Drew Gooden and his considerable beard foul Dwight Howard. The Magic fouled their fans last night, flagrantly, by losing to a tired, undermanned, inferior Cleveland team. But you knew that already.
Photo by Gary W. Green, the Orlando Sentinel

• I went through my notes from the Magic's first game against Cleveland this preseason as part of the China Games. Notable passage:

  Hughes shoots over Nelson, draws foul (will be a problem all season).

  Observations like that are why they pay me the big bucks. Wait, I do this for free. Oops.

• The "little bit of conflict" between Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy has gotten a lot more press than it's worth; SportsCenter even devoted a brief segment to it. I don't think it's a big deal at all, especially now that they've talked it over (hat-tip: John Denton). As Dwight says, it's like when family members get into a disagreement with one another. It's normal. However, I agree with Brian Schmitz when he says that Stan better watch how he treats Dwight, lest he find himself unemployed.
  • By the way, the statistics indeed bear out Stan's argument that Dwight needs to focus more on his defense:
    • In games in which Dwight lead his team or tied for the team's lead in scoring, the Magic are 11-23.
    • In Magic wins, Dwight averages 20.6 points on 11.3 field goal attempts. In Magic losses, Dwight averages 23.3 points on 13.7 field goal attempts.
  • However, I still think the Magic need to do a better job of feeding him the ball late in games. Foul-line liability or not, he's a dependable scorer. And, as I noted a few weeks ago, Adam Hoff agrees.
• On a much lighter note, Dwight has posted a video of him practicing for the Sprite Slam Dunk contest happening this Saturday night. (hat-tip: FanHouse)
• The Magic have their own YouTube channel (via J.E. Skeets at Ball Don't Lie)
• The first four pictures in the Orlando Sentinel's photo gallery of last night's game depict, in order:
  • LeBron James dunking on Keith Bogans, who is on the seat of his pants;
  • LeBron James shooting over Keith Bogans, again on the seat of his pants;
  • LeBron James driving by Keith Bogans and Jameer Nelson;
  • and LeBron James driving past just Keith Bogans
  Well, you can't spell "defensive specialist" without "special," I suppose.
• Hardwood Paroxysm has Round 6 of Blogger MVP and RoY rankings. Dwight has really slipped out of contention at this point, and I didn't even have him in my top 10. Guess where Hedo Turkoglu's single vote came from...
• It wasn't from David Stern. On Sunday, the NBA's Commissioner named Rasheed Wallace to the Eastern All-Star team to replace Kevin Garnett, who will miss the game with an abdominal injury. Yes, Hedo Turkoglu is probably having a better season, but Wallace's selection doesn't bother me. His skill-set is more similar to Garnett's than Turkoglu's is. Congratulations, Rasheed.
  • Turk still has a chance to make the team if Caron Butler skips the game due to hip trouble. Josh Smith also merits consideration, but I don't buy for a second that Ray Allen does. First, he's not even having that great a season. His per 36 minute scoring (17.3) is his worst since his rookie year, when he scored 15.7 points per 36 (See basketball-reference.) Second, he doesn't even remotely play Butler's position. Third, a given team's record shouldn't dictate how many All-Stars it has. An All-Star roster spot is an individual honor, not a team one.
• The Eastern Conference Powerless Rankings are up at Basketbawful. Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm writes, "You can't spell 'elite' without Hedo. Okay, you can. That's probably a good sign as to the Magic's chances of becoming elite." There's still time before the trading deadline! We can get better! Oh, wait. Otis Smith. Yeah, Matt's got a point.
• 3QC's next post, which will feature some charts and graphs (probably just graphs), should be up later tonight or sometime tomorrow. The subject is defense, and the outlook is grim.

In rethinking my initial reaction to yesterday's win against Cleveland, I realized I was entirely too optimistic; I went so far as to write "it's hard not to get excited."

That's the complete opposite of the truth, though. The Magic played sluggishly against a team missing two of its top players and only won because the Cavaliers played their second unit for most of the fourth quarter.

Bearing that in mind, here are some reactions from yesterday's game from around the web:

• Stan Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel's Brent Hannon that he liked his team's defense, but not its sloppy play.
• Brian Windhorst, who covers the Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon-Journal, offers his Cavs-sided commentary.
• Henry Abbott posted this report from Mac Lotze, who attended the game. The crowd was pretty wild, the arena announcer had trouble with the players' names, and basketball is really catching on in China. David Stern must be pleased.
• David Friedman of 20 Second Timeout posted this thoughtfully-written review of the game. Among his observations: the Magic went on a 9-2 run when Pat Garrity entered the game for J.J. Redick. He also offers commentary on why J.J. is not going to be a good NBA player.

I like that we're seeing all these reactions. It's too bad the Magic won't get much national exposure during the actual season, when the games actually matter.

