Brent Beck, a die-hard Pacers fan, really wants Indiana to make a move for J.J. Redick, as he explains in a guest post at Indy Cornrows. Considering the Pacers a) are one of my favorite teams, b) Redick is one of my favorite players, and c) the Magic have no use for him, I heartily endorse the idea of sending Redick to Indy. But, as in any trade proposal, one must consider what the Pacers have to offer the Magic. And there's an obvious answer:

Jeff Foster.

File photo by Tim Strattman, the Associated Press

The Magic need help at power forward and center. Foster, a nine-year veteran with a career PER of 14.4, plays both positions. And unlike Brian Cook, the Magic's presumed backup four next season, Foster bangs around the boards with the best of them. And I really mean "the best": he lead the NBA in Offensive Rebounding Rate (the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player snags while on the floor) in each of the last two seasons. His career ORR, 15.31, is fifth-best in the history of the league and tops among active players, even more highly paid ones like Erick Dampier, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Ben Wallace. And, wouldn't you know it, the Magic's biggest weakness in their first season under Stan Van Gundy was their inability to clean up their own misses: although they were nigh-elite on the defensive boards, they were horrendous on the offensive ones, finishing 27th in the league in Offensive Rebounding Rate.

Foster's presence has a tremendous impact on the Pacers' rebounding abilities as a team. Data from 82games.com show that when he's on the floor, they grab 50.9% of available rebounds, a 4.7% improvement from their average when he's off the floor. Don't let the advertising quacks fool you. "Foster" is not "Australian for 'beer,'" but rather "San Antonian for 'Rebound.'"

As always, we must consider finances when discussing potential trades. Foster's $5.70 million salary next season more than double's Redick's ($2.14 million), but the Magic can throw in a player to make the trade work. Whom might they package? Look no further than Brian Cook. At 27, he's nearly four full years younger than Foster, and while he's certainly hit his ceiling, he fits in with Indiana's younger players (average age: 26.7) better than Foster did. Additionally, Cook's specialty, three-point shooting, will come in handy in Indiana. Only the Warriors and the Magic attempted more triples last season than the Pacers did, yet they finished eighth in three-point percentage. As a bonus for Indiana, his style contrasts nicely with Ike Diogu, the so-called "steal" in the trade that sent Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to the Warriors, who plays more of a low-post game.

And if all those reasons didn't do it for you, maybe this one will. Foster's contract expires at the end of next season, giving the Magic cap room to re-sgn Hedo Turkoglu, who will almost certainly use his opt-out clause to negotiate a contract which would reward him for his exemplary play of late. Or, if Turk decides he would rather not stay with the Magic, or if the Magic decide Turk's asking price is too high, they can try to re-sign Foster.

To me, this trade is a low-risk, high-reward proposition for the Magic. They exchange one young player who doesn't play and a veteran who doesn't fit their needs for a veteran who does fit their needs. Heck, I wouldn't mind throwing a future first-round pick into the deal if it would appease the Pacers.

When the Magic traded Trevor Ariza to the Lakers for Maurice Evans and Cook, ESPN's John Hollinger liked the deal because it was the sort of minor move that above-average teams make to take themselves to the next level. Obtaining Foster would be a similar, seemingly minor move for the Magic, but one that would pay even greater dividends. Every serious contender in the NBA gets contributions from role-players: Detroit has Antonio McDyess; San Antonio has Kurt Thomas; Boston has... well, it has three future Hall-of-Famers, so it doesn't count; and the Lakers have Derek Fisher. If the Magic want to make the most of the primes of their stars, they'd do well to acquire Foster (or another similar role-player) who may be slightly past his.

	vs.
42-34		47-28
Quicken Loans Arena
3:00 PM
ESPN
Probable starters:
Delonte West	PG	Jameer Nelson
Devin Brown	SG	Maurice Evans
LeBron James	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Ben Wallace	PF	Rashard Lewis
Z. Ilgauskas	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
14 Nov 2007: Magic 117, Cavaliers 116
11 Feb 2008: Cavaliers 118, Magic 111
17 Mar 2008: Magic 104, Cavaliers 90

The Cavaliers somehow blew a 17-point lead to the lottery-bound Bulls in their last game, a nationally televised affair on TNT, so they have plenty of motivation to lay the smack-down on us.

