The stars align to pit Dwight Howard against two of his biggest weaknesses: the Detroit Pistions and free throw shooting, not necessarily in that order.

File photo by Paul Sancya, the Associated Press

Sportswriters wore out the Dwight Howard/Superman puns several months ago, but that won't stop me from making the obvious assertion that the big fella's Kryptonite is his lack of shooting touch, especially at the foul line. Over his four-year career, Dwight has shot 60.3% from the stripe, a number buoyed by his (relatively) stellar rookie campaign, during which he connected on 67.1% of his freebies.

Is there any hope for Dwight? Can the Magic ever hope to turn him into a reliable free throw shooter? We tackle these questions and pose a few more after the jump. Stick with us.

Continue reading this post »

	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.

	vs.
45-25		34-34
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Andre Miller
Maurice Evans	SG	Willie Green
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Andre Iguodala
Rashard Lewis	PF	Reggie Evans
Dwight Howard	C	S. Dalembert
Season series:
1 Feb 2008: Magic 108, 76ers 106
22 Feb 2008: Magic 115, 76ers 99
27 Feb 2008: 76ers 101, Magic 89

Let's see: we're at home, playing a .500 team we may later face in the first round of the playoffs. Where have I heard that one before?

Oh. Right.

Can we agree that it's not safe to overlook Philadelphia? The 76ers don't stand a chance at defeating Boston or Detroit in a seven-game series, but they'd give everyone else in the East absolute fits. We just match up poorly with them, particularly at point guard; Andre Miller and Louis Williams routinely destroy us. In fact, Miller's average of 24.7 points per game against us is his best against any Eastern opponent, and nearly 8 points higher than his season average. Ditto for Williams, who averages 15.3 points per game against us, a shade over four points higher than his usual output. So, to state the obvious: stopping Philadelphia's point guards will go a long way to securing a victory for us this evening.

Even with all that, I think we stand a good chance of winning tonight. If being limited by foul trouble and outplayed by Brendan Haywood (?!) Wednesday won't motivate Dwight Howard to punish Philadelphia, I'm not sure what will. Philadelphia is ill-equipped to stop Howard, and Rashard Lewis is due for a big night as well. I sincerely like our chances in this one.

Note that Matt Guokas, the first coach in Magic history, will be honored this evening as part of the Magic's "Commitment to the Past" program. A banner bearing his likeness will be unveiled in the concourse. I love that we're honoring Matty, and I'm not trying to take anything away from him, but I wish this organization could think of a more dignified way to honor its most important historical figures. A banner in the concourse. Great. We can be reminded of these men's greatness each time we head down to grab some nachos or to use the john. Retire some uniform numbers already! Goodness.

My buddy Lane and I will be there tonight to make complete asses of ourselves cheer the Magic, and Hedo Turkoglu in particular. We love us some Hedo. Tip's at 7 on Sun Sports. Go Magic.

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.

	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 [....]

	vs.
29-30		39-23
Verizon Center
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Antonio Daniels	PG	Jameer Nelson
D. Stevenson	SG	Maurice Evans
Darius Songaila	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Antawn Jamison	PF	Rashard Lewis
B. Haywood	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
3 Nov 2007: Magic 94, Wizards 82

The Wizards seem to have recovered from an awful early-February stretch. After losing their first seven games last month, the Wiz have won five of their past eight, including two over the formidable New Orleans Hornets. It gets better for them, though: the team's medical staff cleared Gilbert Arenas for practice yesterday, although there's still no word as to when he'll return. Caron Butler is still out with a hip injury, but I doubt he'll miss too much time.

The point is the Wizards are better than their record indicates, and we can't take them lightly. Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood are each having their finest professional seasons, and former Magic guard DeShawn Stevenson has come up big lately as well, hitting a game-winning triple in one game against the Hornets last week (HT: Odenized). Reserve forward Andray Blatche, a seven-footer, presents matchup problems for us as well.

