Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu fires a jump-shot during his Magic's 102-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. Turkoglu lead the Magic with 24 points and 8 assists.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The Magic managed to defeat the Raptors fairly convincingly, 102-87, on Tuesday night despite only grabbing two offensive boards and having their bench outscored 40-20. The reason? Timely scoring from Dwight Howard and from Hedo Turkoglu, an efficient offensive game from Rashard Lewis, and an opponent playing without its best player.

Neither team played inspired ball in the first half, but the Magic put it together in the early stages of the fourth quarter, letting T.J. Ford single-handedly grind his team's offense to a halt. Ford took the Raptors' first eight shots in the final frame, scoring 13 points in that span. However, he also committed 4 turnovers, which the Magic converted into eight points. By the time any other Raptor did anything offensively in the fourth quarter, Toronto trailed by 9 points, and never got closer than 7 the rest of the way.

Hedo Turkoglu came through in the fourth quarter once again, scoring 7 points, but it was Dwight Howard who went berserk. He made all 7 of his shots in the quarter, most of them dunks. Toronto was helpless to stop Dwight Without Chris Bosh to force him further away from the basket.

Four big surprises this evening:

• The Magic made Jose Calderon look ordinary. Calderon finished with only three assists, which is the second-lowest total he's had as a starter this season. Certainly, we can attribute that low total to the Raptors' anemic shooting, but certainly we should give some credit to Carlos Arroyo and Jameer Nelson for pestering Calderon.
• Marcin Gortat played and J.J. Redick didn't. Marcin played in his second straight game, recording a rebound in 37 seconds. Earlier today, it appeared as though J.J. would finally get his chance to shine, but Keith Bogans recovered from the abdominal strain that might have kept him out and played 25 solid minutes, making two three-pointers in that span. The starter, Maurice Evans, played 26 minutes and did nothing with them: 2 points (1-of-7 shooting). That poor showing, coupled with Marcin's stint, begs the question: What does J.J. have to do to get into the rotation?!
• The Raptors shot poorly, especially from three-point range. Toronto boasts the league's sixth-best effective field goal percentage (.514), but posted an effective field goal percentage of just .420 this evening. Without Chris Bosh drawing double-teams, the Raptors weren't getting the wide-open looks to which they are accustomed.
• Rashard Lewis is coming around: Quietly, Rashard Lewis is shredding opposing defenses. He's scored 104 points on just 68 shots (!) in our past 5 games. During that span, we're 4-1.

No rest for the weary for us, though. We're off to Washington to see the Wizards tomorrow night. They'll be without the services of their two best players: Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler. A loss tomorrow night will be inexcusable. For what it's worth, Denver's Carmelo Anthony dropped 49 points (on 25 shots!) on the Wizards last month. Might Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu have a similarly impressive outing tomorrow night? One can only hope, but coming away with a win is clearly a higher priority.

NBA.com has your Magic/Raptors boxscore hookup. For more coverage of this game, visit Bold 'n' Blue,  Orlando Magic Blog, and the Orlando Sentinel. And Dinosty

	vs.
32-21		32-19
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Anthony Carter
Maurice Evans	SG	Allen Iverson
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Carmelo Anthony
Rashard Lewis	PF	Kenyon Martin
Dwight Howard	C	Marcus Camby

The Nuggets are coming off a 114-113 overtime victory over the Miami Heat last night. J.R. Smith lead Denver with 28 points... in 27 minutes... on 8-of-14 three-point shooting. He has no conscience. And the Magic damn well better close out on him if they hope to win.

And ohbytheway, the Nuggets also have the league's highest-scoring duo: Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. The theme for the Magic tonight has to be DEFENSE.

Of course, the biggest story in this game is the (overblown) "feud" between Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy. How will Dwight respond in his first game since his coach called him out for not playing good defense? Brian Schmitz guarantees Howard will go for 20 points and 20 rebounds, even though he'll be matched-up with Marcus Camby, the league's leading rebounder and shot-blocker. However, a big night for Dwight isn't out of the question: Mark Blount (!) managed to post 18 points and 13 boards against Camby last night, and he's Mark Blount.

Anyway, look for the Nuggets to cream us. Sure, they're on the second night of a back-to-back, but that certainly didn't bother the Cavaliers on Monday. Unless the Nuggets flat-out miss their shots, they have this one in the bag. Accuscore disagrees, as the Magic won 62% of the game simulations it ran. Don't count on it. We are not a good team right now.

For some really super-cool Nuggets p.o.v., check out Pickaxe & Roll. Jeremy, who runs the site, does a great job analyzing Nuggets games with video. Check out this video breakdown of the Nuggets' first game against the Magic, which resulted in a Denver win thanks to Anthony Carter's 14th fourth-quarter points.

Tipoff's at 7. Go Magic.

Short preview today because I went to see Juno last night. Do yourself a favor and go see it, just not at game-time tonight. This should be a good one because both teams are looking to legitimize themselves in their respective conferences. Are the Nuggets for real? What about the Magic? We'll get a pretty good idea after tonight.  

	vs.
21-13		23-14
Pepsi Center
9:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Anthony Carter	PG	Jameer Nelson
Allen Iverson	SG	Maurice Evans
Carmelo Anthony	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Kenyon Martin	PF	Rashard Lewis
Marcus Camby	C	Dwight Howard

I've listed Nelson and Maurice "Mogans" Evans as the starting guards because they played well together Wednesday night in Los Angeles, but it's really anyone's guess as to who will start back there at this point. Mark Price and Brooks Thompson could suit-up for us and I wouldn't be surprised.

Be sure to check out Pickaxe And Roll, the newest member of the SB Nation team, for your Denver Nuggets news.

When I get bored -- which is frequently -- I browse eBay for Orlando Magic goodies. Today, something truly unique caught my eye: this authentic Dwight Howard jersey. Notice anything unusual?

Oh, it looks legitimate, and it may be. The dazzle fabric used on those jerseys must be hard to fake. But here's what gets me: the Magic ditched that design two years before they drafted Howard in 2004. And when the Magic choose to wear throwback uniforms, they go with ones from the pinstriped era. All these facts lead me to wonder just where the heck the seller got this jersey.

There's also this Howard throwback jersey, which looks suspect because the number font doesn't match up with the actual on-court model. Ordinarily, such incongruity wouldn't worry me. However, since the seller bills these jerseys as authentic, I am a bit alarmed.

The weirdness isn't limited to the Magic, though. The seller also offers this Allen Iverson jersey and this Carmelo Anthony jersey, also with a design that predates those players' respective arrivals in Denver.

I'm not calling the seller a fraud -- after all, s/he does have 98% positive feedback -- but these jerseys do indeed raise a few questions. What do you guys think? Are they real or fake?