Two weeks ago, With Malice hosted Unsung Player Day. Although they invited me to participate, I never got around to writing what I wanted to. Well, better late than never.

The next time you're at a party, you can mention this fact and watch as the people to whom you're taking react with amazement^*: Of Maurice Evans' 253 field goals for the Magic this season, 73 were dunks and 80 were three-pointers. All told, dunks and treys account for 60.5% of his made field goals.

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Marcin Gortat dunks down 2 of his career-high 12 points in the Orlando Magic's 103-83 win over the Washington Wizards.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The regular-season finale was everything it was cracked-up to be.

Washington benched its stars, and I get the sense the only reason DeShawn Stevenson played was to keep his consecutive games played streak alive. Meanwhile, we rested our best players: Dwight Howard didn't play after the first quarter; Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu didn't play after halftime; and Jameer Nelson didn't play at all due to a sore thumb. The result?

18 points for J.J. Redick. 12 points and 11 boards for Marcin Gortat. 8 points and 5 rebounds for James Augustine. A 20-point victory. A 52-win season.

An unmitigated success.

If anything else, this game showed two things: first, that J.J. can shoot his way out of a funk, something I wasn't sure he could do. His final total of 18 points on 14 shots isn't all that impressive, sure, but he made 7 of his last 9 shots after missing his first 5. That's a good sign. But even more encouraging is the hustle and skill Marcin Gortat displayed. The Polish rookie had 5 offensive boards, and although he missed plenty of the gimme put-backs, he showed that he might belong in the rotation someday, perhaps even as a 5-to-8 minute player next season when Howard and Adonal Foyle both need breathers.

For more on the game, check out Truth About It's liveblog over at Bullets Forever; The Orlando Sentinel's recap; and PopcornMachine's GameFlow.

Now? It's playoff time. Bring on the Raptors.

I get the sense that J.J. Redick is on his way out, or at least that he will be this summer.

From Brian Schmitz's recap of last night's win:

The club has the midlevel exception (roughly $6 million a year), but that attracts few stars. Short on bigs, [Magic GM Otis] Smith said he'd like to add another power forward "to protect Dwight."

And from Schmitz's blog today, emphasis mine:

Magic General Manager Otis Smith flatly refused to trade J.J. Redick before this season's trade deadline, but he is a little more open to moving the unhappy Duke icon now.

Smith told me that he'd look at dealing Redick either in the June draft or in another trade this summer.

Redick, frustrated with his lack of playing time, requested a trade early this season. Smith now says he doesn't rule out dealing Redick this summer, but would prefer he remain patient and stay with a promising team.

Smith might be looking for another shooting guard on the market, although Maurice Evans played well since arriving in a November trade from the L.A. Lakers.

"All of our free agents had good years," Smith said.

I'm not a math major, but I do know how to add two and two. Smith's new stance regarding Redick leads me to believe he thinks Maurice Evans is good enough to be this team's starting two-guard, and that Redick is the Magic's best trade asset to acquire what the team needs most: a true power forward, a point I drove into the ground back in February.

All that said, I doubt Redick has as much value as we think he does. If Otis thinks he can use Redick to move up in the draft, he can probably forget it. The Magic, who will probably pick in the 20s, certainly can't expect to receive a lottery pick for a little-used, undersized, two-guard who is a defensive liability... can they?

A more realistic option is trading J.J. for an established role-player. TravelerKT from Denton's board suggests shipping J.J. and Marcin Gortat to Portland for Channing Frye (stats). Those per-36-minute numbers sure are pretty, as is the PER of 14.7, which makes him a "pretty good player" according to John Hollinger's rating scale. As a bonus, his rebound rate (the percentage of available rebounds he grabs) is 15.5, 47th in the league this season.

Not much is certain about the Magic's offseason maneuvering, and with the playoffs and draft still to come, it's probably too early to speculate. But it indeed appears as though J.J. Redick's days as part of the Orlando Magic are nearing an end.

	vs.
51-30		43-38
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Antonio Daniels
Maurice Evans	SG	D. Stevenson
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Darius Songaila
Rashard Lewis	PF	Antawn Jamison
Dwight Howard	C	Brendan Haywood
Season series:
3 Nov 2007: Magic 94, Wizards 82
5 Mar 2008: Magic 112, Wizards 92
19 Mar 2008: Wizards 87, Magic 86

Neither team has anything to play for except pride. I don't expect to see too much of Dwight, Hedo, or Rashard tonight. Granted, Stan Van Gundy said after the game last night that he always prefers to be on the winning side of the scoreboard, but I don't think he'll mind losing tonight, if that is indeed the result.

