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.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Same old story... Pistons win close one over Magic

The game was close throughout, as neither team had more than a six point lead. It was tied at 21 after one, with the Magic holding a 45-42 halftime lead. Detroit took a 73-71 lead into the fourth, and had their largest lead at 81-75 before the Magic came back, thanks to some clutch baskets by Rashard Lewis, and took a 87-84 lead. The Magic's last lead was 90-89. The Magic missed 5 of their last 7 shots and 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch and the Pistons won 98-94.

Rasheed Wallace exited the game for the Pistons late in the first quarter, while Hedo Turkoglu exited the game for the Magic in the third quarter with a sore achilles.

Magic leading scorers

Dwight Howard: 27 points (9 of 14 field goals), 14 rebounds, 4 blocks
Rashard Lewis: 21 points (8 of 14 field goals), 6 rebounds, 5 turnovers
Courtney Lee: 10 points (3 of 5 field goals)

Detroit leading scorers

Richard Hamilton: 29 points, 14 assists
Tayshaun Prince: 20 points, 6 rebounds
Antonio McDyess: 13 points, 18 rebounds

Overal Game Stats

FG%: ORL 45.3% (29 of 64) DET 44.0% (40 of 91)
3 PT FG%: ORL 38.9% (7 of 18) DET 33.3% (3 of 9)
FT%: ORL 82.9% (29 of 35) DET 62.5% (15 of 24)
REB: DET 41 (15 offensive) ORL 41 (6 offensive)
AST/TO: DET 30/7 ORL 18/15
BENCH: ORL 27 DET 23

Other game notes and stats:

-The Pistons outscored the Magic from the field 83-65, and attempted 27 more field goals than the Magic to offset the Magic's 29-15 free throws made edge
-The Pistons' starting guards outscored the Magic's starting guards 39-17
-Hamilton, who had a career-high 14 assists, and Prince combined for 49 points
-The Magic used a nine-man rotation, with J.J. Redick and Anthony Johnson leading the bench with 9 points each
-The Magic bench shot a combined 6 of 18 from the field, but made 12 of 13 free throws
-Redick played over 29 1/2 minutes and played the whole fourth quarter, while starting guard Courtney Lee played just over 18 minutes and sat out the fourth.
-Marcin Gortat played over 24 1/2 minutes, scoring six points with five rebounds, while Tony Battie did not see action
-Seldom-used Kwame Brown, seeing action after Wallace left the game with an injury, scored 10 points on 5 of 6 shooting for the Pistons

The Pistons sweep the season series from the Magic 3 games to 0.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:09 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 12:29 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    If someone had told me before the game that the Magic would have a better FG%, a better 3 PT FG%, a better FT%, and would be even with the Pistons in rebounds, I would have thought the Magic would have a great chance of winning the game.

    Unfortunately for the Magic, the Pistons do what they need to do to beat the Magic. A 30/7 assist/turnover ratio is absolutely stunning, while the Magic turned over the ball 15 times. The Pistons also had 15 offensive rebounds, and attempted 27 more field goals than the Magic.

    I saw the post-game interview with Coach Van Gundy on Fox Sports, and he said he's kicking himself for not playing Tony Battie at all; he wanted to see how Howard and Gortat would do together.

    I was also surprised to see that SVG left J.J. Redick in the game the whole fourth quarter, while Courtney Lee did not see any fourth quarter action. Redick had a decent game, but shot just 1 of 5, while Lee shot 3 of 5.

    Rip Hamilton was only 10 of 25 from the field, though, but he had the 14 assists.

    The Magic battled, but still came away with the loss; it's unfortunate that they just can't seem to beat Detroit, but it is what it is; if these two team meet in the playoffs, the Magic will have to figure out something to beat this team.

     

  • At 12:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    IMO, it wasn't a matter of JJ's offense as to why SVG left him in the entire 4th quarter. I've noticed that whomever is guarding JJ, he never leaves him at all to double up. Maybe SVG wanted the spacing for Gortat & Howard (when he played them both together).

    Also, Rip uses screens more than he does post up or even drive towards the basket. For some strange reason, JJ is a *slightly* better defender going through screens (don't know if it's because being a shooter himself who uses screens). When JJ was stuck behind a moving screen (which it seems the refs never call and you can clearly see on replay the moving screen), Rip was open to get a shot. However, when JJ was able to get in front of Rip after the screens, Hamilton would try to take a tough shot and missed (won't happen often, but he did tonight). Although Rip had 29 points, it did take him 25 shots. Orlando just couldn't grab those rebounds!

    CLee is a better defender and great one-on-one, but I'm noticing that he gets caught up in screens more often than not.

     

  • At 5:22 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    To me,SVG lost that game and i dont think he'll make that same mistake again. During the fourth quarter gortat was clearly at his limit,he was just getting abused by mcdyess and i was yelling at the TV "where's tony"??? All those offensive rebounds by mcdyess were clearly a veteran just using his smarts against a young player,it wasnt like he was over-powering him. Mcdyess would just lull him to sleep and pop out to get the board at the last minute but if gortat was using his body and boxing out aggressively there would have never been that problem,players tend to get back on defense when they get boxed out aggressively. Let me give him credit for playing well for some early minutes in the first half because the magic actually played the game against them rather well,RA pushed the ball and we got easy baskets for the first time against them. I was very happy watching the way we played the game and to be honest we can beat them playing that way if we're better on the defensive boards down the stretch because we were making them miss shots! RA brings a different style of play that we've never had against them,getting early baskets and being able to sit on our defense really gave them problems for the first three quarters. I beleive if the magic were to draw a first round match-up with the pistons that the magic would win the series,if we clean up a few things we can get over the hump against them.

     

  • At 5:33 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    If we draw the pistons. First thing would be (1)turnovers. With home-court advantage there's no reason to turn the ball over alot. (2)Rebounds. Battie isnt dwight but he's a vet and will do a better job in tight games. (3)Home-cort advantage a first. This will be the first time the pistons will have to come to orlando and start a series,might that be a difference? (4)Shutting down all the reserve's and making the starters do all the work. Herman & brown cant come off the bench and produce like that IN THE PLAYOFFS and ON THE ROAD can they??? I honestly think we can do those things and take advantage of homecourt.

     

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