Don't forget that it starts at 3 PM on ESPN. Mike From Illinois will recap the game here.

Stan Van Gundy gives Rashard Lewis a high-five after the Orlando Magic defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-90, on Monday night. Lewis scored 21 points for Orlando.
Photo by Gary W. Green, the Orlando Sentinel

Noted NBA scribe Ira Winderman wrote this weekend that the Magic are "an  all-or-nothing jump-shooting team." In the first half of tonight's game against the Conference-rival Cleveland Cavaliers, they were "nothing." In the second half, they were "all," hitting 8 of their final 12 three-point tries to quickly erase a 10-point, third-quarter deficit. They went on to win by a final score of 104-90. Here's the boxscore.

I want to give our guys a lot of credit: they gutted out a tough win. We got of to a tough start on the offensive end -- how does 1-of-9 from the field sound to you? -- and were hampered by foul trouble on the defensive end. And when LeBron James slammed-down a Damon Jones airball towards the end of the first half to give the Cavaliers a five-point lead, I had the feeling that Cleveland was headed for an easy win.

Not so, however. Our six three-pointers in the third quarter -- including five in a three-minute span -- swung the momentum back our way. We started the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run, and after that I never doubted the outcome. When our guys are nailing their threes, especially at home, we're a tough team to beat.

But it wasn't just the three-ball that kept us afloat. The Cavaliers, even with the recently acquired Ben Wallace and Joe Smith, could not contain Dwight Howard down low. Dwight shot just 6-of-14 from the field -- due in large part to some hacks by Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas that went uncalled -- but made up for it with an 11-of-15 showing from the foul line. Howard also got Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao in foul trouble. In fact, the only negative in Dwight's game tonight was his tendency to goaltend: he was called for three illegal swats in tonight's game, and none of those shots had a prayer of going in anyway. Indeed, with some better shooting nights from Hedo Turkoglu (5-of-16) and Jameer Nelson (2-of-12), as well as some shot-blocking discretion from Howard, this win certainly could have been by a much wider margin.

Tonight's convincing, come-from-behind victory over a well-respected opponent puts the Magic 21 games over .500, makes them winners of 5 straight games, and owners of a 12-3 record since the All-Star break. Yes, many of the wins in that stretch have been over inferior teams -- New York, Atlanta, the L.A. Clippers, Miami, and Indiana, to name a few -- the Magic are at least taking care of business, which is something they failed to do earlier this season when they lost to Atlanta and to Indiana. They've also won some quality games in this most recent stretch, including the 18-point drubbing of Detroit and tonight's win over Cleveland.

The Magic have Tuesday off before playing the Wizards on Wednesday. Let's hope they don't rest on their laurels, though. The real season doesn't begin for another month.

Final notes:

• Stan Van Gundy called upon Brian Cook when Rashard Lewis picked up his second foul in the first period. Cook played only a shade under 7 minutes, but that didn't stop him from taking 7 shots and committing 3 fouls...
• ...which lead to significant playing time for Pat Garrity. The most-tenured current Magic player scored 5 points and grabbed 3 rebounds tonight, and worked his tail off on both ends of the floor. Hats-off to him, and hats-off to Stan Van Gundy for trusting him enough.
• Cleveland is a very poor offensive team. For whatever reason, Delonte West brought the ball up on the majority of the Cavaliers' possessions, and frequently the shot-clock ran down to below 10 seconds before the offense really started moving. Luckily for them, they get plenty of second-chance opportunities, and they play stifling defense.
• A Saint Patrick's Day prank? Both of the numeral 8s on Pat Garrity's jersey were upside-down tonight. Here's the front view from Gary W. Green and the back view from Fernando Medina. Notice how the larger "hole" in the 8 is on top in both instances? That's wrong.
• Jameer Nelson was straight-up awful tonight. West, his college teammate at Saint Joseph's, got the best of him frequently, even managing to block two of his shots. And one of West's 2 offensive boards came after Nelson simply forgot to box him out. He ran the offense okay, I guess, but one of his three turnovers was an absolutely boneheaded outlet pass that he telegraphed. Cleveland's Sasha Pavlovic snatched it with ease, then threw the ball ahead to LeBron James for a three-pointer.