That said, our frontcourt of Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and Dwight Howard has been nigh-unstoppable lately, and the Wizards are a poor defensive team; they rank 22nd in defensive efficiency and 23rd in effective field goal percentage defense. If we come out focused enough, we may be able to drop 110 on them, even though they prefer to play at a slow pace.

Check out Bullets Forever for your Wizards fix. UPDATE: Here's their game thread. Tipoff's at 7:00. Go Magic.

Sixers4Guidos, which bills itself as the first Italian blog for 76ers fans, is hosting the fourth round of NBA MVP/ROY rankings as voted on by bloggers. BrewHoop hosted Round 1, Clips Nation hosted Round 2, and 3 Shades of Blue hosted Round 3. Dwight Howard came in third place in MVP voting in this edition. Shockingly, Marcin Gortat was nowhere to be found in ROY voting.

Look after the jump to see the ballot and comments I sent to Sixers4Guidos for them to compile. I'm surprised that I was the only person who gave Daequan Cook any ROY votes. He's good, people!

Continue reading this post »

Slow news day. Goodness.

• UPDATE: Earlier, I somehow forgot to link this rather lengthy Hardwood Paroxysm post, which suggests ways to improve the other stuff that happens at NBA games. Bravo, gents. Magic fans who are similarly annoyed with the entertainment at Amway Arena should definitely read this post. It's pretty ridiculous that the "other stuff" -- Stuff the Mascot, the Magic dancers, the JetBlue Crew, etc. -- is collectively called "Magic Live" and billed as an "in-arena entertainment experience." Note to whoever is responsible for coming up with this stuff: the GAME ITSELF is the "in-arena entertainment experience." Good grief.
• In non-basketball news, Dwight Howard is the father of a baby boy who was born on November 18th. The Orlando Sentinel reports the mother is Royce Reed, who was an Orlando Magic Dancer during the 2005/2006 season. Oddly enough, she spent last year as a Miami Heat dancer. She now joins Rony Seikaly, Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Doleac as people who have worked for both Florida-based NBA teams. Congratulations, Dwight. Just stay away from Jason Maxiell for a while.
  • UPDATE #2: For those of you who are interested in photos of Royce Reed, you can scroll through this picture gallery at the Magic's official website.
• Also from the Sentinel: ABC has picked up the Magic/Celtics game on January 27th. Tipoff has been moved up to 1 PM. It's been five or six years since I've been to a nationally televised, non-playoff Magic game, so that should be exciting.
• Bullets Forever makes the case that Brendan Haywood is the second-best center in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, I don't think the coaches will vote him onto the team; Chris Bosh, although listed as a forward on the NBA's official ballot, is more likely to be designated a center for backup purposes.

Is it 9:00 yet?

Hedo Turkoglu attacks the basket and the defense of Washington's Brendan Haywood.
Photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari the Associated Press

Please disregard what I wrote about Hedo Turkoglu earlier today. After tonight's virtuoso performance against Washington, there is no doubt as to who the starting small forward for this team should be. He was the entire reason we managed to beat Washington tonight. Here's the boxscore.

Tonight, Hedo ran the offense, which explains his 8 assists to Jameer Nelson's 2. Many of Turk's assists came off of penetration, kicking it out to open shooters or dumping it off to Dwight Howard for a dunk. And as you'll see from the shot chart below, when Turk wasn't passing off of penetration, he was scoring off of it. Just look at all the shot attempts in the paint.

Hedo was taking the ball to the rack early and often against Washington. X's denote misses, O's denote makes.

I can't get overly excited about this victory, though. Yes, it came over a division rival, but there were a few bad spots. Dwight Howard had good numbers (17 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) but he was actually outplayed by Washington's Brendan Haywood, who matched his career-high with 16 rebounds, 8 of them coming on the offensive glass. Haywood also swatted 5 shots, including an early Howard hook. If you were completely new to NBA basketball and were told that one of the starting centers tonight was an All-Star headed for superstardom, you would have guessed it was Haywood. He played out of his mind, and I applaud his effort.

