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.

Continue reading this post »

	vs.
31-48		49-30
United Center
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Kirk Hinrich	PG	Jameer Nelson
Larry Hughes	SG	Maurice Evans
Luol Deng	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Tyrus Thomas	PF	Rashard Lewis
Joakim Noah	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
31 Dec 2007: Magic 112, Bulls 110
15 Jan 2008: Magic 102, Bulls 88
9 Apr 2008: Magic 115, Bulls 83

Last Wednesday, just three days after losing to the Knicks in embarrassing fashion, the Magic took our their frustration on the Bulls. Today, they'll try to do it again, only this time the loss fueling the frustration was at the hands of the Timberwolves. Dwight Howard had 30 points and 14 rebounds. Let's hope for more of the same tonight.

Mike has the recap. Go Magic.

	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.

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 »

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.

The Cavaliers' Larry Hughes scores an easy 2 of his season-high 40 points in Cleveland's 118-111 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

This loss (boxscore | GameFlow) might be the most disappointing one of the season. The Cavaliers were playing their fourth game in five nights, the second game of a home-and-road back-to-back. They didn't arrive in Orlando until 1:30 PM yesterday. Meanwhile, the Magic had two days off and were playing just their fourth game in seven days. Additionally, the Cavaliers were without the services of rotation players Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, and Anderson Varejao. How the Hell did they manage to beat us?

We let them. It's that simple. We had just a three-point halftime lead, and I was never comfortable with it. Our third quarter was one of the worst of the season, as Cleveland scored 34 points on 62% shooting. Larry Hughes scored 23 points (on 6-of-7 shooting!) in the period, one short of the Magic franchise record of points scored by an individual opponent in a quarter. Keyon Dooling, the Magic's best on-ball defender and the player most capable of shutting down Hughes, missed the game with a sprained mid-foot. Dooling would have certainly been able to keep Hughes in check, but Larry Hughes is still Larry Hughes. There's no reason why he should be the one guy to beat your team. Look at the picture I used at the top of this entry. There are literally no Magic players in the picture as he lays the ball in. It's disgusting and embarrassing.

There's also the matter of Dwight Howard being dissatisfied with his role on the team. Reportedly, Howard's breather in the middle of the fourth quarter was to make an example of him. He and Stan Van Gundy had a "conflict," and apparently Van Gundy wants Dwight to focus more on his rebounding and shot-blocking. From John Denton:

"He had 23 15-plus rebounds in the first 41 games and he has one in the past 12 games. He didn't even have a double-figure rebounding game (on Monday). It's a matter of focus and his focus is on the offensive end and he gets discouraged when he doesn't get the ball. I don't think, I know, that the numbers prove that what we need him to focus on to win is defense and rebounding. But that's not what he wants to do right now, so we have a little bit of a conflict."

Both Dwight and Stan have legitimate beefs. Dwight is an All-Star for a reason: he's a damn good player. He leads the team in scoring despite being the third option on offense, and he hardly saw the ball last night after the first half. In periods one and two, Howard shot a combined 6-of-9 for 13 points. In periods three and four, he shot a combined 0-of-2 for 3 points. He has every right to be ticked, especially when everyone else in the starting lineup attempts at least one more shot than he does, as was the case last night. At the same time, it shouldn't take more touches to make Dwight happy; he should be trying hard on defense whether he shoots 25 times or 2 times.

The loss makes us 1-3 on our 5-game homestand going into the All-Star break. Clearly, we have work to do. A few days ago, Stan told the Orlando Sentinel he wanted his team to think of the homestand, as well as the two road games immediately after it, as "a playoff series." If the team's poor play of late is indicative of how it will play in the postseason, there's no question we'll be hitting the golf links sooner rather than later.

For what it's worth, Hedo Turkoglu (25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) was the only one of our guys to play well tonight. Jameer Nelson scored 22 on 7-of-14 shooting, and got to the foul line 10 times, but he also committed 5 turnovers.

In light of last night's defeat, I'm considering changing this site's URL to www.heyorlandomagicpleasestoplettingcrappyplayerslikelarryhughestakesomanyeasyshots.com.

Speaking of funny URLs, the guys at Hey, Larry Hughes! Please Stop Taking So Many Bad Shots! have written an open letter to Rod Thorn of the New Jersey Nets, imploring him to trade Jason Kidd to Cleveland for Hughes:

The future’s name is Laura Larry Hughes. Larry is 40-point-scorer. He’s a slasher. He even has tattoos - very cool tattoos of tough things that give him street-cred. And 3 years ago, when he played for the Wizards, Larry had a lot of steals. THOUSANDS OF STEALS. More steals than any player every recorded in the history of the NBA. You like steals, don’t you Rod?

Well, there is something to be said for wanting to sell high...

Our next game is Wednesday night against Denver. Without Keyon Dooling to check Allen Iverson, it's going to be a long night. Remember when the Answer hung 60 on us in 2005? It might get a lot worse than that on Wednesday. Be prepared.

	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...

	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.

Dwight Howard grabs one of his three boards on the night, this one in front of the Cavaliers' Dwayne Jones.
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein, NBAE/Getty Images

After an ugly first half, the Orlando Magic's offense woke up in the second as they rolled to a 16-point victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here's the box score, courtesy of NBA.com.

Balance was key in our win tonight. Six players were in double-figures for us, but nobody had more than 17. The three-point shot was also huge for us. Color commentator Hubie Brown said the Magic would be dangerous because they have guys "who can make that three like it's a layup." It's true: The team shot 9-of-15 from long-range, with four players hitting at least two. Much of those threes came as a result of great ball movement. That much is encouraging.

That said, we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back too hard. Cleveland just looked miserable when its second unit was on the floor, but that should surprise no one. Come October 31st, Noel Felix, Darius Rice, and Hassan Adams will likely be in the D-League, not in a Cleveland uniform as they were tonight. There isn't anything to be said about defeating the defending conference champions in an exhibition game in which their best players sat out for much of the second half. So while it's great to see Adonal Foyle dive for loose balls, Pat Garrity sprint to the corner to break up a pass, and Carlos Arroyo thread impossible needles to find open teammates, it'll be even greater to see them do it in games that actually matter.

Final thoughts:

• Hedo needs some sleep or something. His beard is even more unkempt than normal, he committed 7 turnovers, and looked lost for much of the first half.
• Adonal Foyle has great hands defensively, but has real trouble finishing around the basket. I was impressed with one hook shot he hit late, though: he caught the ball in the deep post -- probably off a brilliant feed from Arroyo -- and threw up a wild hook over Dwayne Jones... and it banked in for two points. I had to rewind the DVR to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
• This pertains more to the first half, but it's still worth mentioning: as hard as J.J. tries on defense, no amount of effort is going to make him taller. Opposing two-guards are just going to shoot over him, which is exactly what Larry Hughes did tonight.
• Jameer came out strong in the second half, going aggressively to the basket and splitting double-teams without losing control of the ball. I wish he'd get to the foul line more in the regular season.
• What is it going to take for Marcin Gortat and Kevin Kruger to get some freaking playing time? There was a timeout called with two minutes to play and the Magic up fifteen, yet Gortat and Kruger were not summoned. I guess it's just as well, though. Judging by the rotations we've seen so far, Gortat is going to be the last big off the bench -- even after Garrity and Augustine -- and Kruger isn't going to be on the team at all. Still, I'd like to see them play more.
• I am really. Really. Really tired.

Preseason play concludes next Thursday evening at home against the San Antonio Spurs. Good things happened the last time they were in town.

Enjoy your weekends, friends.

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?