Minnesota Timberwolves 102, Orlando Magic 101

by Ben Q Rock on Apr 12, 2008 11:56 PM EDT in 2007/2008 Recaps Comment 1 comment

Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic dunks the ball in an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

I could have written this recap last night, but I didn't feel like it. I had better things to do. The Magic had the same mindset earlier in the evening when they blew a fourteen-point lead to a Minnesota team still winless in thirteen tries on the road against Eastern opponents.

What'd we do well last night? Uh, we hit our three-pointers. That's about it.

We didn't rebound (46-31 overall, 29-19 in the second half)
We didn't hit our free throws (9 misses in a game we lost by a single point)
We didn't do a good enough job getting the ball to Dwight Howard when it mattered (just two field goal attempts in the fourth quarter)
We didn't close out on the Timberwolves' shooters (Randy Foye and Rashad McCants went 8-of-12 in the fourth quarter)
and overall we just didn't give a damn, which is why some of the fans in attendance booed the team as it left the floor.

Sure, there were some nice plays; Rashard Lewis' follow dunk (pictured above) was nice, as was Adonal Foyle's open-floor rejection of Corey Brewer. But overall, it was a night to forget. If we don't win our final three games in convincing fashion, I'm going to be furious. Apathy extinguished the fire that motivated this team earlier this season. Hopefully, Stan Van Gundy and the coaching staff can light it once more before the playoffs start. Otherwise, we're headed for a first-round exit.

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One of the many troubling things...

... about this loss was that all of the starters played over 30 minutes with Turkoglu, Lewis, and Howard all getting over 37 minutes, and we STILL couldn't beat the T-Wolves. The bench, which scored 37 pts against the Bulls, was outscored badly by the T-Wolves bench 37-14. Part of that is SVG's fault for not giving the reserves more playing time.

The Magic have not won a game by 8 or fewer points since February 2nd! In the playoffs, there's going to be lots of close games, and the Magic are going to have to figure out a way to win those, something they haven't done in over two months.

We all know the Magic have basically been on cruise control the last several weeks; let's hope they can turn up the intensity once the playoffs start.

by Mike from Illinois on Apr 13, 2008 5:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs