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 28, 2010

Game review: Magic (52-22) 103, Nuggets (48-26) 97


The Magic, despite losing Vince Carter to a sprained big toe just 1:35 into the game, had sensational performances off the bench from J.J. Redick (23 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds) and Ryan Anderson (19 points on 7 of 8 shooting) as the Magic pulled away from the Nuggets in the fourth quarter after a close game throughout.

The Nuggets held the lead through most of the first quarter, leading by as much as 15-9, before the Magic took back the lead briefly 22-19, but the Nuggets scored the final 5 points of the quarter to lead after one 24-22. The Magic led by as much as 40-35 in the second quarter before going into halftime with a slim 52-51 lead. The Nuggets quickly jumped out on a 16-5 run to open the third and lead 67-57. The Magic scored 9 points in a row to get back within a point, and tied the game at 77 entering the fourth. Redick and Anderson combined to score the first 8 Magic points of the fourth, as the Magic never trailed in the final quarter and led by as much as 103-92 with under a minute left.

Magic leading scorers

J.J. Redick: 23 points (8 of 15 FGs, 3 of 7 3 PT FGs), 8 assists, 7 rebounds
Ryan Anderson: 19 points (7 of 8 FGs, 4 of 5 3 PT FGs), 5 rebounds
Dwight Howard: 18 points (7 of 15 FGs, 4 of 9 FTs), 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks
Matt Barnes: 16 points (6 of 10 FGs), 5 rebounds
Jameer Nelson: 15 points (6 of 14 FGs, 2 of 6 3 PT FGs), 4 assists
Rashard Lewis: 10 points (4 of 11 FGs, 1 of 5 3 PT FGs), 5 rebounds, 2 blocks

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: DEN 52.5% (42 of 80) ORL 49.4% (39 of 79)
3 PT FG%: ORL 37.9% (11 of 29) DEN 31.2% (5 of 16)
FT%: DEN 72.7% (8 of 11) ORL 63.6% (14 of 22)
REB: DEN 39 (9 offensive) ORL 37 (10 offensive)
AST/TO: ORL 25/9 DEN 18/10
BENCH: ORL 44 DEN 29

Other game notes and stats:

-Redick's 23 points was the second highest total of his career, while his 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 46 minutes were all career highs
-Carmelo Anthony (26 points) and Chauncey Billups (18 points) led the Nuggets, but needed a combined 42 shot attempts (19 of 42)
-Redick and Anderson combined for 42 points on just 23 shot attempts (15 of 23)
-J.R. Smith scored 13 points off the Nuggets' bench
-Redick played the remaining 46:25 of the game after Carter left with his injury; Mickael Pietrus was also unavailable with a sprained ankle
-Marcin Gortat was the only other Magic reserve to score with 2 points in 5 minutes
-The Nuggets' bench combined to shoot 13 of 20 from the field
-The Magic had twice as many free throw attempts than the Nuggets (22-11)
-With Cleveland's win over Sacramento, the Cavaliers magic number to clinching the number one seed is down to three
-With Atlanta's win over Indiana and Boston' loss to San Antonio, the Hawks and Celtics are tied for the third seed, with the Magic's magic number to clinching the second seed at five

Here is the complete game recap and box score from nba.com.

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 11:09 PM  

5 Comments:

  • At 11:30 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Redick and Anderson certainly stepped up their games and were outstanding and very efficient in leading the Magic to victory. Kudos to J.J. for playing so well for 46+ minutes.

    Great to see that Anderson's confidence is back after sitting for so long. What a weapon he is offensively because of his range, and he is a very good rebounder also.

    I don't know what this means for Brandon Bass, as he played decent off the bench for several games during the Magic's resurgence in March, but it'll be hard for him to get many minutes now with Anderson playing so well.

    Hopefully VC's injury is nothing serious, and that the upcoming days off will help heal it. The Magic should err on the side of caution if necessary. I'm glad they are sitting Pietrus until he is fully healed and won't re-aggravate anything.

    Jameer had a nice second half after a mediocre first half.

    Another tough shooting night for Rashard, but hopefully he can get it going again as he showed recently with the 3 games in a row of 20+ points.

     

  • At 2:06 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    What a performance from JJ! The all-around game is what surprised me the most and RA was obviously really good too. When it comes to the playing time between RA and BB,SVG has shown a pattern. When RA's shot stopped falling a couple of months ago SVG went with bass who had been on the bench all season,he played well and stayed in the rotation. When BB's defense started struggling last week SVG went back to RA to give him a look,RA had been shooting the ball much better when he came in the last couple of blowouts so im sure SVG wanted to reward him for his efforts. Basically the one who does what he does the best will play.

     

  • At 10:07 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    What J.J. did was amazing not only in terms of efficiency but also in terms of how well-conditioned he is. I remember months back when I wrote that J.J. is probably the fittest player on this Magic team. playing 46 minutes at the pace that he has played is amazing. Otis Smith would be a fool to let J.J. find his way to the free agency market. His contract should be extended before the season's end.

    As for Ryan and Brandon, I disagree with Coach Van Gundy's 'either or' policy, which means he has self-imposed a cap on the number of players he would use per each game. That is a simplistic view, and SVG is a lot smarter than that.

     

  • At 1:27 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Well said matt!

     

  • At 11:57 PM, Blogger Nicole said…

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