<div align="center"> Atlanta Hawks @ Orlando Magic Record: 23 - 21 (.523) | 15 - 27 (.357) Standings: Second, Southeast | Fourth, Southeast At Home: 14 - 9 | 7 - 12 On Road: 9 - 12 | 8 - 15 Streak: L 2 | L 1 Broadcast: SUN SPORTS, 580-AM WDBO, 1030-AM WONQ</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Orlando Magic are struggling, and they'll be trying to avoid a fifth consecutive loss at Atlanta when they face the Hawks on Monday night for the second time in four days. Orlando (23-21) has not won at Philips Arena since a 117-99 victory Nov. 26, 2004 - the Magic's third straight there. The Magic will try to snap that slide and get things turned around after winning only once in their last eight games. They're 9-16 since starting the season 14-5. Orlando fell 93-90 at home to the Hawks on Friday, as Atlanta's Joe Johnson scored 26 of his season-high 39 points in the second half to help his team overcome a 14-point deficit at the break. "I consider this a very bad loss," Magic coach Brian Hill said. "I'm very disappointed in our first- and third-quarter defense and that's all I have to say." The Hawks (15-27), though, failed to build on the victory and were defeated 104-89 at home by Philadelphia on Saturday. "It's very frustrating," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "When you come home and play in front of your fans, you want to play well. For some reason, from the beginning to the end, we just didn't have it. ... I thought their energy level was a lot higher than ours. "When we got tired, we became very individual players offensively. I don't think we had any effort defensively at all." Johnson, who leads Atlanta with 24.9 points per game, had just 16 in the loss. He's averaging 29.4 points in the Hawks' victories, but 22.3 in their defeats. Atlanta went 1-3 earlier this season when Johnson was sidelined with a calf injury. Johnson should be happy to see Orlando again as he looks to help his team bounce back. He's averaging 31.8 points in Atlanta's last five victories over the Magic, although he's managed only 13.3 per game against Orlando in the previous six losses. While the Hawks have won four in a row at home against the Magic, Orlando has taken three of the last five meetings overall. The Magic hope to contain Johnson in their first of six consecutive games against teams under .500. They return home to face Milwaukee on Wednesday, New Jersey on Friday and New York on Saturday before visiting the Bucks on Feb. 6 and Toronto the following night. Orlando hopes it can regain its early season form during that stretch after scoring only 93.4 points per game in its last eight contests, while allowing 99.8. Despite their recent defensive struggles, though, the Magic still lead the East with just 92.8 points per game. Strong defensive play is critical to the Magic's success. Orlando is scoring only 93.5 points per game - second-lowest in the East to Atlanta's 91.5. Magic forward and Atlanta native Dwight Howard had 19 points Friday. He's averaging 17.6 points and 11.8 rebounds in five games against the Hawks. The 21-year-old forward-center leads the Magic with a career-best 17.1 points and 12.3 boards per game. </div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Must win.</div> Yup, definitely. Losing two games in a row against the Hawks is unacceptable. Brian Hill needs to get this team focused tonight and make sure that we don't play down to them. We've struggled in Atlanta in the past but we must get back on track before the All-Star break unless we want to end up in the lottery again. Dwight needs to step up as the franchise player and lead this team. He'll be pumped tonight playing in his hometown of Atlanta but as the star of this team he needs to show up each and every night and play his best -- and that also means hitting free throws when we need him too.
Down 28-21 after one. Dwight has 6 shots and 4 FT's with 9 points to lead the way, so we are finally going to him. He does have 2 turnovers and only 1 rebound.
