the magic are now a full game behind boston thanks to tony parker missing four free throws in a row, making tommorow and wednesdays games huge especially wednesday!!!

    Great game game for lewis, he really needed a game where he would find his rhythim ans that is what he did last night, like mike stated SVG has to watch his minutes and make sure that we dont aggravate the knee injury in the late push. Overall good win at home, but have to take care of these next two games!!!

     

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