	vs.
44-24		38-29
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD, NBA TV
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Delonte West
Maurice Evans	SG	Sasha Pavlovic
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	LeBron James
Rashard Lewis	PF	Ben Wallace
Dwight Howard	C	Z. Ilgauskas
Season series:
14 Nov 2007: Magic 117, Cavaliers 116
11 Feb 2008: Cavaliers 118, Magic 111

Pretty big game for the Magic tonight as they take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at home. Cleveland seems to be the consensus third-best team in the East, despite the fact that we have a better record. Tonight, we have a real chance to make NBA observers take notice: we are better than the Cavaliers, King LeBron James be damned.

Brian Schmitz has a nifty appraisal of the situation in today's Orlando Sentinel. Many Magic personnel cite Cleveland's improbable run to the NBA Finals last year as evidence they can have similar success this season:

Magic General Manager Otis Smith had posters of the NBA trophy taped throughout the club's training facility and inside each player's locker. He still talks of the team winning a title.

When people roll their eyes, Smith's pat answer is the 2006-07 Cavaliers.

"Who had Cleveland making it last year? Anything can happen," he says.

Of course, the article hardly mentions the fact that San Antonio made quick work of Cleveland in the Finals, which is why I'd rather not invoke the Cavaliers' ill-fated championship run last season. For one thing, they got lucky with their first- and second-round playoff matchups, drawing injury-depleted Washington and disinterested New Jersey, respectively. One could argue their pairing against Detroit was favorable also, given the Pistons' complacency. So no, I don't want us to be like the Cavs were last year: I want us to be better, and a win over this year's Cavs tonight would go a long way toward proving that.

What worries me most about tonight, other than the ever-present threat of LeBron James scoring 50 points, is Anderson Varejao defending Dwight Howard. Varejao is a flop artist, and Howard has had lots of problems with offensive fouls lately. Hopefully, Joey Crawford, Monty McCutcheon, and Olandis Poole -- the officials tonight -- won't fall for Varejao's theatrics. Otherwise, Dwight's going to find himself stuck to the bench, leaving Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis to carry the load offensively. Lewis should have a fairly easy go at it, though. Ben Wallace is a solid defender, but he's not going to step out to the three-point line to guard Lewis.

Tipoff's at 7 on Sun Sports and NBATV. Go Magic.

Not to pile on Otis Smith, but the Magic are the only Eastern Conference team currently over .500 not to make at least one roster move to improve itself in the past month. To recap:

1. Boston Celtics (44-12)
   • Sign forward P.J. Brown out of retirement
   • Sign free-agent guard Sam Cassell (bought-out by the Los Angeles Clippers, a decision with which ClipperSteve does not agree)
2. Detroit Pistons (42-16)
   • Acquire guard Juan Dixon from the Toronto Raptors for center Primoz Brezec
   • Sign free-agent center Theo Ratliff (bought-out by the Minnesota Timberwolves)
3. Orlando Magic (37-23)
4. Toronto Raptors (32-24)
   • Acquire center Primoz Brezec from the Detroit Pistons for guard Juan Dixon
5. Cleveland Cavaliers (32-26)
   • Acquire forwards Joe Smith and Ben Wallace from the Chicago Bulls for foward Drew Gooden and guard Larry Hughes
   • Acquire forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Seattle SuperSonics for forwards Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble

Okay, maybe the Raptors getting Brezec from the Pistons doesn't count, but the fact remains: the teams around us are at least trying to improve, and we aren't. The Magic, as constituted the day of the trade deadline, were certainly not talented enough to defeat Boston, Detroit, or Toronto in a seven-game series. Now? They're arguably not talented enough to take down Cleveland, either. Even more troublesome is the fact that Toronto and Cleveland are potential first-round playoff opponents for us, which makes the possibility of an early vacation for us much more immediate.

