It's early yet, but with the Boston Celtics holding a 25-point lead in the third quarter of Game Six of the NBA Finals, it certainly appears as though the Celtics will win the 2008 NBA Championship. Their coach is Doc Rivers, who helmed the Magic for four-plus seasons during the start of this decade. So, how should we Magic fans feel about Rivers' impending victory?

I don't care at all.

Magic antagonists will say that Rivers is simply the latest former member of the Magic organization to enjoy success, joining the likes of Chauncey Billups; Ben Wallace; Shaquille O'Neal; and to a much lesser extent, Steve Kerr. But the Magic canned Rivers when his Magic, under his "direction," started the 2003/2004 season with a 1-10 record. His all-time record with the Magic is 171-168, literally slightly above-average. Why, again, should we regret firing this middle-of-the-road coach who relies too heavily on motivational tactics and not enough on strategy? Would the Magic be better off with Rivers coaching them than with Stan Van Gundy doing the same?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Congratulations to Rivers, the Celtics, and their fans on a championship well-earned. But we shouldn't hold anything against the Magic for doing what they had to do four years ago when they handed Rivers his pink slip.

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 »

Tim Povtak has the scoop on the Magic's trade-deadline "activity," which yielded no roster moves. Here's an infuriating quote from the article:

"You have to ask yourself, 'is there something out there that could make us better?' The answer was 'no,'" said Magic General Manager Otis Smith. "So I'm not disappointed at all. I like what we have right now."

I understand Otis is worried about chemistry or whatever, but clearly there were big-men available. The Bulls dumped both Ben Wallace and Joe Smith today, receiving Drew Gooden in return. Less conspicuously, the Pistons dumped Primoz Brezec. And yesterday, the SuperSonics dumped Kurt Thomas. Povtak's article mentions the Magic were in the running for Thomas, but Otis was reluctant to part with Carlos Arroyo in the deal. Carlos Arroyo was the sticking point in a deal to acquire Kurt Thomas?! He was our best trade asset; not only was he the best player we had with an expiring contract, but his contract had the highest value ($4 million). A Jameer Nelson/Keyon Dooling tandem at point guard would have worked just fine. Sure, an injury to one of those guys would have sapped our depth, but not as badly as one might think. Hedo Turkoglu can handle the ball and is more than capable of playing point forward. Ugh.

This whole deadline has been incredibly disappointing. Cleveland certainly improved by acquiring Wallace, Smith, and Wally Szczerbiak, and now shuld be considered a more talented team than the Magic. Add to that the fact that Toronto's Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon both consistently crush us, and we suddenly don't look so good.

The trek to a championship just got a whole lot more perilous.

UPDATE: Some Magic fans are calling for Otis Smith to be fired after his decision not to make a move at the deadline. Hrm.

UPDATE #2: John Denton got Otis to comment on not trading the expiring contracts:

"If we would have [traded the expiring contracts], it might have precluded us from doing anything this summer. I like the flexibility. What you are taking back for those expiring contracts has to be something that you really like. And in a lot of cases it just wasn't much better than what we had already."

Um, what? Trading an expiring contract would have let us upgrade the team significantly right now, plus we'd still have the mid-level exception to use on another solid rotation player this summer. Now, we'll only have the mid-level. We had the chance to upgrade two positions; now, we'll only be able to upgrade one. Nice going.

Otis also mentioned that Tony Battie will not return at any point this season, not even for the playoffs. Brian Cook, come on down!

This following statement from Magic coach Stan Van Gundy about his team's point guards, cited by Tim Povtak in a brief piece in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel, is about as clear-cut as it gets. To use Bill Parcells' cooking analogy, Magic General Manager Otis Smith bought the groceries, but Stan doesn't like the dish they've yielded:

"I can't play all three of them. That doesn't work," Van Gundy said. "We just don't have any of those [point guards] who create a lot for other people. That's [Hedo Turkoglu's] job. We've changed our lineup looking for guys who can get us off to a good start. Maybe we need to look at that again¹."

To recap: the Magic have three point guards whom their coach can't play and who don't get the ball to the people who need it. Although Hedo has indeed done a great job facilitating the offense, the responsibility shouldn't rest on his shoulders alone. It appears as though Van Gundy has seen enough of each of the Magic's point guards and doesn't have a preference over which one plays. Maybe I'm reading too far into Stan's comments, but it sure sounds like he's sending a message to Otis: This team needs a point guard.

The fact is, point guard isn't our biggest area of need. Most Magic fans agree that neither Jameer Nelson nor Carlos Arroyo can lead the Magic to a championship in the future, despite the team's 5-year, $35 million investment in Nelson; he is, in effect, the highest-paid backup point guard in the league. Although he hasn't improved much this season, he's still a serviceable starter. In other words, he's not a total waste. Neither is Arroyo. The Magic have gotten 10.6 points and 5.4 assists per game from their starting point guards this season, which is modest, but certainly not embarrassing.