Aggressive all night, Jameer Nelson floats a teardrop over the Cleveland Cavaliers' defense
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein, NBAE/Getty Images

Well, it wasn't pretty, and it doesn't count in the standings, but we should still be happy that the Magic fought back after trailing early to defeat the Cavaliers by a final score of 90-86. Here's the box score.

I never thought I'd say this about the Magic, but they won the game at the free-throw line. After shooting just 70% as a team from the stripe last season -- 28th out of 30 teams -- the Magic shot 35-of-40 tonight, good for 87.5%. In contrast, Cleveland, which was 29th in foul shooting last season, shot a miserable 18-of-26 this morning. The plus-14 in attempts and plus-17 in makes was the real difference-maker here. Oh, and Dwight Howard was 13-of-16 from the free throw line.

That's not a misprint. Dwight Howard hit 81% of his free throws tonight. 81%. Dwight Howard. Wow.

Let me put it this way: it's encouraging that the Magic beat a 50-win team despite shooting 38.5% from the field and 27.8% from three-point range.

But even more encouraging was the play from Jameer Nelson. Playing for a contract extension, Jameer had his best game of the young preseason, scoring 24 points -- on just 10 field goal attempts, no less -- while dishing 6 assists. He would have had more of those if the shooters around him were more keyed-in. His penetration created wide-open looks for our wing players, and Keith Bogans in particular. When he wasn't dishing off penetration, he was laying the ball in or drawing contact to get to the foul line. Case in point: All 8 of Jameer's points in the decisive fourth quarter came off free throws. I'm sorry for ever doubting him. He works well in Stan Van Gundy's system, and I hope he sticks around.

Jameer Nelson has improved under Stan Van Gundy's guidance.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

As for the Cavaliers, they actually looked pretty good. Shannon Brown had 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting, which doesn't look so great, but you have to watch him to appreciate his play. He has a quick first step and a quick release on his shot. He'll make a pretty good successor to Larry Hughes once Hughes' ridiculous contract comes off the books. It'll be interesting to see how well this team plays once (if?) it gets free-agent holdouts Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao back.

I enjoyed ESPN2's broadcast. Mark Jones has a great voice and does a good job calling the game without talking too much. And in Hubie Brown, you've got one of the most knowledgeable basketball minds in our game, and you know you're going to get solid commentary from him night in and night out... even if he refers to Drew Gooden, whom he coached in Memphis a few years ago, as "Dwight Gooden" and Sasha Pavlovic as simply "Petrovic."

Okay, it may only be a preseason game against a team missing two of its top players, and against a team that sat its starters the entire fourth quarter, but it's hard not to be excited. Jameer Nelson is finally playing to his potential, Dwight Howard is dropping 31 points and 14 rebounds against a 7'3" non-stiff center, and the new offensive system is clicking.

Are you starting to believe in Magic?

The Magic pose for a team photo in Shanghai.
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein, NBAE/Getty Images

The Orlando Magic tip-off the first of three games in China this week tomorrow morning at 8 AM against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Aren't you excited?! I know I am, and so is this guy:

A man in Shanghai shows his Magic pride.
Photo by Randy Belice, NBAE/Getty Images

The three-game exhibition is part of NBA China Games 2007, which aims to spread basketball throughout the world. The Magic will take on the Cavaliers tomorrow morning and late Friday evening, with a game against the Chinese National Team sandwiched in the middle on Thursday.

Let this post serve as an open thread for general commentary on the event itself and for the first game, which will be aired at 8:00 AM on ESPN 2. Ordinarily, I wouldn't wake up before 9:00 on a Wednesday, but the Magic are on, so I guess I can make an exception. Besides, opportunities like this one don't come often; the Magic are nationally televised just once during the regular season.

My prediction? The Magic split the games with the Cavaliers and beat the Chinese team by at least 7 points.

More on the China Games:

• Adonal Foyle's travel journal for the Orlando Sentinel.
• Adidas is heavily marketing Dwight Howard, as evidenced by the huge mural in the background of this picture.
• NBA.com interviews Hedo Turkoglu.
• NBA.com interviews Jameer Nelson.
• The Magic dress better than the the Cavaliers do.

Be sure to get plenty of sleep for the game tomorrow morning. Or, if you're otherwise engaged, set the DVR. It may only be a preseason game, but given its location and purpose, the starters will play more minutes than they usually would. Plus, Dwight says he wants to dunk on LeBron James, or at least break the rim. Now that would be something to see.

UPDATE - John Denton has the Magic's starting lineup for this morning's game: Jameer Nelson, J.J. Redick, Keith Bogans, Hedo Turkoglu, and Dwight Howard. Denton predicts that this lineup will also start opening night, with Rashard Lewis getting the nod ahead of Keith Bogans.

Meanwhile, I have no idea who's starting for Cleveland. My best guess is Daniel Gibson, Larry Hughes, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. We'll see how that holds up.