As MME wrote at Bold 'n' Blue, the Magic are the only team in the NBA this season to beat Boston and Detroit twice each. However, one win against each of those teams came on a game-winning shot, and another came down to a missed last-second shot by the opponent. Only one, the most recent victory over the Pistons, was decisive by any stretch of the imagination.

On the day of the trade deadline, I considered Detroit the most formidable of any of these plus-.500 teams. Now that Boston has added two talented, savvy, playoff-proven veterans, I'm even more frightened of them. In last season's playoffs, Detroit's Chris Webber and Dale Davis (who no longer play for the Pistons) hacked Dwight Howard into a funk he could not shake. They intimidated him. The Celtics now have P.J. Brown, who can similarly pester Dwight. Celtics coach Doc Rivers can also dust-off Scot Pollard, who is good for six fouls a game. Meanwhile, Sam Cassell has 115 games of playoff experience, and still has the skills to pick-apart younger point guards; see this season's 35-point undressing of the Pacers' Jamaal Tinsley for proof.

Theo Ratliff is finally healthy, and he gives the Pistons the same toughness that Davis and Webber provided them last year. He's still a good shot-blocker, and can be trusted in late-game situations; in the fourth quarter of Game 7 in a playoff series, with Rasheed Wallace fouled out, Pistons coach Flip Saunders will go with Ratliff over emerging youngster Amir Johnson 11 times out of 10.

Cleveland is similarly tougher with Ben Wallace and Joe Smith. Even with Wallace's declining skills, he's still more of a banger than Drew Gooden ever was or ever will be. Adding those two guys to a frontcourt that already boasted Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao makes the Cavaliers a team built for hard-nosed playoff basketball. Also, they have LeBron James.

As for Toronto, they're already a better team. As ESPN.com's John Hollinger mentioned yesterday (Insider, although it's free for right now), Toronto has a better point differential than we do, and point differential is a better indicator of a team's ability that won-loss record is:

Let's put it more simply: The Raps aren't beating people, they're killing them. Toronto topped Milwaukee by 31, Washington by 39, Miami by 32, Minnesota by 23 and 22, New Jersey by 18, Orlando by 17, and New York by 23. In a 16-game stretch, half their games were blowout wins.

Sum it up and you'll see in that modest-looking 16-game stretch [during which Toronto is 10-6] the Raptors are outscoring opponents by an impressive 10 points per game.

Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard play well against each other, so the real difference-making factor for the Raptors in a series against us is the point guard tandem of Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford. There's no way that either Jameer Nelson or Keyon Dooling can shut both of those guys down; they get into the lane at will and have the three-point shooters to make defenses pay for collapsing on them. The Raptors, as a team, shoot 40% from beyond the arc, is tops in the NBA.

So should we just give up and concede the conference to these teams? No, of course not. We can beat any of these teams in a playoff series, but the odds are decidedly not in our favor. After reading this post by Matt at Hardwood Paroxysm, I decided to contact him to chat about D-League players who could help Orlando. Click "Permalink" below to read what he had to say.

Continue reading this post »

	vs.
32-20		28-22
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Larry Hughes
Maurice Evans	SG	LeBron James
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Ira Newble
Rashard Lewis	PF	Drew Gooden
Dwight Howard	C	Z. Ilgauskas

The Cavaliers got trounced last night, 113-83, on their home floor. Already missing Daniel Gibson, Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic, and Anderson Varejao, they lost Damon Jones to a sprained ankle and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to back spasms. They're injury-ravaged, on the second night of a back-to-back, and not that great a team.

