Game night preview
ORLANDO MAGIC vs. BOSTON CELTICS
Thursday, Jan. 28. 8:00 p.m. TNT
Amway Arena
Orlando, FL
When the Magic (29-16, 16-4 home) return home on Thursday the national spotlight will be shining on Orlando as they get set to
battle the Boston Celtics (29-13, 16-6 road) for the third time this season at 8 p.m. ET. Orlando has split its two meetings with Boston during its 2009-10 campaign. After traveling up to Beantown and notching an 83-78 victory on Nov. 20, the Magic fell to the Celtics, 86-77, at Amway Arena on Christmas Day. Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo took advantage of a rusty Jameer Nelson – who was playing in just his third game after missing more than a month following knee surgery – and dominated the Magic to the tune of 17 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. But since that triumph on Dec. 25, Boston has won just six of its last 14 games – a stretch that included three consecutive losses at TD Garden. However, Kevin Garnett played in just three contests during that span. And Orlando is all too familiar with how much his presence means to Boston defensively. “They have a lot of athleticism, they move well and they take up a lot of the paint, so they make it tough,” Vince Carter said of Boston’s defense. “They do a great job and believe in each other on the defensive end.”| Team | Record | Standings | PF | PA | Road/Home | Streak | L10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston | 29-13 | 1st Atlantic / 2nd East | 99.7 | 93.7 | Road 16-6 | Won 2 | 5-5 |
| Orlando | 29-16 | 2nd Southeast / 4th East | 101.1 | 96.3 | Home 16-4 | Lost 1 | 5-5 |
Here is the complete game preview from Yahoo! Sports.
Also, check out this article from writer Tim Povtak of nba.fanhouse.com about how Magic center Dwight Howard wants the ball more.
The Magic are 3 1/2 point favorites.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 4:40 AM
3 Comments:
At 4:53 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Good for Dwight for speaking out. I still have a hard time believing how the Magic almost completely forgot about D12 offensively in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies Monday night, which ultimately wound up costing them the game, with all the missed threes and jumpers they were putting up.
Tough game tonight against the Celts; Magic had their worst offensive performance of the year in the Christmas day game when the Celtics won in Orlando with the Magic shooting 33%.
Historically, Howard has almost always struggled offensively against Boston; hopefully, he turns that around tonight.
Nelson, Lewis, Carter and Barnes all need to bounce back after sub-par games against the Grizzlies, especially the 1 assist/6 turnover game from Jameer.
Mickael Pietrus has been slumping badly off the bench as of late; he needs to snap out of it also, as his energy, defense, and scoring in reserve would help big-time.
At 10:05 AM,
Matt said…
The problem is not mainly with Dwight not getting the ball as much. Dwight turns the ball over a lot, and if not the team ends up with one point on the free throw line which is a bad exchange for one versus potentially two or three. Having that said, I think there should be a balance between going to Dwight or taking an ill-advised jump-shot by Vince (like the 3-pointer late in MEM's game when we were down by only two).
I reiterate my earlier comments; 1) Vince has to be rested until he is fully heeled. J.J. is more than capable to fill in as a starter; and 2) Something's wrong with MP, and he needs to be talked to by the coach.
We are not playing like an elite team right now, and that has to change sooner rather than later.
At 1:59 PM,
Big Figure said…
Matt for three straight games the guys did look good,and for the most part looked good against memphis for three quarters. Im hoping that they can correct the amount of turnovers first and fore-most and play a solid offensive game tonight. They supposedly have gone over taking better shots in practice so we'll see what kind of shots we get tonight. Kendrick perkins has always bodied dwight almost fouling him without getting calls,tonight dwight has to get some low DEEP DEEP post position attempts and put pressure on the celtics. Make them make a choice which will open up shots for us. Christmas day we werent getting shots,every shot we took was pretty much contested.
Post a Comment
<< Home