For the second straight game, Rashard Lewis was a non-factor in the second half. How much of a non-factor was he? He scored no points in the second half -- he only attempted 4 shots -- and grabbed one rebound. Some of that can be attributed to Hedo having the hot hand, but much of it has to do with a lack of aggressiveness. He needs to work on that mentality for us to continue to be successful.

To be honest, Turk was really the only Magic player who impressed me. Dwight Howard has lost some of his confidence, and he's clearly frustrated by the lack of calls he's getting when hammered down low. He complained after nearly every call tonight, which is uncharacteristic of him. He, too, needs to get out of that funk.

It may look like Jameer Nelson had a bad game (17 points on just 4-of-14 shooting), but he back-to-back three-pointers in the fourth quarter to turn a 71-70 deficit into a 76-71 lead with 7 minutes to play. For that alone, I'm willing to forgive his crappy two-point shooting. How is it that he managed to hit only one of his eight two-point attempts? I don't understand.

I also think we lucked into playing a Washington team that just didn't have it offensively. Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, two-thirds of Washington's "Big Three," combined to shoot 11-of-36 for 30 points. I thought that Arenas, coming off last night's embarrassing loss to Boston, would come out attacking the basket, and I suppose he did. He hit his first three shots, but then disappeared for the rest of the game. Arenas, who was second in the NBA in total free-throw attempts last season, did not manage to get to the foul line once tonight. That's a rare occurrence.

Summarily, we didn't look impressive at all, but we got the win, and that's all that matters in the end.

Other notes:

• Now that the Wizards are 0-3, Pradamaster, the webmaster for Bullets Forever, is thinking about changing his site's name to Fourth Quarter Collapse.
• We did a great job handling the ball, turning the ball over just 13 times tonight. Through three games, we've committed just 35 turnovers, which shows that a team can play at a fast pace and still control the ball.
• Pat Garrity was once again the first forward off the bench. He came into the game with 3:46 to go in the first period and Orlando leading 17-8; he left the game with 8:15 to go in the second quarter and Orlando trailing 24-29. Yes, the Magic were outscored by 14 points in the 7 minutes that Pat Garrity was on the floor. I doubt he'll get many minutes Tuesday night against the Timberwolves...
• ... especially since Carlos Arroyo didn't play tonight. After a horrid performance against Detroit, 'los sat at the end of the bench with J.J. Redick and James Augustine. He's going to have to work himself back into Stan's rotation.
• Keith Bogans came down to earth. He entered the game with 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting total; he exits with 22 points total on 9-of-17 shooting. I guess I was wrong when I defended him over at Detroit Bad Boys earlier today.
• We were outscored 25-14 in the third quarter despite Washington's 6 turnovers.
• Your eyes do not deceive you: Trevor Ariza did indeed attempt a three-pointer. It didn't go in, but his first shot, a seventeen-footer from the left wing, did.

UPDATE: The AP recap of the game notes that Stan Van Gundy hasn't decided on a starting rotation:

"We have a problem finding a lineup that we can trot out at the start every single night," he said before Saturday's game. "I've got to get that cleaned up."

If Stan makes a change, it'll be because the bench has been so atrocious; that is, it won't be a move made out of displeasure with the starting five. Maybe Turk is bench-bound after all...? A puzzling development, to be sure.

UPDATE #2: Brian Schmitz has more information on Van Gundy's rotation:

The top eight [players] are forwards Lewis and Turkoglu; guards Jameer Nelson, Carlos Arroyo, Keith Bogans and Keyon Dooling; and centers Howard and Foyle.

That leaves SG J.J. Redick, PF Pat Garrity, SF Trevor Ariza and F James Augustine battling for playing time in Van Gundy's last spot.