We're down by four right now early in the second quarter. It's good to see Dwight getting so many touches down low. It seems like every time we pass to him three Hawks swarm over to him and foul him though. He's hit 3-4 free throws so as long as he can stay consistent from the line we should be alright. We need to keep going to him though because Zaza can't slow him down. What's been up with Dwight's rebounding lately though? He had a horrible outing on Friday against the Hawks and he's struggling early again tonight. After a whole quarter it's unlike Howard to have only one rebound. Hopefully he can pick up the pace and grab a few before halftime. Darko is playing well tonight as well. He's contesting shots on defense (like usual) and he had a powerful dunk late in the first quarter. The refs haven't been great tonight but we've managed to stay in the game. Let's hope our guys have a strong second quarter and go into halftime with a lead.
Let's see with 9 secs to go on defense, let's put out a lineup that consists of Jameer, Arroyo, Redick, and Turkoglu. Why didn't Brian Hill just go all out and put Garrity in for Dwight and Diener in for Turkoglu? Does he want us to lose? We owned them the entire second half and then let them score 6 out of the last 8 points to tie for the quarter. 7 point lead heading into the break. I think it's safe to say that there will be no adjustments made and we will lose this game by at least 15-20.
Damn, I don't understand Hill sometimes. When he got that technical earlier in the game it pissed me off too because it killed all the momentum we had built up. It's time for Brian Hill to go. I say all Magic fans on this board change their user title to match Gators. Fire Brian Hill is our new motto. I think it's too early to say we're going to lose by 15-20 points. We need to come out and work the ball to Dwight again and get him going early. That will help his defense too because he plays better all around when he's scoring. If we lose this game, we will need to pull off a trade. There is no excuse for losing two straight games to the Hawks and it'll take a big move to get us back to where we were at the start of the season.
Dwight=1 shot in the entire 2nd quarter after 6 in the first. It's not happening. He's already going away from Dwight.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Dwight=1 shot in the entire 2nd quarter after 6 in the first. It's not happening. He's already going away from Dwight.</div> Which is why we need the Fire Brian Hill user titles. Come on guys, you know you want too! Go to the Admin. Drop Box and request it if you seriously want too.
Ha, I would but I don't think I have enough posts. I tried to change it before. Wait.. I got an idea..
<div class="quote_poster">Swish Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Which is why we need the Fire Brian Hill user titles. Come on guys, you know you want too! Go to the Admin. Drop Box and request it if you seriously want too.</div> alright, i just asked for the "fire brian hill" thing. hopefully i'll have it soon. but i'm only doing it for the sake of redick and howard.
<div class="quote_poster">hoops4life Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">alright, i just asked for the "fire brian hill" thing. hopefully i'll have it soon. but i'm only doing it for the sake of redick and howard.</div> Alright, sounds good. J.J. Redick and Dwight Howard may be the two people suffering the most under Brian Hill so I guess that makes sense. I say we bring in Stan Van Gundy because he couldn't a worse job than Hill. He got a raw deal in Miami losing his job to Riley right when when the team started doing great. I just don't think Otis has the balls to fire Hill, which really sucks. This game is just so disappointing. Not only are we losing to the Hawks again, we're getting crushed by them. This is one of the worst teams in the league and they have now embarrassed us twice in a row. I was talking to Gators about our playoff chances and I'm still optimistic we can make it as a lower seed. The East is just so bad, it's hard imagining us missing the post season again. However, we are extremely inconsistent, have terrible coaching, and lack a go to guy so if we did happen to make the lottery again, I wouldn't be that surprised. Do you guys think we're still a playoff team?
As of now, no we are not a playoff caliber team. Like you said, we are currently playing like one of the worst teams in the league. Last I checked you had to be in the top half of the league to make the playoffs. We could change it around a little and it seems like it should just be a matter of time with the talent level of the guys that we have. I guess patience is of the essence now and I'm not good with patience, so sorry if I'm really pessimistic.
We are the Hawk's bitch right now... They own us... well most of the league owns us right now... We need Ariza and Dooling back so bad... They provided us with instant energy and defense. RIght now we are getting toasted by star players every night... not even superstar players... its just sad.. we need to get our act together or we be sitting home for the playoffs...
<div class="quote_poster">Riot Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> Beautiful! You mind if I resize that picture and use it as my avatar?