Magic fans seem to want the team to upgrade at shooting guard via trade, with the Los Angeles Clippers' Corey Maggette and Memphis' Mike Miller as the two most popular targets; incidentally, both those players spent their rookie seasons in Orlando, and both of them wore no. 50. The Magic could depend on either of those players to score 15-to-17 points a night. Each player adds his own unique specialty: Maggette is exceptional at drawing fouls and converting at the free throw line (.820 career); and Miller could stretch the defense with his sweet three-point shooting stroke (.401 career).

However, Knickerblogger.net shows us the Magic rank second in the league in eFG%, trailing only high-powered Phoenix. Without putting too fine a point on it, two-guards in the NBA are primarily suppose to shoot, and to do so well. Thing is, the Magic shoot well enough as it is. This season, Magic two-guards have collectively shot a remarkable .552 eFG%. So as nice as it would be to have Maggette or Miller back in Orlando, they don't provide what we need, which is rebounding.

The Magic are exceptional on the defensive glass, ranking 6th in the league in defensive rebound percentage. But they're lackluster on the offensive glass, checking in at 27th in the league in offensive rebound percentage, a fact made all the worse when one considers they have two of the league's top individual offensive rebounders: Adonal Foyle and Dwight Howard.

Since Foyle and Howard play center, we need to look for a quality rebounder at the power forward position. Rashard Lewis, a natural small forward, starts at that position now, and he's not having much success on the boards: among the 55 qualified power forwards, Lewis is 52nd in offensive rebound rate (3.8) and 54th in overall rebound rate (7.6). This fact is especially damning because Lewis is an athletic, 6'10" man in his physical prime. For some perspective, Jameer Nelson has an identical overall rebound rate, despite the fact he stands a full foot shorter than Lewis and he plays further away from the basket.

Apart from shooting, rebounding is the second-most important aspect of basketball, as Dean Oliver wrote in his book, Basketball on Paper. If the Magic hope to contend for an NBA title, they'd do well to acquire a strong, rebound-centric power forward, even if only for the rest of this season. Four of the last five NBA Finals winners had at least three players (minimum: 15 minutes per game) with rebound rates above 15.0². The current Magic team has only one player who fits that description: Dwight Howard. As Brian Schmitz explained in this blog post (to which I linked yesterday), adding a power forward to flank Howard in the frontcourt will allow Lewis to play small forward and Turkoglu to play shooting guard. This move would give the Magic a bevy of size at the two-through-five positions and what should be a decisive advantage on the glass.

We've concluded that rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding, is the Magic's biggest weakness. Furthermore, we've explained why addressing the rebounding issue is of critical importance for a team with championship aspirations. In a later entry, we'll look at potential ways to acquire solid, rebounding power forwards via trade.

Footnotes:

¹: From an earlier entry: the Magic are 12 games over .500 despite losing a majority of their first quarters. Conclusion: It's not who starts, but who finishes.
²: All data from www.basketball-reference.com

• 2007 San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan (18.7 R Rate), Fabricio Oberto (16.3), Francisco Elson (15.2)
• 2006 Miami Heat: Shaquille O'Neal (17.6), Alonzo Mourning (16.2), Udonis Haslem (15.0)
• 2005 San Antonio Spurs: Nazr Mohammed (20.8), Tim Duncan (19.4), Rasho Nesterovic (15.0)
• 2004 Detroit Pistons: Ben Wallace (19.1), Mehmet Okur (15.4)
• 2003 San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan (19.0), David Robinson (17.5), Malik Rose (15.2)

	vs.
23-15		14-21
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
The Closer	PG	Chris Duhon
Mogans	SG	Kirk Hinrich
Turk	SF	Luol Deng
Sweet Lew	PF	Joe Smith
Big Baby Jesus	C	Ben Wallace

The last time these two teams met was December 31st. Hedo Turkoglu's tough jumper won the game for us with just 0.7 seconds left in overtime. We overcame 39 points from Ben Gordon and held Luol Deng to 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting. It was an exciting game, and probably our best effort in recent memory.

Also notable about that game: Carlos Arroyo started, and played very well (14 points on 7-of-7 shooting in 21 minutes). Since then, his play has tailed off, and Jameer Nelson has reclaimed his starting role. Nelson provided a big spark off the bench in that first meeting, so it'll be interesting to see if he plays well against the same lineup under different circumstances.

All is not well with the Bulls. They're dead-last in the Central Division despite being preseason favorites to win the Eastern Conference, or at least contend for its crown. The most recent big news out of the Windy City is that Joakim Noah was suspended by his teammates for an outburst directed at Ron Adams, a Chicago assistant coach, in practice. The organization suspended Noah for one game, but his teammates decided that it wasn't enough. The two players who called him out were Adrian Griffin and Ben Wallace. Matt from BlogABull wasn't too thrilled with that development:

It was all scripted so well. The veterans band together and single out a young insubordinate for further punishment. Everybody on the same page, showing leadership, salvaging the season. Sit back and wait for glowing remarks on your behalf.

