Before last night's game, DeShawn Stevenson talked to Keyon Dooling. After last night's game, Stevenson talked to the media. Read some of his comments below.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Not a traditional open thread today, guys. Instead, I thought we could take a look at some postgame comments from the players after last night's Magic/Wizards game. First, from the victorious Washington team:

"I don't know what Dwight was eating, but he had a horrible game," said Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson, who drew the first foul against Howard with a driving layup. "He usually doesn't do that."

He's been doing that more lately, actually. Dwight's averaging 3.8 fouls in his last five games, up from his season average of 3.4. He's been whistled for five fouls or more four times this month, after just one such game in February. To be frank, it's ridiculous how much Dwight's defenders get away with defensively. The difference between what they're allowed to do and what Dwight's allowed to do is astonishing. One would think that after four years in the league, and two straight years as an All-Star, Dwight would get the benefit of the whistle every now and again.

"This is like a statement to them that we are not going to be pushovers," Haywood said. "After D.C., they probably thought they could do whatever to us."

It's not like your team stomped us, Brendan. We didn't take you lightly or anything; we just had a rough night. Kudos, though, for outplaying Dwight Howard for the second time in three meetings this season. [Insert Kryptonite joke here].

And from our guys:

"When he's in foul trouble like that, it throws off his rhythm, and to some extent it throws the rhythm of the whole team off a little because he's such a big part of what we do," said Jameer Nelson. "We just have to do a better job of playing without him."

Jameer is absolutely right about rhythm. Dwight is easily flustered when he thinks the officials are treating him unfairly. It reflects in his body language and in the way he plays. There's not much the Magic can do when he's not on the floor. I love Adonal Foyle, but he's not going to draw defenders away from our outside shooters, nor is he going to hit 60% of his field goals. I'd like to see Rashard Lewis post-up on the left block when Dwight isn't in the game. Sure, it means one less shooter on the perimeter for us, but Rashard is a crafty scorer down there, and not a bad passer.

"Other than Turkoglu and [Keith] Bogans, it was a miserable, miserable, miserable offensive night," Coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We had trouble getting good shots, and when we got them, we couldn't make them."

It doesn't sound like Coach is worried, nor should he be. We aren't going to miss our open shots every night. I mean, Rashard isn't going to consistently shoot 2-of-13.

"People can beat up on me and nothing happens," said Howard, who failed to crack double figures in scoring for just the third time all season. "But when I touch somebody I get calls. I try (to talk to the referees) but it doesn't seem to do any good. I really can't focus on that."

Richie Adubato, a former Magic coach and current radio analyst, thinks Dwight should stop complaining to the officials after every call. His theory is the officials will tune Dwight out if he does that, and may even get so annoyed with him that they'll call him for a technical foul. There's probably some validity to this line of thinking. Maybe Stan Van Gundy and Otis Smith should take up the fight on Dwight's behalf by sending tapes of questionable calls to the league office, if they haven't already.

For your consideration: a YouTube video of Pau Gasol flopping THREE TIMES in the Magic's loss to the Lakers last month, and getting away with it each time. I wish there were similar videos to document the similarly cowardly, disgraceful, reprehensible "defense" of Joel Pryzbilla and Al Harrington. At least we have a photo of Baby Al doing the deed, courtesy Phelan M. Ebanhack of the Associated Press.

Sources: Nelson and Stevenson quotes from this article in the Orlando Sentinel. Haywood and Van Gundy quotes from this article in the Orlando Sentinel. Howard quote from this article Florida Today.

Hedo Turkoglu shoots for 2 of his career-high 39 points on Wednesday night. His performance wasn't enough, as the Magic fell to the Washington Wizards, 87-86.
Photo by Gary W. Green, the Orlando Sentinel

Well, that was ugly.

Despite a career-high 39 points from Hedo Turkoglu, the birthday boy, the Orlando Magic dropped a home game to the Washington Wizards tonight. Taking away Turkoglu's shooting numbers, the Magic shot 15-of-57 (.263) from the field and 7-of-26 (.269) from three-point range. And yet, we still had a chance to win the game at the end. That could be a testament to one of any number of things:

• The brilliance of Hedo Turkoglu.
• The brilliance of Washington's defense. (97.7 d-rating)
• The brilliance of our defense. (98.9 d-rating)
• How truly awful this game must have been to watch.