I've been ill (as in "physically sick," not as in "cool" or whatever those kids call it these days) all weekend and I'm still recovering. My post output might drop this week. Sorry about that.

The game's at 7, and it's Brian Cook and Maurice Evans autographed photo night at the Amway Arena. Get excited!

...and go Magic.

UPDATE: Happy 32nd birthday to Tony Battie! Too bad he's not healthy to play against his former team...

The Magic's Jameer Nelson drives to the basket against the Cavaliers' Zydrunas Ilgauskas in Orlando's 117-116 victory against Cleveland
Photo by David Liam Kyle, NBAE/Getty Images

Holy freaking crap. I am going to have a heart attack if the Magic keep blowing late leads. Nevertheless, we pulled out a tight victory in overtime, with Dwight Howard nailing two clutch free throws -- yes, you read that correctly -- to win the game. Here's the boxscore.

We held a four-point lead with 20 seconds to play, then watched as LeBron James, a 63% foul shooter, hit three free throws to send the game into overtime.

I'll cut to the chase: the teams played evenly throughout overtime before Howard's free throw heroics with 5 seconds to play. On Cleveland's ensuing possession, LeBron James drove the lane, only to get tied up by Hedo Turkoglu at the buzzer, forcing a jump-ball with seven-tenths of a second remaining on the game clock. James' errant tip went out of bounds, and the Magic left The Q victorious.

Here's the tricky part: replays showed that there might have been some extracurricular activity between Turk and James on the final play. Not only did Turk reach across James' arms to force the jump-ball, but he also appeared to put his knee into James' back, causing The King to fall over. But the officials swallowed their whistles and "let the players play," to use a sports cliche. Stunned Cavaliers fans booed and jeered loudly as the teams walked off the court, with the courtside microphones picking up shouts of "You suck!" and "That was terrible!" among less printable taunts.

What a basketball game, though. It featured 19 lead changes and 11 ties. Even if we had lost, we shouldn't have gotten down on ourselves; either way, we took the defending Eastern Conference champions down to the wire on their home floor. The fact that we ended up winning -- albeit controversially -- is just icing on the cake.

I'm emotionally drained and in need of a shower, so I'll make the rest of this post brief:

• The Cavaliers are an incredible defensive team. Late in the game, the Magic couldn't seem to get anything going. No matter where the ball was, the Cavaliers defense was there to stop it. Our only hope was that they'd hack Dwight, and that Dwight would hit his free throws. We got lucky.
• Trailing by two points with two minutes to play in overtime, the Magic ran a play for... Keith Bogans?!?! He came off a screen, caught the ball just to the right of the three-point line, and drilled a jumper to give the Magic the lead. KEITH BOGANS?!?!
• LeBron James had a triple-double with 39 points, 13 boards, and 14 assists. I want to know: have the Magic ever won an overtime game in which an opponent posted a triple-double?
• I'd like to thank Mike Brown for letting Sasha Pavlovic shoot threes late in the game. Was he unaware that Daniel Gibson, whom I said could be a Magic-killer, was 5-of-5 in the game, including 4-of-4 on three-pointers? Thank you, Mike!
• Jameer Nelson: 21 points, 11 assists, 1 turnover. He has two double-doubles already this year, which is two more than he had last year. I feel silly for ever questioning him.
• If these two teams meet in the Playoffs, it's going to be fun to watch.
  • Cavaliers. Fun to watch. I can't believe I just said that.
• Hedo Turkoglu has officially come back down to Earth. After punishing teams in earlier games with hot shooting, Turk has cooled off considerably. He scored 13 points tonight, but needed 15 shots to do it. And last night, he turned the ball over 8 times. Wake up, Hedo! You're killing me!
• It wasn't just the two free throws late that Dwight hit; he was 13-of-16 on the night. Can he make these high-percentage free-throw nights more frequent? One can hope.
• Before I forget: 35 points and 16 rebounds for D-12 tonight. Explain to me how one can rationalize voting in Shaquille O'Neal over him to the All-Star game.

