• Erick Blasco of Bleacher Report lists the league's 30 best centers. Our very own Dwight Howard ranks second, behind Yao Ming, in large part due to his lack of offensive moves. Blasco also calls Howard out for poor court awareness on defense. (Hat tip: Canis Hoopus)
• As you might imagine, Dwight's proud to be an Olympic gold medalist. John Denton has the details. (Hat tip: SLAM)
• The Magic are proud of him, too. Check out the splash page of their website.
• The Magic's drafting of Fran Vazquez in with the 11th pick in the 2004 Draft may go down as one of Otis Smith's greatest blunders. Not only did he select a player who has yet to join the team, and who probably won't until next summer at the earliest, he passed on several good-to-great players in the process. As we know, Danny Granger is one such player. Tom Ziller explains what makes him a rising star, and why he's due for a breakout season, in his NBA Top 50 series at FanHouse. For what it's worth, Granger's 44th.
• The Oklahoma City NBA franchise, long-rumored to be named the Thunder, will officially announce its name and colors at a news conference next week. The Magic had a role in the confirmation, as The Lost Ogle found a goof on the team's website whichlisted their December 5th game as "vs. Thunder." Oops. (Hat tip: TrueHoop)
• SLC Dunk user "clarkpojo" believes the Magic would be wise to ship J.J. Redick and Brian Cook to Oklahoma City for Chris Wilcox. I like the idea, at least from our perspective. It clears out the logjam at the two-guard and strengthens the power position at the same time. If only the Thunder had a decent, affordable young point guard to add to the deal...

The internet tells me the Magic won last night, but I didn't pay any attention to the game. But really, it only counts as a win in the win column; any team that surrenders 34 points to Jason Williams and only manages to defeat the undermanned Heat (they only had eight players in uniform) by nine points should really consider itself the loser.

Tonight's game between the Magic and the Pacers is already in-progress, Check it out on FSN Florida or online with NBA Audio League Pass.

	vs.
43-24		25-40
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Flip Murray
Maurice Evans	SG	Mike Dunleavy
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Danny Granger
Rashard Lewis	PF	Troy Murphy
Dwight Howard	C	Jeff Foster
Season series:
7 Dec 2007: Pacers 115, Magic 109
10 Dec 2007: Magic 121, Pacers 115

The Magic appointed Otis Smith and Dave Twardzik co-general managers of the team on June 27th, 2005. Smith was later promoted to general manager, while Twardzik remains in charge of scouting. 3QC examines their draft history.

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Note: The Magic also bought the rights to Marcin Gortat, whom the Phoenix Suns selected with the 57th overall pick in this draft.

Essentially, the Magic spent four draft picks on four players who have played a combined 49 games over two-plus seasons. Only one -- Gortat -- is still with the team, although it still has the rights to Vazquez. This draft probably could not have been worse for Orlando. Grade: F

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Redick at least practices hard, but his poor defense has kept him on the bench behind Keith Bogans, Keyon Dooling, and Maurice Evans. Augustine had value last week as an expiring contract, but the Magic didn't trade him. Still, the fact that Redick at least has potential makes this draft look a little better than the previous one. Grade: D

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Note: The Magic were without their first-round pick because they sent it to Detroit as part of the trade that brought Carlos Arroyo and Darko Milicic to Orlando; Detroit used that pick on Rodney Stuckey. Additionally, the Magic sold another second-round pick, 54th overall, to Houston, which drafted Brad Newley.

The Magic have literally nothing to show from this draft, but that's actually not so bad. Otis Smith knew his team would be strapped for cash after signing a premiere free-agent, which Smith did just days later, when he reached a sign-and-trade agreement with the Seattle SuperSonics, who sent Rashard Lewis to Orlando. Still, the other teams in the division got an infusion of young talent (Atlanta: Al Horford; Charlotte: Brandan Wright, used to obtain Jason Richardson; Miami: Daequan Cook; Washington: Nick Young), while the Magic stayed the same. Still, the view from atop the Southeast sure is nice... Grade: C-

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Smith and Twardzik have presided over three drafts for the Magic, yet have have not improved the team at all. Imagine Monta Ellis throwing lobs to Dwight Howard on fast-breaks, or Paul Millsap hauling down some much-needed offensive boards. To be fair, plenty of teams passed on those players, but the fact remains: the draft is a viable way for teams to acquire young talent. For Smith and Twardzik to fail this miserably, year-after-year, is unacceptable.

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Stay tuned for more evaluations of Otis Smith's tenure as Orlando Magic general manager.

	vs.
19-28		30-18
Conseco Fieldhouse
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Travis Diener	PG	Jameer Nelson
Kareem Rush	SG	Maurice Evans
Mike Dunleavy	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Danny Granger	PF	Rashard Lewis
Jeff Foster	C	Dwight Howard

Tonight's game against the Indiana Pacers will be a big test for the Orlando Magic. No, really, I'm serious. The Pacers are on a five-game losing streak; are just 9-12 at home; and are missing Jermaine O'Neal, their All-Star center. They're so bad, Jared from Subway didn't renew his season tickets^*. In other words, they're the sort of team to which the Magic find ways to lose games. Recall the Pacers embarrassed us at home in December, which kicked off a streak of games in which the Magic were one of the league's worst defensive teams. Incidentally, the last time we played the Pacers was also the last time we were 12 games above .500... just like we are now. Ominous.

The Pacers, like the Magic, are on the second night of a back-to-back, losing a close one to the Rockets last night, 106-103. But as David Friedman points out, the Pacers did a great job of containing Yao Ming, who scored 17 points on 4-of-12 shooting. But their focus on Yao freed-up Houston's role players, who all had solid games. The night belonged to Carl Landry (?!), who came off the bench to add 22 points. I have no doubt the Pacers can nullify Dwight Howard. But if they focus too much on him, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis could be in for some big nights. Maybe even Brian Cook...?

The bench should be able to come up big for us as well. Pacers' point guards allow opponents to post an 18.2 PER against them, which basically means whomever they guard magically transforms into Jason Terry. Travis Diener, God love him, is not a good defender, and I have no doubt Jameer Nelson can abuse him on his way to the basket all night... provided that his foot is okay.  

Sometime before tipoff, be sure to check out Indy Cornrows for more on the Pacers. See you at 7. Go Magic.

Notes:
^*: He later explained he was unable to attend most of the games, and he hopes to re-up with the Pacers later when his schedule clears up.

In all the Magic games I've ever attended in my life, I'm not sure if I've ever seen an Orlando team with less passion and intensity than it did last night against the hard-nosed Utah Jazz. Paul Millsap joined Indiana's Danny Granger as the second Magic draft snub to torch us this year, scoring a career-high 28 points, including 13 straight for Utah in the -- ahem -- third quarter to put the game away for good. Here is the absolutely dreadful boxscore.

The storyline that most game recaps picked up was Stan Van Gundy's vitriolic post-game comments, which Brian Schmitz compiled in his recap:

• "We had a team-wide effort of guys getting their butts kicked."
• "It's a soft team . . . We're absolutely frightened of contact . . . We don't play hard enough. We're not tough enough and this will not stop. And until we change the way we play and play harder, it will not stop."
• "A lot of guys are OK with that as long as they get their numbers."
• "I think every film clip we show them [today] they'll have an excuse for."

It was an all-around embarrassment. Even though we lead, 50-49, at halftime, I wasn't comfortable with it. There were several bad omens: Anrei Kirilenko, a 15% three-point shooter this season, drilled three long-range bombs in the first half; Matt Harpring made two hook shots, also in the first half; and Hedo Turkoglu missed a wide-open dunk.

I feel like I should point out just how bad Rashard Lewis was. He had 10 points in the first half, but didn't score again until early in the fourth quarter when the game was pretty much in-hand for Utah. He just disappeared, largely because he got into foul trouble guarding Paul Millsap. I mean no disrespect to Millsap, but he can't be that hard to guard. He has no offensive moves; just box him out to prevent him from getting garbage put-backs. Rashard couldn't even do that. He also threw some terrible passes, which is something we should start keeping an eye on. He can find the open man, sure, but he rarely ever gets the ball to the teammate in a good spot. One lob he threw to Dwight sailed out of bounds; another was behind him, which required Dwight to contort awkwardly to catch it. He missed the ensuing hook shot, as I recall, because the time he spent recovering Lewis' errant pass allowed Utah's defenders to surround him. Yet another time, Lewis saw Keith Bogans wide-open in the right corner for a three, but his pass was low and to Bogans' right. Kool Keith was able to recover, but he no longer had a wide-open three and was instead forced to kick the ball out.

I guess it's easy to pick on Rashard due to his contract, but this criticism is indeed warranted. There's no excuse for a player of his caliber, whether he's being paid annually $15 million or $20 million, not being able to pass the ball effectively.

So, what were the positives to come from this game? It's hard to think of any. James Augustine, whom we selected instead of Millsap in the 2005 draft, scored 5 points, including a driving layup in traffic. What else? The chicken fingers were good, even if I had to wait 20 minutes in line for them. Um... I got Pat Garrity's autograph after the game. Yeah! That game was totally worth the money it cost and the time it took.