Hopefully, the inconsequentiality of this game will result in PLENTY of minutes for J.J. Redick, James Augustine, and Marcin Gortat. Yes, the fans pay to see the Big Guys, but the end-of-the-bench players are easy to root for, too. Especially J.J. Let me go ahead and start the chant:

J!-J!-RED!-ICK! clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.

J!-J!-RED!-ICK! clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.

Check out SB Nation's Wizards blog, Bullets Forever, for their P.O.V. and to get another look at the SBN 2.0 platform. We make the switch this Friday.

Tip's at 7 on Sun Sports. If you're going to the game, give the guys a huge ovation. And say hi to the guy in the lower bowl who always wears a Brian Cook jersey.

Go Magic.

Maurice Evans shoots against in the Magic's 121-105 win over the Hawks on Tuesday night. Evans scored a career-high 27 points to help the Magic win for their first win it Atlanta in their past six visits.
Photo by Gregory Smith, the Associated Press

From my preview of this game yesterday...

So yes indeed, our guys need to have their focus at the foul-line tonight if they hope to earn their 51st victory of the season. They'll also have to find some way to stop Joe Johnson, whose scoring output has increased (24, 27, 34) in each game against the Magic. Maurice Evans and Keith Bogans have their work cut out for them.

So, how'd that work out? We shot 72% from the foul line and held Joe Johnson to 10 points, only 2 in the second half. Maurice Evans nearly tripled Johnson's output, with a career-high 27 points, and 15 in the third quarter alone, helping the Magic turn a four-point halftime deficit into a 9-point advantage after three periods. Kudos also to Jameer Nelson, who scored 7 of his 14 points in the period.

We needed Evans' hot shooting tonight. Dwight Howard couldn't get anything going offensively, and didn't seem too engaged in the action. He finished with 13 rebounds, but easily could have snagged 3 more had he not simply given up on them. He also seemed frustrated that the Hawks were allowed to hack him with impunity. That's fine, though. The officials let him get away with some, uh, extracurricular contact also.

It really is hard to complain about this win. The Hawks used a 14-1 run at the start of the second quarter to take control of the game, and at halftime it looked as though we were headed toward our 31st loss of the season. Fortunately, our starters were motivated in the third quarter, asserted themselves, and retook the lead. As a result, Stan Van Gundy was able to empty the bench in the fourth quarter: J.J. Redick scored 11 points on 6 shots and Keyon Dooling dished 7 assists in the period, finishing with 9 on the game. The only non-rotation player not to see action in the fourth was James Augustine, who didn't make the most of his four first-half minutes. Pat Garrity got the call instead.

Be sure to check out Brian Schmitz's recap at the Orlando Sentinel, which sheds some light on the Magic's free-agent preferences this summer. You might be surprised by what team president Bob Vander Weide thinks about Jameer Nelson.

So the Magic won and managed to rest their starters. SUCCESS. Let's see if they can do the same in the season finale against Washington this evening.

Fifty is nifty. Here's Mike's recap. - BQR

For the first time since the 1995-'96 season, the Magic have achieved 50 victories in a season, thanks to a 104-84 victory over the Bulls.  The Magic led from start to finish and put the Bulls away in the fourth quarter while leading by as many as 24 points as they outscored Chicago 22-10 in the final period.  The Magic led 36-24 at the end of the first quarter as they shot 11 of 14 (78.6%), including 5 of 7 from 3 pt range.  Chicago cut the Magic lead to 53-48 at the half and trailed 82-74 after three quarters before the Magic put the game away in the final period.

Hedo Turkoglu was the overall star of the game for the Magic, as he scored 24 points with 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.  Dwight Howard was a big factor down low again, scoring 13 first quarter points and finished with 19 points in just three quarters.  Even though he attempted just four field goals, Howard was fouled repeatedly trying to shoot down low and made a very respectable 13 of 17 free throws.

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	vs.
49-29		19-59
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Randy Foye
Maurice Evans	SG	Marko Jaric
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Kirk Snyder
Rashard Lewis	PF	Ryan Gomes
Dwight Howard	C	Al Jefferson
Season series:
6 Nov 2007: Magic 111, Timberwolves 103

We should have no trouble with Minnesota at all. The Timberwolves are a decent rebounding team (12th in offensive rebound rate, 15th in defensive rebound rate), but don't do anything else well. They have Al Jefferson, who'd be an All-Star if he played for a team anywhere close to .500. He's one of only four players in the league this year averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds; Dwight Howard, Antawn Jamison, and Carlos Boozer are the others.

