<div align="center"> [/div] <font color=""Teal"">Minnesota Timberwolves</font> <font size=""1"">(Mike James, Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell, Kevin Garnett, Mark Blount)</font> Dwane Casey Keys To The Game <font color=""Teal"">*Force Turnovers</font> It's no secret that the way to beat us is to pressure our players into committing stupid turnovers. We've been doing it all season and if the Wolves can play intense defense tonight, it'll be hard for Orlando to gain momentum and put together nice offensive runs. <font color=""Teal"">*Get Garnett The Ball</font> Kevin Garnett can score from anywhere on the court and at times looks like a man among children. Dwight is probably going to be tired after matching up againt Jermaine O'Neal last night so if Garnett can get to the basket or get Dwight in foul trouble, Minnesota will be in good shape. <font color=""Teal"">*Slow Down Grant Hill</font> He's been very good this season and has scored in double digits in every game this season. He is in midseason form and has been very consistent (I know, seeing Grant Hill and consistent in the same paragraph looks funny). Trenton Hassell is a good defender and he will have his hands full tonight with Hill. <div align="center"> Key Matchup </div> <div align="center">Dwight Howard vs. Kevin Garnett</div> The Key Matchup of the night is obvious; Dwight vs. KG. These two have had some big match-ups in the past and they both respect each other a lot. "That kid (Howard) is a freak of nature, man," Garnett said. "I don't know what they put in the milk these days for these young kids, but that kid is a freak of nature. I was nowhere near that physically talented. I wasn't that gifted, as far as body and physical presence." Dwight also looks up to Kevin Garnett (he recently said KG is his favorite player) and has modeled his game after The Big Ticket. "All the things he (Garnett) did, coming out of high school and being a young big man who excelled in the league. He was a real inspiration to me and I want to try and be even better than he is," said Howard. <div align="center"></div> After a long game against the Pacers last night, I really hope the Magic don't come out tired and sloppy today. Right now, we have a better record than Minnesota and I feel that we matchup well against them. I have a feeling we are going to pull out a win and I think Dwight will FINALLY break out of his slump. I know I've been saying that a lot but something tells me he finally has a good game because he always shows up to play against KG. He really respects him and wants to have a big night against his favorite player. I'm going to predict a Magic win, 102-97. Go Magic!
Thanks again for the great preview. It seems like we have the right defense and offense to win, but turnovers are killing us. I really hope he can finally stop the bleeding tonight.
i think who ever wins the dwight/kg matchup wins the game, either that or the PG matchup...there is plenty of matchups to be won tonight (grant hill./ricky davis shopuld be interesting)
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Orlando forward Grant Hill was inactive for Saturday night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, part of the Magic's plan to rest the injury-prone star more this season," according to an Associated Press report on ESPN.com.</div> Source Interesting game plan. What's even more interesting is that were are killing the Wolves right now without him. It's 59-41 at halftime. We are beind led by our Twin Towers, Dwight and Darko. Dwight has 14 points and 13 rebounds and Darko has 10 points and 3 rebounds. And remember, this is only halftime. I really impressed by these two guys tonight. Jameer has 10 points as well and is 4-5 from the field with only two turnovers. We're playing great last night and we look like the team that was dominating at the end of last season. With that said, do you Grant Hill is hurting this team? The obvious answer is no because of his production and stats early on. But if you think about it, we didn't have him last year during our run and early on this season he's been starting and our record isn't great. At the end of last season everything was clicking and our guys gained a lot of chemistry. Then, we start this season and all of sudden Grant Hill is starting and he's getting a lot of touches on offense. This is much different from what worked last season and I'm thinking his presence might have hurt us early on. If you need more evidence, look at the way we are performing tonight with him out of the lineup. We are moving the ball around and Dwight looks great. Maybe Grant averaging double digit points isn't what this team needs anymore and maybe he's better off coming off the bench? I don't know but I just find it very interesting the way our team seems to change when he isn't on the court. One last thing, I hate Pat Garrity. I know we all hate him but he has played horrible tonight. That's right, in the 7 minutes and 49 seconds he's been on the floor, he has just embarrassed himself. He has been swatted by Garnett, committed two fouls, and killed any attempt at scoring one last shot before the half ended. There was like 7 seconds left and Jameer passed Garrity the ball at the three point line. Pat was wide open, hesitated, and then tried to pass the ball to the Hedo with like 1 second left on the clock. Of course, the buzzer sounded before Turkoglu could do anything. Why are we paying Garrity? Maybe the real question is why are we playing Garrity? I know his long range shot is nice but not when he is always hesitating and when you just drafted arguably college basketball's greatest shooter in the lottery over the offseason. Redick is better than Garrity and I think we should at least give him a chance.
Dwight has been lights out this game. 19 points 18 rebs heading into the fourth quarter and only 6 team turnovers so far!
