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.

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 »

Most of us were perturbed that Otis Smith didn't make a trade yesterday. But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. As John Denton tells us, the Seattle SuperSonics were asking for Carlos Arroyo, Pat Garrity, and three (!!!) future first-round draft picks in exchange for Kurt Thomas. Okay, as much as I would love to have a legit, veteran, playoff-proven power forward in the middle for us, there's no way a 35-year-old guy is worth two expiring contracts AND three draft picks, especially when we almost certainly wouldn't re-sign him anyway. So I don't blame Otis for not pulling the trigger on that deal.

Regarding Chris Wilcox, Seattle's other expendable big man: he's playing like total crap lately.

• From SuperSonicSoul on Wednesday:

  [A]nd Chris Wilcox proved - once again - that anyone who thinks he is ready to become an above-average power forward is sorely mistaken. Big Weezy showed he was still in all-star break mode by contributing 6 (!) points and 4 (!) rebounds in 30+ minutes, while his counterpart, Hakim Warrick, finished with 22 points on 18 shots.

• And from Ball Don't Lie today:

  Seattle's getting better, and it's nice to see a SuperSonics rotation that is relying almost exclusively on the young talent this team is trying to develop, but it was a pair of vets that wouldn't allow Seattle to turn the corner. Chris Wilcox could have fouled LaMarcus Aldridge out by the third quarter, but his head wasn't into it on Thursday, and Wilcox mustered only two points and two rebounds in 14 foul-plagued minutes.

Yeah, it still stings that Joe Smith got traded -- could we have gotten in on that deal? -- but given that he's playing absolutely out-of-his-mind right now, we probably wouldn't have had the goods to acquire him.

For what it's worth, ESPN.com's John Hollinger went back and graded every trade in the NBA this season. He gives us a B for trading Trevor Ariza for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook:

Could the Magic have tried harder to find a role for Ariza? Probably. Was upgrading their situation at the 2 more important than fitting Ariza's non-shooting ways into their space-the-floor system? Absolutely [....] [A]lthough I like this trade a little better from L.A.'s end, this is another deal that clearly helped both teams.

Maybe Otis knows what he's doing after all.

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!

The New York Post reports (via Brian Schmitz)that the Magic have had discussions with the Knicks about sending either Carlos Arroyo or Keyon Dooling to New York:

A league source told The Post the Knicks and Orlando discussed trades in recent days involving their two backup point guards, Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling, but were in a stalemate.

[....]

Arroyo and Dooling each make roughly $4 million and own expiring contracts. But the Knicks didn't want to part with young players such as rookie Wilson Chandler Wilson Chandler , and neither team wanted to add payroll.

Orlando, with its glut of point guards, will not have the money to re-sign both as free agents following starter Jameer Nelson's contract extension.

I'm hoping we can pull a fast one on Knicks GM Isiah Thomas, who bailed us out two years ago by sending us Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway's corpse expiring contract for problem-child Steve Francis. Unfortunately, I don't see many players on the Knicks' roster who can help us. Renaldo Balkman and David Lee are both high-energy, rebound-focused guys, but Thomas doesn't want to part with either of them. Wilson Chandler, mentioned as a sticking-point in the above report, doesn't seem to be a long-term solution for us. He's only 20, and a rookie, but he's not a great rebounder (rebound rate: 11.2) ... or shooter (eFG%: .405)... or defender (PER allowed: 23.1).

Put that phone down, Otis! Get someone else, someone with actual assets to offer, on the line. The Bulls' John Paxson is reportedly taking calls for Joe Smith (via BlogABull); Toronto is the rumored interested party. Dial Pax up, Otis! DADDY NEEDS A NEW POWER FORWARD.

Yeah, so fun times at the trade deadline. Hardwood Paroxysm set the over/under on deadline deals at 2.5, not counting this morning's Rockets/Hornets trade.

Stay tuned.

The Magic's offense has improved each month this season. Unfortunately, their defense has declined each month. In February, the Magic have surrendered an eye-poppingly awful 118.7 points per 100 possessions to their opponents. If it keeps up, the team surely won't make it very far in the playoffs. Until further notice, this team should be known as the Orlano Magic. No "d."

It may appear as though those numbers are skewed by the fact that the Magic have faced two of the league's top-three most efficient offenses (Dallas and Los Angeles) this month. However, the other four teams they've played -- Philadelphia, Indiana, New Jersey, and Cleveland -- are well below-average.

The graph below shows the Magic's offensive progression (and defensive regression) by month. Clicking the chart -- and indeed any other chart in this post -- will open a larger version in a new browser window or tab, depending on your settings.

What's to blame for this awful defensive showing? I turned to the four factors, presented in Dean Oliver's book Basketball on Paper and summarized in this page at basketball-reference, to see if there were any trends. The first one I examined is effective field goal percentage:

The Magic have consistently outshot their opponents, but note the sharp increase from January to February. Six games should be a good enough sample-size from which to draw, and I doubt teams' hot shooting against the Magic is coincidental. Closing out on shooters and altering their shots at the basket -- I'm looking at you, Dwight Howard -- will send the opponents' eFG% downward.

Forcing turnovers has been a problem for the Magic all season. Despite playing at a much faster pace this season than last season, the Magic have turned the ball over less frequently. Unfortunately, so have their opponents. The Magic have a few good one-on-one defenders, but no one who consistently steals the ball. Rashard Lewis leads the team in steals per game, but that's only because hardly anyone else even tries, not because Lewis is actually a good defender. To his credit, he did an outstanding job on Dirk Nowitzki against Dallas last Monday.

As a team, the Magic are unbalanced on the glass. They rebound well on the defensive end, but not so well on the offensive end. The best move General Manager Otis Smith can make at the trading deadline would be to acquire a strong rebounding power forward. Tony Battie may return for the playoffs, but he's not a great rebounder, and thus not a viable long-term solution. The same could be said for Seattle's Kurt Thomas and Chicago's Joe Smith, for whom the Magic could trade, but they are more likely to make a difference on the defensive glass.

This table is the one that's most telling. As the season's progressed, the Magic have gotten to the foul line less often, while their opponents have gotten there more often. This trend, combined with the overall decline in defensive efficiency as displayed in the first graph in this post, suggests the Magic have simply gotten lazy or have stopped caring. They're settling for more jump shots -- and making them, as evidenced by their effective field goal percentage increase -- which is a sign of a lack of aggression. Meanwhile, their opponents are getting to the basket and to the foul line seemingly at will.

The key phrase in that last paragraph is "at will." Where is the Magic's desire to be great? What happened to it? In November and December, they showed they could dominate on both sides of the ball, even grabbing second-place in the Eastern Conference for a brief while. They finished the 2007 portion of this season at 22-11. Since then, they're a pedestrian 10-10. Which team will show up tonight against Denver and next week after the All-Star break?

Will it be the team that flexed its muscle during the first 33 games of the season and opened eyes throughout the league?

Or will it be the one that has played unenthusiastically for the last 20 games, content with mediocrity?

File Photo by Red Huber, the Orlando Sentinel

Otis Smith has finally seen the light.

The Magic's General Manager told reporters, including John Denton of Florida Today, that he is indeed looking to acquire a power forward before the playoffs:

"It would be really nice to have another big body, but quite frankly we've played really well with what we've had," Smith said. "You'd be crazy to not want to help your team get better. But you have to do something that's going to make sense and not just because you feel like you have to make a move."