Not.

If we play this poorly against the mighty Celtics on Sunday, we'll be down by 20 points at the end of the first quarter. It's getting harder and harder to put any faith in this team, given the lack of heart it displays at home. Maybe we should work hard to let the Wizards win the division, thus given them home-court advantage in the playoffs. In Orlando, this season, there's just no such thing as home-court advantage, and that's embarrassing.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tom Ziller at Fanhouse, here's a YouTube clip of Van Gundy ripping the TrMagic after the game:

Carlos Arroyo looks to pass around the defense of the Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal in the Magic's 115-109 loss to the Pacers on Friday night.
Photo by Phelan M. Ebanhack, the Associated Press

The Magic held a 15-point lead over the Pacers in the second half, but were significantly outplayed down the stretch and lost the game in the end, 115-109. Danny Granger, whom the Magic panned on in favor of Fran Vazquez the 2005 draft, lead the Pacers with 27 points on 6-of-7 three-point shooting. Here's the box score.

Without question, tonight's game was the most frustrating one of the season. Even our embarrassing loss against the Pistons wasn't this bad because I never got the sense we were going to win that one. The Pacers just hung around, waited for us to cool off, then took advantage of their opportunities. They also created opportunities by forcing 23 turnovers, 14 of them on steals. 14 steals!  

Here's what I don't understand: we're playing a fast-moving team with good perimeter scorers, yet we didn't play Keyon Dooling, our best bench player, at all. He was healthy, dressed, and available to play, but he didn't get into the game. He certainly would have helped defensively, and he's been hot offensively of late. Stan Van Gundy indeed made a dire mistake by not putting him in the game.

Credit the Pacers for sticking to their game plan and for not backing down from a superior opponent. They won this game every bit as much as we lost it. In the end, it's just one game out of 82. For the first 20 games, we beat the teams we were supposed to beat. That changed tonight, but blowing one game out of 21 isn't so bad, right?

Miscellaneous stuff:

• The Magic's lineup at the end of the third quarter: Carlos Arroyo, J.J. Redick, Keith Bogans, Brian Cook, and James Augustine. I don't think that lineup would have even seen the floor in the preseason.
• Dwight Howard had 30 points and 15 rebounds, but the Magic lost anyway. Orlando is now 3-4 this season in games in which Howard scores 30 or more points.
• James Augustine spent time at center for the first time in his career.
• 7 of the 8 Pacers who played scored in double-figures. The one who didn't Shawne Williams, made up for it by grabbing 5 rebounds.
• Despite being the only Orlando bench player to score in double-figures, and being praised by Stan Van Gundy as the only Magic player who "brought it" tonight, Maurice Evans turned in a team-worst +/- rating of -10. Go figure.
• Granger's 27-point outburst is one of many good performances by players we passed on in the 2005 draft. Remember when Sean May came off the bench for Charlotte last year and torched us for 32 points? Me too.

	vs.
16-4		9-10
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Neson	PG	Jamaal Tinsley
Keith Bogans	SG	Mike Dunleavy
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Danny Granger
Rashard Lewis	PF	Jermaine O'Neal
Dwight Howard	C	Jeff Foster

• The Pacers don't have a great collection of talent. So how are they hovering around .500? With balance and teamwork, according to Indy Cornrows.
• The Magic should be happy Jermaine O'Neal will play tonight. As my colleague Steve at Clips Nation pointed out before the Pacers played the Clippers the other night, the Pacers are worse off when Jermaine O'Neal plays.
• It's a shame we don't have Trevor Ariza around anymore. He's good at dunking on O'Neal:
  Photo by Stephen M. Dowell, the Orlando Sentinel
• Indiana plays at the second-fastest pace in the league; only Denver averages more possessions per game. Golden State and Phoenix get more hype as running-and-gunning teams because of their reputation. If the Pacers keep this up, they'll soon be branded one of the league's more fun teams to watch.
• Speaking of Phoenix, the Pacers sure gave them a helluva game the other night. They played the Suns better than we did in both our tries this season. We shouldn't let our guard down.
• Expect Dwight Howard and his Magic teammates to get to the foul line frequently tonight. The Pacers allow more free-throw attempts per game than any other defense in the league. In spite of their charitable ways, they're still in the top half of the league in defensive efficiency.

Should be a close one tonight; I don't think the Pacers are pushovers. I'll be listening to the game for free online thanks to NBA Audio League Pass. It's awesome. Please tell your friends.