But see, if you're going to play this "galvanizing the team" game, it shouldn't be initiated by Griffin and Wallace: someone who doesn't play, and someone who can no longer play (and is known for clashing with coaches himself!). And then have it endorsed by a lame-duck coach.

No one knows for sure what exactly Noah said that so upset the coaching staff and his teammates, but the Blowtorch has an idea of what might have transpired.

So the Bulls have some chemistry issues, while we have some suck defensive issues. We allowed each opponent on our Western road trip to score 100 points, and in the two games before that -- both home losses -- we surrendered 96 points each time. The poor defense has to stop. Earlier this season, we were in the top-5 in defensive efficiency. Now, we're 10th. Okay, being in the top third of the league in defense isn't awful, but the point is that we're underachieving, and Stan Van Gundy needs to get our guys more motivated defensively. I think Dwight in particular needs to step it up. He's turned into a pretty good shot-blocker, but opponents still aren't shy about shooting even with him in the lane.

Tipoff tonight is at 7, and the game is in HD, so you can see every lock of Joakim Noah's nappy hair.

Hedo Turkoglu celebrates his game-winning jump-shot in the Orlando Magic's thrilling 112-110 overtime victory over the host Chicago Bulls on New Year's Eve.
Photo by Gary Dineen, NBAE/Getty Images

The Magic closed out 2007 in style by defeating the Bulls in a New Year's Eve matinée by a final score of 112-110. Orlando overcame a fantastic performance by Chicago's Ben Gordon, who came off the bench to score 39 points on 16-of-27 shooting. Luol Deng added 21 points for Chicago, which dropped to 2-1 under Jim Boylan, its new interim head coach. Here's the box score for today's game, and here is ESPN.com's highlight reel. Don't blink at the beginning or you'll miss Keyon Dooling's tremendous tomahawk dunk.

It was a playoff-like atmosphere in Chicago, with both teams exerting extra effort on both ends of the floor. The crowd also got into it. Indeed, had it been a playoff game, especially given its spectacular finish -- Hedo Turkoglu hit a game-winning fifteen-footer with 0.7 seconds left in overtime -- it likely would have ended up on ESPN Classic the next morning. As it is, both teams should be happy with their efforts, especially considering the holiday.

Carlos Arroyo started at point guard for Orlando, even though Jameer Nelson, who had started 131 consecutive games, was healthy enough to play. Arroyo did a great job of running the offense early, and made good decisions. In addition to tallying 4 assists to just 1 turnover, Carlos made each of his 7 field-goal attempts, which indicates he picked his spots correctly. Nelson came off the bench to lead us in scoring with 22 points. Surprisingly, he was a difference-maker on the defensive end, drawing two charges and coming up with several loose balls to swing momentum in our direction. It appears as though Arroyo has taken Nelson's starting job, and he's earned it. If Jameer continues to play this well off the bench, the move will have been for the best.

Keith Bogans should be commended for his defense on Ben Gordon. Yeah, I know, Gordon scored a ton of points, but he had to work for each and every one of them. Bogans had a hand in Gordon's face on seemingly all his shot attempts; it's just that the shots were dropping. Perhaps Bogans' tenacious defense played a role in Gordon wearing down in overtime, forcing him to miss badly on what would be Chicago's last significant shot attempt (Ben Wallace was credited for his halfcourt heave at the final buzzer).

Despite not scoring much, Dwight Howard really made the difference more than any other player in this game. His defense was outstanding, but that might have more to do with the fact that he was able to stray away from Wallace as much as he wanted to. With under a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, Gordon ran a pick-and-roll with Wallace. As Wallace, an offensive non-factor, rolled to the basket, Howard showed sharply, driving Gordon nearly to halfcourt before reaching in and swatting the ball away. Jameer Nelson recovered the ball, drew a shooting foul on Gordon, and tied the game on the ensuing free throws.

Rashard Lewis is conspicuous in his absence in today's recap, so I'll offer this information: Lewis played well, scoring 19 points on just 13 shot attempts. He also finished with a team-high 6 assists. However, he shot only 2 free throws, which illustrates his lack of offensive assertiveness. Perhaps he would get the chance to be the hero if he were to drive the ball to the basket more often. Lewis is the our highest-paid player and also our most scrutinized. He was hailed before the season as a guy who could play the role of go-to scorer. Yet Stan Van Gundy didn't trust him enough on the game's final possession to call his number, instead opting to put the ball in Turkoglu's hands. Yes, Turk has played phenomenally this year, but he had a horrible game today: just 7-of-19 shooting (6-of-18 before his game-winner went in) to go with 7 turnovers. So, I pose this question: What does Rashard Lewis have to do to supplant Hedo Turkoglu as Orlando's number-one crunch-time scorer?

The Magic finish the 2007 portion of this season with a 22-11 record, including 8-7 in December. They'll have New Year's Day off before facing the struggling New Jersey Nets on Wednesday.