I wrote earlier this week that power forward was the Magic's weakest position. Let's take a look at which power forwards might be available, and what it might take to acquire them:

• Reggie Evans, Philadelphia 76ers:
  • The Good: Based on rebound rate, he's the best rebounding power forward in the NBA.
  • The Bad: He doesn't do anything else, and he's an exceptionally poor free throw shooter. Additionally, his contract runs for another four years.
  • What It Would Take: The 76ers are better than their record indicates and have plenty of young talent. However, they're pretty thin up front, so trading Evans would be difficult for them to do.
  • My offer: Keyon Dooling, J.J. Redick, and the draft rights to Fran Vazquez for Louis Amundson and Evans.
    • Why it works for us: The Magic need rebounding, and Evans is an exceptional rebounder. Amundson is a throw-in to make the salaries match.
    • Why it works for them: Dooling and Redick can provide solid backup minutes to two-guard Willie Green, whose current backup is the woefully inept Gordan Giricek. Additionally, Dooling's expiring contract combines with Giricek's to give the 76ers a bit more cap room this summer, which they earmark to re-sign restricted free-agent Andre Iguodala. Fran Vazquez sweetens the deal and gives the 76ers a decent backup power forward whenever he chooses to leave Europe.
• Chuck Hayes, Houston Rockets:
  • The Good: He's a fantastic rebounder (16.0 rebound rate) for his size (6'6"), even in the big-man-heavy Western Conference. Think of what he can do out East!
  • The Bad: Like Evans, he's a non-factor offensively. Like Evans, he's also a poor free throw shooter, connecting on 27% (!) of his attempts this season.
  • What It Would Take: Not much, which is surprising given the Rockets' eagerness to re-sign him last summer. He's regressed a bit and is losing power forward minutes to rookies Luis Scola and Carl Landry. The Dream Shake, the best Rockets blog on the internet, has an entire section entitled, "I like you, Chuck Hayes, but I like winning more."
  • My offer: Carlos Arroyo for Steve Francis and Hayes.
    • Why it works for us: Hayes can give us 15-20 solid minutes a night. Honestly, I feel better about our chances with him in the lineup than I do with Brian Cook, who is two inches taller but a much worse rebounder. Francis, who is out for the season, is a throw-in to make the salaries match. The Magic would buy him out.
    • Why it works for them: Arroyo is much more consistent than any of Houston's other point guards (Rafer Alston, rookie Aaron Brooks, Mike James) and can distribute the ball well.
• Joe Smith, Chicago Bulls:
  • The Good: Although not much of a rebounder, he's leaps-and-bounds better than Rashard Lewis in that regard. He also has good range on his jump-shot; that is, he won't hog the painted area from Dwight Howard
  • The Bad: There are indeed better rebounders available.
  • What It Would Take: Not as much as one might think. The Bulls want to make a playoff push, and the best way for them to do that is to upgrade their point guard rotation. Chris Duhon may have scored a career-high 34 points Thursday night, but he's still Chris Duhon.
  • My offer: Arroyo and James Augustine for Smith.
    • Why it works for us: In addition to getting a solid, reasonably priced (~$10 million over 2 season) veteran, the Magic free up a roster spot by trading two players for one.
    • Why it works for them: I'll let Matt from Blog-A-Bull explain:

      The Bulls don't get a 'prospect', but would I really want [J.J.] Redick? I'd rather see if they could re-sign Arroyo cheap enough to where bringing Duhon back is definitely not an option.

• Kurt Thomas, Seattle SuperSonics:
  • The Good: He's a strong, powerful banger of a big-man averaging 7.5 points and 8.8 rebounds for a woeful Seattle team in the midst of rebuilding. He boasts a robust 18.8 rebounding rate and defends the post well. He's in the last year of his deal, which is worth approximately $8 million.
  • The Bad: At 35-years-old, he's creaky; indeed, health is an issue.
  • What It Would Take: This part is where it gets tricky. Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling are two solid trade assets, but they're both point guards. The SuperSonics have a log-jam at that position already, and there's no reason for them to add to it. Additionally, there's no incentive for them to want to trade Thomas' expiring contract when they can keep it and let it come off their own books.
  • My offer: Arroyo, Augustine, Keith Bogans, and Redick for Thomas and Delonte West.
    • Why it works for us: Thomas bolsters our frontcourt for the rest of the season and for the playoffs, and West can play combo-guard a la Keyon Dooling.
    • Why it works for them: Arroyo is a huge upgrade over West and has an expiring contract to boot; Augustine and Bogans also have expiring contracts, and Augustine would instantly become Seattle's third-best big man (after Nick Collison and Chris Wilcox, ahead of Johan Petro, Mouhamed Sene, and Robert Swift); and Redick is a sweet-shooting prospect who would get the chance to flourish playing ahead of Damien Wilkins.
• Charlie Villanueva, Milwaukee Bucks:
  • The Good: He's a tall, versatile four/three with decent range. He's also an underrated rebounder.
  • The Bad: He's having the worst season of his young career, and his contract runs for another two years.
  • What It Would Take: Probably not a heckuva whole lot. He's losing minutes to Yi Jianlian and the Bucks don't seem too impressed with him.
  • My offer: Augustine and Redick for Villanueva.
    • Why it works for us: We get a solid "buy-low" option without giving up anyone who sees significant playing time.
    • Why it works for them: Redick instantly becomes the Bucks' backup two-guard; he won't lose minutes to Charlie Bell (having arguably the worst season in NBA History) or to Awvee Storey, that's for sure. Augustine has a small expiring contract and provides the Bucks with the sort of hustle coach Larry Krystkowiak admires.