Dwight has 19 points and 18 rebounds. Jameer has 17 points, 3 assists, and a killer crossover. Our team has only 8 turnovers. This has been a perfect game for us. Is it a coincidence that we're doing it without Grant Hill?
gr8 game...dwight simply dominated...darko's coming out party was tonight, i think from here on out he will be great...ariza was excellent...11 turnovers...hopefully we are coming into our own and gelling
I believe it is coincidence. I could understand if he was a selfish superstar, but he passes the ball. He doesn't really stop ball movement and he gives us a veteran to rely on down the stretch. He's still a little rusty(which is a given) and doesn't have much chemistry with the others yet. I certainly wouldn't call Grant a liability out there. Have you guys noticed that when Dwight gets a couple of early rebounds that he is so much more active and agressive in all aspects?
What a great game for Dwight and the magic. Jameer is just amazing right now, his stroke is on and no one can stop him. D12 was tearing KG and the timberpups up. I hope we can continue this type of play. The best part of all this game is we didnt have our leading scorer in the game and we played garrity. Two aspects of the game i would have figured would have lead to a lose... Hope they bring this type of intensity to Boston on monday...
I couldn't have hoped for a better game. Dwight dominated, Jameer looks like he has calmed down in the turnover department (although he still needs to bump up that assist ratio), Darko and Ariza came off the bench and played well and Mike James continued to show that he isn't a superstar point guard.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> Have you guys noticed that when Dwight gets a couple of early rebounds that he is so much more active and agressive in all aspects?</div> I have noticed this as well. He gets into a rhythm and his confidence starts to soar. This is especially true when Dwight is playing against the elite big men in the leauge because it seems like he wants to prove himself and earn their respect. I have noticed that Dwight's offense effects his defense because if he throws down a monster dunk, he's more likely to go down and block a shot on the other end of the floor. I guess his adrenaline starts flowing and like I said before, I think his confidence raises, making him more aggressive. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chuck:</div><div class="quote_post">Great preview too, Swish</div> Thanks Chuck.
I just hope this is the game that the Magic needed in order to calm down on the turnovers. We cant afford to avg 20+ turnovers against good teams like Heat, Cavs, Pistons and Bulls. I may be going out on a limb but if we can keep our turnovers under 13 a game we have a chance to beat anyone any given night. We would also need to learn how to stop the guard play from the opposing teams star player. That is my main concern after our turnover problems. we have been torched by the star players on each and every team we have played. But this game was great and so was the preview, sorry I forgot to mention that earlier.
<div class="quote_poster">smokrockz Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">What a great game for Dwight and the magic. Jameer is just amazing right now, his stroke is on and no one can stop him. D12 was tearing KG and the timberpups up. I hope we can continue this type of play. The best part of all this game is we didnt have our leading scorer in the game and we played garrity. Two aspects of the game i would have figured would have lead to a lose... Hope they bring this type of intensity to Boston on monday...</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Swish15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Source Interesting game plan. What's even more interesting is that were are killing the Wolves right now without him. It's 59-41 at halftime. We are beind led by our Twin Towers, Dwight and Darko. Dwight has 14 points and 13 rebounds and Darko has 10 points and 3 rebounds. And remember, this is only halftime. I really impressed by these two guys tonight. Jameer has 10 points as well and is 4-5 from the field with only two turnovers. We're playing great last night and we look like the team that was dominating at the end of last season. With that said, do you Grant Hill is hurting this team? The obvious answer is no because of his production and stats early on. But if you think about it, we didn't have him last year during our run and early on this season he's been starting and our record isn't great. At the end of last season everything was clicking and our guys gained a lot of chemistry. Then, we start this season and all of sudden Grant Hill is starting and he's getting a lot of touches on offense. This is much different from what worked last season and I'm thinking his presence might have hurt us early on. If you need more evidence, look at the way we are performing tonight with him out of the lineup. We are moving the ball around and Dwight looks great. Maybe Grant averaging double digit points isn't what this team needs anymore and maybe he's better off coming off the bench? I don't know but I just find it very interesting the way our team seems to change when he isn't on the court. One last thing, I hate Pat Garrity. I know we all hate him but he has played horrible tonight. That's right, in the 7 minutes and 49 seconds he's been on the floor, he has just embarrassed himself. He has been swatted by Garnett, committed two fouls, and killed any attempt at scoring one last shot before the half ended. There was like 7 seconds left and Jameer passed Garrity the ball at the three point line. Pat was wide open, hesitated, and then tried to pass the ball to the Hedo with like 1 second left on the clock. Of course, the buzzer sounded before Turkoglu could do anything. Why are we paying Garrity? Maybe the real question is why are we playing Garrity? I know his long range shot is nice but not when he is always hesitating and when you just drafted arguably college basketball's greatest shooter in the lottery over the offseason. Redick is better than Garrity and I think we should at least give him a chance.</div> actually, he played his best game of the season...but i still support the "trade garrity" campaign
<div class="quote_poster">Chuck Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Could you add a key bench player to the previews too? </div> No. I'll do it from now on.
<div class="quote_poster">Chuck Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Could you add a key bench player to the previews too? </div> You are so needy Chuck!
