vs.
24-46		46-27
Bradley Center
8:30 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Mo Williams	PG	Carlos Arroyo
Michael Redd	SG	Maurice Evans
B. Simmons	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
C. Villanueva	PF	Rashard Lewis
Andrew Bogut	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
31 Oct 2007: Magic 102, Bucks 83
12 Dec 2007: Bucks 100, Magic 86

Shaquille O'Neal told the Orlando Sentinel yesterday that he'd like to be the Magic's GM once he retires from playing. Well, there's an opening in Milwaukee if he's interested. The Bucks' owner, Senator Herb Kohl, was so dissatisfied with his team's performance -- Milwaukee is the only team Miami's beaten twice this year -- that he didn't even wait until the summer to fire former GM Larry Harris. The other Larry in the Bucks' organization, coach Larry Krystowiak, may find himself unemployed soon. Milwaukee is 29th in defensive efficiency, "bested" only by the New York Knicks. And it's not like the Bucks are injury-riddled or anything; they're just wildly underachieving. That didn't stop them from killing us in December, though, when we shot a comically awful .338 from the field. That's a solid average... for a baseball player. Ugh. Anyway, we owe them one. Let's take it to 'em; we need to tune-up before facing the Hornets on Monday.

As both Brian Schmitz and John Denton noted yesterday, Hedo Turkoglu will play tonight despite his sprained right wrist. Jameer Nelson is out, however, with a concussion suffered when he collided with Dwight Howard's forearm in Tuesday's loss to San Antonio. I kinda wish Stan Van Gundy would make Hedo miss a game or two just as a precaution, but Turk's played in every game this year, which is something of which he is proud, telling Denton yesterday, "One of my goals is to finish 82 games. I’ve never finished it before and hopefully I can this season."

Tipoff's at 8:30 and in glorious HD, so you'll be able to see Michael Redd's prominent bald spot. For a Bucks-centric preview of tonight's game, check out the write-up at BrewHoop, which consistently puts other NBA blogs to shame. We wish we were that good.

Go Magic.

Rashard Lewis celebrates after hitting one of his three third-quarter three-pointers in Orlando's 102-83 victory over Milwaukee.
Photo by Doug Benc, Getty Images

Is it too late to change the name of this website?

The Magic and Bucks played each other evenly in the first half, with the good guys holding a two-point advantage at the break. After that, it was lights-out. The Magic smoked the Bucks for 35 points in the third quarter, and held them to just 16 on the other end. We were 7-of-8 from three-point range in the decisive period and cruised to a 102-83 victory. Here's the boxscore.

Everything seemed to go right for us. We hit over 50% of our threes and over 70% of our free throws. We forced 14 Milwaukee turnovers and blocked 10 of their shots, with Dwight Howard matching his career-high with 7. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu combined for 50 points on 17-of-28 shooting. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing. And after letting Michael Redd get off to a hot start with twelve points in the first quarter, we locked him down for the rest of the game. He finished with 25 points. Bobby Simmons was the only other Buck with a pulse this evening, scoring 18 points in only 24 minutes.

My biggest concern after this game is defensive rebounding, which I foolishly said would be a strength for this team coming into the season. We allowed the Bucks to grab 43% of their own misses, which we simply can't afford to do against better teams. I've joked with friends about trading Hedo Turkoglu for help on the glass, but after seeing how well he integrated with Rashard Lewis, how can we afford to lose him? The rebounding situation is indeed something to monitor as the season progresses.

Also worth mentioning: our bench didn't do jack for us tonight. 20 points on 7-of-24 shooting. Absolutely awful. Adonal Foyle even managed to airball a hook-shot three feet away from the basket. Incredible. Let's hope the second unit is able to bring their A-game on Friday night.

Something else of note: Trevor Ariza didn't get into the game until the final minutes of the first half. He ended up not scoring in 7:32 of action. This news concerns me. Perhaps Stan Van Gundy doesn't think Trevor fits into his offense, which I think is a shame. Trevor might be my favorite player, and I don't want him to have to languish at the end of the bench all season.

Overall, though, it was an encouraging performance by the Magic. The next game is Friday evening against the Detroit Pistons, who beat us 8 times last year. If we can pull out a win there, or at least keep it close, the league will officially be on notice.

UPDATE: John Denton has his recap up. He notes that Rashard Lewis' Magic debut was very reminiscent of Tracy McGrady's. In his first game for Orlando, T-Mac scored 32 points on 11-of-25 shooting. Let's just hope that the Rashard Lewis era ends differently than the Tracy McGrady one did.

Additionally, sister-site BrewHoop has its recap up. Did you know that Hedo Turkoglu averaged 21 points per game against Milwaukee last season? Yeah, neither did the Bucks:

No matter who matched up against the versatile Turk there was a hesitancy to commit to guarding his outside shot or the drive to the basket.  What resulted was an awkward in-between defense that didn’t really guard either.

Will Turk continue to create mismatches and befuddle defenses? One can only hope.

	vs.
0-0		0-0
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Probable starters:
Mo Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Michael Redd	SG	Keith Bogans
Desmond Mason	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Yi Jianlian	PF	Rashard Lewis
Andrew Bogut	C	Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: The Magic and Bucks open their 2007/2008 campaigns and will get to see their offseason additions play in regular-season action.p

Know your enemy: According to the Bucks blog "Bango's Bunch," Milwaukee is starting Desmond Mason and Yi Jianlian over Bobby Simmons and Charlie Villanueva, respectively, because they fit in better with the running game that Bucks head coach (and former Magic player) Larry Krystkowiak will implement.

Useless information: This game features a matchup of two centers who were selected with the first overall pick in the NBA draft: Dwight Howard (in 2004) and Andrew Bogut (in 2005).

Bullet points:

• The SB Nation Milwaukee Bucks site, BrewHoop, is up-and-running just in time for tonight's game. Cool!
• Jameer Nelson got that contract extension he wanted yesterday. Now it's time for him to prove that he earned it.
• It'll be interesting to see how well Keith Bogans defends Michael Redd, the Bucks' sweet-shooting All-Star shooting guard. He's the Bucks' best offensive option, and they don't have any other big offensive threats to turn to if he's shut down.
• Another interesting matchup will be Rashard Lewis vs. Yi Jianlian. Yi, a rookie, is supposedly a good offensive player, but he didn't work out against actual human beings before the draft; instead, he showcased his offensive moves while being guarded by chairs. Lewis isn't a great defender, but he should be able to handle Yi if Yi plays out on the perimeter rather than close to the basket.
• I know I link to this site in every pregame thread, but I only do it because it's so important: NBA Audio League Pass is free this season, and you should take advantage of that. Tonight's Magic game will be televised on Fox Sports Net, which is unavailable to most Orlando residents. If you're dying to listen to the Magic's first game with Rashard Lewis, you'll want to use Audio League Pass. And you can see photos uploaded throughout the game on the Magic's photo wire.
• I really want Dwight Howard to dunk on somebody, preferably Yi, but Andrew Bogut would also be acceptable.
• This news was posted yesterday, but I somehow forgot to include it in any of my updates: negotiations between FSN and Bright House Networks were called off Tuesday evening without a resolution. As a result, Orlando Magic fans with Bright House service in Orlando will be unable to see the game. Brian Schmitz has a team source who says the Magic will be applying pressure to both sides so an agreement can be reached soon. I hope he's right.

This is an open thread, so feel free to discuss Bucks/Magic business in here before, during, and after the game.