Which of these deals sounds most appealing to you?

The Magic's Rashard Lewis uncorks a long two-pointer over the Bulls' Joe Smith in Orlando's 102-88 victory over Chicago on Tuesday night. Lewis scored 26 points in the contest.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

I don't have much to say about this game, honestly. We played well up until the fourth quarter, when both coaches emptied their benches and the Bulls' scrubs waxed our scrubs to make the final score respectable. Make no mistake, though: we owned this game, and this win should boost our confidence. Rashard Lewis had his 5th good game in a row, Brian Cook (14 points) and Keith Bogans (15 points) had great games off the bench, and we won big. So what if it was over a mediocre Bulls team that doesn't look like it's going anywhere? Wee need all the momentum we can get heading into next week's two games against Detroit.

The highlight of the game, at least for me, had nothing to do with the action on the floor. Radio color-commentator Richie Adubato had some fun with play-by-play man Dennis Neumann, who routinely praised -- with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek -- the play of the Bulls' Viktor Khryapa (career averages: 4.5 points, 3.5 rebounds). Adubato asked Neumann a question along the lines of, "Why do you like him so much?" to which Neumann replied, "Well, he's no Jake Voskuhl, but he's good enough." Ouch, Dennis. Ouch.

We play at Charlotte tomorrow night, against which we are 3-0 this season. A win there would go a long way toward boosting our confidence and putting more distance between us and Washington, which is right on our heels in the Southeast.

For an idea of what Bulls fans are thinking, check out the comments of BlogABull's open thread.

Note: Those of you who saw this thread before this update noticed I left a few placeholders in the Rashard Lewis picture caption. Sorry about that; I'm really embarrassed.

	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.

	vs.
11-17		21-11
United Center
2:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Chris Duhon	PG	Carlos Arroyo
Kirk Hinrich	SG	Keith Bogans
Luol Deng	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Joe Smith	PF	Rashard Lewis
Ben Wallace	C	Dwight Howard

The Bulls are 2-1 since they fired Scott Skiles and 2-0 under Jim Boylan, their new interim coach. However, those two victories came over Milwaukee and New York, which are last in their respective divisions at this point. As a result, BlogABull is nonplussed.

The Magic will have to contend with Ben Gordon coming off the bench. Gordon won the NBA's Sixth-Man award in his rookie season and has thrived in that role throughout his career. Still, I question the wisdom of a team benching its number-one scoring threat when it's also the least efficient offensive team in the league... at least as of the last time KnickerBlogger updated his stats.

Although the Bulls have won two straight games, the Magic should beat them. In fact, they should be embarrassed if they don't. The Magic are coming off victories against inferior teams -- New York, Miami, and Charlotte -- but they can't let that stop them from putting their collective foot on their opponent's collective neck. We dropped winnable games against Indiana, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Memphis earlier this month; we can atone for that somewhat by making it four straight wins with a victory over da Bulls today.

Tipoff is at 2:00 PM on Sun Sports, so set your DVRs if you have to work (like me) or are going to sleep in (like Dad Q. Rock).