I joked in the game preview that we Magic fans would be better off not seeing the game if the Wizards wore their gold alternate uniforms. Well, they did, which was bad enough, but the basketball itself was worse.

If you want to look at the bright side, consider that we weathered uncharacteristically bad shooting night from Rashard Lewis (2-of-13) and one of the worst offensive performances of Dwight Howard's career (3 points, 1-of-6 shooting, 5 fouls, 4 turnovers) and the game still came down to the final possession, when Turkoglu missed an off-balance layup just before the final horn.

I really don't think we can take too much away from this game, though. As Hill2Howard said at MagicMadness, "the Wiz wont catch Orlando in a bad night every night." We'll have a chance to show them up in the final game of the season. By then, the Wizards should be fairly well beat-up, as they have a five-game-in-seven-night road trip out West to finish out March, as well as a game apiece left against Boston and Detroit.

Worth noting:

• Turk set his previous career high, 37, in a losing effort.
• The loss tonight ruins our previously perfect record when holding opponents to 95 points or fewer; we were 26-0.
• For the second straight game, Maurice Evans and Keith Bogans alternated playing entire quarters. Evans played quarters one and three, and Bogans played quarters two and four.
• Despite the fact that Brian Cook was not in foul trouble, Stan Van Gundy opted to sub Pat Garrity in for Rashard Lewis when Lewis needed his customary third-quarter breather. Including tonight, Cookie Monster has shot 8-of-28 in his past five games.
• Jameer Nelson finished with 9 assists and just 3 turnovers.
• If we don't crush Philadelphia on Friday night, I'm going to hit the Panic Button.

Possible open thread tomorrow, if I can come up with a topic. Anyway, check out the salary table I put up in the left sidebar. My life: Where boredom happens.

UPDATE: The open thread concerns the postgame comments from some of the players on both teams last night. Read it here.

	vs.
45-24		33-33
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Antonio Daniels
Maurice Evans	SG	D. Stevenson
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Caron Butler
Rashard Lewis	PF	Antawn Jamison
Dwight Howard	C	Brendan Haywood
Season series:
3 Nov 2007: Magic 94, Wizards 82
5 Mar 2008: Magic 122, Wizards 92

It'll be a potential first-round playoff matchup for the Orlando Magic as they take on Washington Wizards tonight. The Magic have won five straight games and are really surging toward the playoffs. The Wizards, which hold a firm grip on second-place in the Southeast, recently got back to .500 by going 3-0 last week. A lazy loss to the third-place Atlanta Hawks on Monday night set Washington squarely at .500.

Although we've handled Washington fairly well in the two previous meetings this season, especially in the 30-point beatdown we handed them two weeks ago, we can't discount them. Like us, they recently managed to defeat the Cavaliers, and they have their All-Star small forward, Caron Butler, back from a hip injury; Butler did not play in these teams' previous meeting. The Wiz may be a mere 33-33, but they can hang with us for sure, and stand a solid chance of ending our winning streak if we don't come out prepared. It's hard to imagine calling a game against a playoff-bound team a "trap game," but such is the nature of the Eastern Conference.

There's a good chance Gilbert Arenas will return from knee surgery tonight. Agent Zero hasn't played since November 16th, but said during the telecast of the Wizards/Cavaliers game last week that he was all set to make his season debut that night, unannounced, before team doctors changed his plans at the last minute. Arenas told the Washington Post, "A hyped game will actually get me out there." Well, it figures to be a playoff atmosphere in the Amway Arena tonight, and I'm sure Gilbert would love to pop-off for about 40 points in a Wizards victory just to showcase his swag. UPDATE: Bold 'N' Blue passes along word that Arenas is out tonight.

Tipoff's at 7 on FSN Florida, luckily enough; if the Wizards are wearing their Duracel-inspired gold uniforms, we're better off not seeing the game.

Go Magic.

UPDATE: Bullets Forever has its game preview up. Pradamaster is afraid of the Magic:

Let's not mince words, they're a contender: The Magic officially scare me.

They've won eight of their last nine, all in blowout fashion.  Sure, none of those wins were against a good team (except Cleveland), but they have been blowouts, which is how good teams are separated from mediocre teams.  They've improved their defense, surrendering over 100 points only three times during the stretch.  That officially makes them tough, because offensively, they're easily the best team in the Eastern Conference, and as the best shooting team, they can burn you no matter how well you guard them.</p?   <p&gtI'd rather face Cleveland at this point, to be honest [....]