Jefferson is a poor defender, though. In an improbable victory over the Suns earlier this year, Jefferson scored 39 points, but allowed Amare Stoudemire to score 33.... on 14-of-16 from the field. Dwight Howard will destroy Jefferson tonight, provided that his teammates do a good enough job of getting him the ball.

They also have free-agent-to-be Ryan Gomes, who can play either forward position and is a solid "glue guy," the kind of role-player I'd like to see us sign this summer. But he told Hoopsworld he wants to stay in Minnesota. What a shame.

I get a feeling like we'll get to see plenty of J.J. Redick, Carlos Arroyo, Pat Garrity, and James Augustine tonight. It's our last game against a Western team, so if there's ever a time to rest the starters, it's tonight.

Go Magic. Get that 50th win, and we can all celebrate with free Dunkin' Donuts Saturday morning.

Here's Mike's recap from tonight's Magic/Bulls game. Thanks, Mike! - BQR

Looking to erase the stench of the awful loss to the Knicks Sunday night, the Magic (49-29, 24-15 home) got off to another slow start in this game, as Chicago jumped out to a 18-10 lead, and Magic C Dwight Howard had to sit with two quick fouls.  Howard then returned and caught fire in the second quarter, as he scored 16 points in the second as the Magic led at the half 62-49.  The Bulls were able to cut into the Magic lead and get within 78-70 with under two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but from that point on, the Magic pulled away quickly and dominated, outscoring the Bulls 37-13 the rest of the way for a 115-83 win.

The focal point of the Magic's offense against Chicago was Dwight Howard.  He did an excellent job setting up down low, the Magic players did a great job in getting the ball to him, and Howard was quick and decisive when he got the ball, either shooting that nice little jump-hook off the glass or dunking the ball, as the Bulls had no answer for Howard, who finished with 30 points on 12 of 15 FG shooting along with 14 rebounds.

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	vs.
48-29		30-47
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Kirk Hinrich
Maurice Evans	SG	Larry Hughes
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Luol Deng
Rashard Lewis	PF	Tyrus Thomas
Dwight Howard	C	Joakim Noah
Season series:
31 Dec 2007: Magic 112, Bulls 110
15 Jan 2008: Magic 112, Bulls 88

Both combatants tonight are coming off inexcusable losses. The Magic fell to the Knicks on Sunday night, and the Bulls dropped a game to the Heat last night. Losing to the Knicks is bad, but to the Heat? Well, we certainly shouldn't have trouble with the Bulls then.

Not so fast. Bulls guards Larry Hughes and Ben Gordon have each scored 40 points against us this season, although Hughes was still a Cavalier when he did that. Still, they've given us problems in the past, and we can't overlook them.

Dwight Howard will play despite taking an elbow from Marcin Gortat in practice yesterday. If Brian Schmitz had his way, J.J. Redick would play 20-to-25 minutes tonight. I wouldn't bet on it.

Mike From Illinois will have the recap for you. Go Magic.

A few Sunday links...

• Don't forget to register your thoughts regarding the Magic's rumored uniform change. Scroll down on the main page or click here to get to the discussion thread.
• The Magic aren't exactly sure whether they'll face Philadelphia, Toronto, or Washington in the first round of the playoffs, so they're having to prepare for every possible matchup, writes Tim Povtak:

  Not only are they [the coaching staff] still watching film on each of the upcoming regular-season opponents, they will spend the weekend watching video of Washington, Toronto and Philadelphia games, looking to see what works and what doesn't work against each team.

• I'm way too late in linking to this post, but here it is: Hornets247 has Round 9 of the Blogger MVP/ROY rankings. There's a tie at the top of the MVP rankings! Madness!
• A few days ago, Matt from Hardwood Paroxysm posted the transcript of his interview with Dan Reed, the President of the D-League. Check it out. I wish the Magic used the D-League better than they do; they sent J.J. Redick and James Augustine down on separate occasions last year, and sent Marcin Gortat down once this year, but overall they don't seem too keen on developing their players there.
• The blog Triviality of Basketball got an exclusive interview with Adonal Foyle. The Magic's backup center discusses his favorite arenas to visit, how he defends Dwight Howard in practice, his love for poetry, and his post-basketball career plans. Cool stuff.