He also mentions that Adonal Foyle may start Tuesday in Minnesota because the Timberwolves have strong post presences at the power positions: Theo Ratliff at center and Al Jefferson at power forward. My guess? Adonal starts at center and handles Jefferson, while Howard shifts to power forward and defends Ratliff. Rashard Lewis moves to his natural small-forward position, and Hedo Turkoglu moves to the two-guard. That would relegate Keith Bogans to the bench and give the Magic four starters 6'10" or taller; it would also leave the Magic with a lack of size on the bench. We'll see what happens.

	vs.
0-2		1-1
Verizon Center
7:00 PM
Probable starters:
Gilbert Arenas	PG	Jameer Nelson
DeShawn Stevenson	SG	Keith Bogans
Caron Butler	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Antawn Jamison	PF	Rashard Lewis
Brendan Haywood	C	Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: Two teams expected to battle for the Southeast Division crown play each other coming off embarrassing losses on Thursday night.

Know your enemy: The Wizards' biggest weakness this season has been the three-point shot. Through two games, they are a woeful 6-of-36 from beyond the arc; their opponents, meanwhile, are a sizzling 20-of-50. This news bodes well for the Magic, who are 20-of-40 from three-point range so far this season.

Useless information: Magic guard Keith Bogans has yet to miss a shot this season. He is 6-of-6 from the field -- all three-pointers -- and 2-of-2 from the foul line. He is the Magic's fourth-leading scorer.

Bullet points:

• It took me ten years, but I finally figured out what the heck the Wizards' alternate logo, depicted above, is supposed to be. It's a lower-case "DC."
• Gilbert Arenas talked a lot of smack in the preseason, especially in an SI.com interview in which he said he was essentially a better player than LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant (via FanHouse). So far, he has not backed that up; he is a 15-of-45 from the field and 1-of-13 from three-point range.
• Through two games, our bench has scored 37 points on 52 shot attempts.
• After last night's loss, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy lamented his coaching and his players' lack of effort, but he took a glass-half-full approach, saying, "[I]t's OK because we're in Game 2 of 82." I agree. Might as well get the crappy play out of our system early.
• I forgot to mention this fact in my wrapup from last night's game, so I'll include it here: the Pistons scored the first 10 points of the third quarter. After our win against Milwaukee, in which we outscored the Bucks 35-16, I wondered if it was too late to change the name of this website. Nice to know that I won't be needing to do that.
• The Phoenix Suns upset the basketball-aesthetic Gods by wearing their orange alternate uniforms at home last night and got their hats handed to them by the Lakers, of all teams. I never thought I'd say what I'm about to say, but let's hope the Wizards wear their hideous gold alternates at home tonight. Maybe the trend will continue.
• Be sure to check out one of my sister sites, Bullets Forever, for Wizards fans' takes on Washington's less-than-stellar season.
• In his lone game against Washington last season, Rashard Lewis scored 26 points... on 9-of-24 shooting, including 3-of-12 from downtown. It wasn't all bad, though; he also grabbed 10 boards.

If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to post it. As always, you can leave you pregame, during-game, and post-game thoughts in this thread. Once again, to listen to the game, check out NBA Audio League Pass.

UPDATE: Bullets Forever has its preview for tonight's game up. The author, Pradamaster, believes that Washington's Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler will have good games going against Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.

UPDATE #2 (5:45 PM): This thought just occurred to me. Why not play Dwight Howard and Adonal Foyle together? According to PopcornMachine's game flow, Howard and Foyle were only on the floor together for 1:13 of playing time. Foyle was slated to enter for Keith Bogans in the third quarter of last night's game, but after the Magic pulled to within 10, Stan Van Gundy elected to keep Bogans on the floor. Had Foyle entered, the Magic's lineup would have been Nelson and Turkoglu at the guards, Lewis and Howard at the forwards, and Foyle at center. The combination of Howard and Foyle should have been able to rebound better than the lineup that was actually on the floor did. And given that Washington does not have a great rebounding presence -- with apologies to Brendan Haywood, who actually played well last night -- this frontcourt could be particularly effective. Just something to bear in mind.