The Magic get a day off tomorrow before facing Richard Jefferson (?!) and his Nets in New Jersey on Friday.

	vs.
4-4		6-2
Quicken Loans Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Daniel Gibson	PG	Jameer Nelson
Larry Hughes	SG	Keith Bogans
LeBron James	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Drew Gooden	PF	Rashard Lewis
Zydrunas Ilgauskas	C	Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: The Magic face the Cavaliers in an early-season matchup of Eastern Conference contenders.

Know your enemy: The Cavs may only be at .500, but their losses have come against some of the West's best teams: Dallas, Phoenix, Utah, and Denver. Then again, their wins have come against New York, Golden State, Sacramento, and the L.A. Clippers, so it's hard to tell if they're really that good.

Useless information: Drew Gooden doesn't have that thing on the back of his head anymore.

Bullet points:

• Sun Sports! Huzzah!
• Tonight marks the beginning of a week's worth of games against likely playoff teams. The Magic make a stop in New Jersey to face the Nets on Friday night, fly home to play the Celtics on Sunday, then face New Orleans and San Antonio on the road. The next easily winnable game for us is next Friday against the Bobcats.
• J.J. Redick won't be available tonight, not that we'd use him. With each day that passes, he reminds me more and more of Brooks Thompson.
• The Magic have fared well against the Cavaliers recently, beating them twice in the preseason without Rashard Lewis and taking two out of the teams' three meetings last year. The one loss came in a game at Cleveland last December 23rd, when LeBron James outscored the Magic by himself in the fourth quarter. Somehow, this fact does not surprise me.
• If the Magic are to win this game, they're going to have to do it on the boards. Cleveland is a poor offensive team, but they get plenty of second-chance points because Ilgauskas and Gooden are such good offensive rebounders. Dwight Howard is going to need some help on the glass tonight.
• Is it just me, or does it seem like Cleveland's Daniel Gibson is the kind of player who can torch the Magic? He's like a younger, non-crappy Jannero Pargo because he's small, quick, and hits a ton of threes. If he goes nuts tonight... well, look out. There's always that old refrain: At least I have him on one of my fantasy teams.
• Maybe Dwight will make good on his promise to dunk on James, which he failed to do during the 2007 China Games.

Ugh. I stayed up for this?

Tonight's game, which started at 12:30 AM here on the East Coat, has not been pretty so far.

Bullets:

• Pat Garrity has hit a number of open jump-shots, and he's really hustling on defense also. I don't know how much he'll play this season -- injuries to Rashard Lewis and Trevor Ariza have opened the door for him this preseason -- but he's making the most of the time he's getting.
• J.J. Redick appears to be rocking a fauxhawk. It's not such a great look on him. I feel like you should know this.
• Rick Kamla, tonight's play-by-play man, is trying to set a broadcasting record for most statistics mentioned per minute.
• There haven't been as many open shots tonight. Either Cleveland's defense has tightened up from Wednesday or our offense isn't being run very effectively.
• Cringe-worthy moment number one: Pat Garrity posts up Damon Jones on the left block, takes one dribble in, then spins out and fire a fadeaway; it barely grazes the front of the iron.
• Cringe-worthy moment number two: Adonal Foyle catches the ball seemingly wide-open underneath and has no idea what to do with it. As the defense collapses on him, he leaps and lays the ball directly into the rim.
• Dwight Howard is showing soft touch in the lane with his left hand, and he's done it over 7'3" Zydrunas Ilgauskas. This is encouraging to me. Dwight is primarily a dunker, so it's great to see him developing some more finesse around the hoop.
• Cleveland is murdering us on the boards, 23-15.
• Stop me if you've heard this one before: We'd be leading this game if we could hit our freaking free-throws. 12-of-20 is not going to get it done, guys.

The second half is about to get underway.

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.