@<span style="color:#3366FF">Orlando Magic(7-3)</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Jameer Nelson, Grant Hill, Hedo Turkoglu, Tony Battie, Dwight Howard</span><span style="color:#000000">Key Bench Players: Carlos Arroyo, Keyon Dooling, Darko Milicic, Trevor Ariza, Keith Bogans</span><span style="color:#000066">Memphis Grizzlies(1-8)</span><span style="color:#000066">Chucky Atkins, Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick, Stromile Swift</span><span style="color:#000000">Key Bench Players: Damon Stoudemire, Kyle Lowry, Dahntay Jones, Lawrence Roberts, Damon Stoudemire.</span><span style="color:#CC0000">Injury Report</span>: Pau Gasol-Foot (out) Eddi Joens-Achilles(questionable) Terence Kinsey-Orbital(Out)<span style="color:#009900">Valo's thoughts</span>: This should be an easy game for the Magic, these guys do not have the low post presence to deal with Dwight Howard, Darko Milicic, and Tony Battie at all. Swift, Warrick, Roberts, and Tsakadilis will try hard, but they won't be much. I am expecting us to hit down low often and early with alot of penetration by our perimeter players. <span style="color:#CC6600">Predictions</span>: Magic win their 5th straight, and third road win in a row for the first time since 2004.
This game is on NBA TV, so I will be watching. I think Memphis is going to get their 2nd win of the year tonight. They are at home and they are hungry for any kind of win. I think Dwight, Battie, and Darko are going to cause a lot of problems for Warrick and Stro, but I think the perimeter play of Memphis will outwork Orlando's. I see Mike Miller and Chucky having good nights. EDIT: Nice game thread valo.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticBalla32 @ Nov 20 2006, 02:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This game is on NBA TV, so I will be watching. I think Memphis is going to get their 2nd win of the year tonight. They are at home and they are hungry for any kind of win. I think Dwight, Battie, and Darko are going to cause a lot of problems for Warrick and Stro, but I think the perimeter play of Memphis will outwork Orlando's. I see Mike Miller and Chucky having good nights.EDIT: Nice game thread valo.</div>Atkins and Miller might have good nights offensively, but I think their assignments for the night will be tough on them. Neither one is too good on defense, and Nelson and Hill should be able to have very good nights against these two. Another thing working in our favor is our bench, who has been playing lights out this season. I think they will continue to come up big. To be totally honost, I think the Magic should give Hill the night off tonight, rest his feet for a couple of extra days and start Bogans. That's just what I would do tonight if I was the Magic.
Yeah smart thinking about Hill. They've been sitting him on back-to-backs, and that's smart. Orlando is definitely the better team and like you said, the bench has been superb thus far. I just think Memphis is extra hungry (I mean come on, 1-8) and I have a gut feeling they will rack up win #2 at home. EDIT: Memphis is quietly still in this thing, it's only a 5 point game at the half. But for Orlando, Dwight Howard has just been dominant. He's owning the glass and he is moving well off the screens and rolls, getting him some easy buckets. Grant Hill has been doing absolutely everything. He's scoring (really knocking down that mid-range shot that he has always mastered), he's making plays on the break, he's making defensive plays, and he's running the floor well. He's looking great out there. Turkoglu has knocked down a couple shots as well, but Trevor Ariza provided a nice burst of energy off the bench (as he always does). I'd like to see Nelson be a little more aggressive offensively in the 2nd half. For Memphis, Warrick is playing well. He's getting cleanup buckets, he's using his athleticism to his advantage, and he has done a solid job on Darko. Kyle Lowry has been excellent defensively. Mike Miller really needs to get it going, as does Chucky Atkins. Double Edit: Told you Memphis would win the game. LOWRY IS A STUD!
Come that second half, and really most of the game past the first quarter, I really felt we settled for jump shots and didn't attack the rim with the same way we usually do. Both Turkoglu and Nelson was settling for entirely to many jumpers. Come that last 5 minutes, we could not hit anything, and we had alot of good looks at the basket. Unfortunately it was just not a good night shooting. We played real real flat, like we thought we was supposed to win that game. Unfortuately Memphis showed differently. Our bench did not do almost anything, especially Keith Bogans who they should have never put back into the game. He had a few turnovers, was missing shots, and just ruining things. Dwight Howard and Grant Hill was pretty much our lone bright spots for the team.Warrick was nice tonight, displayed alot of potential for this league. Lowry was just damn amazing tonight, I was not expecting that from him. He was getting in there on defense, stripping balls, and staying in front of his men. He was definately the energy for this team, as his hustle wore off on everyone. This was a good win for the Grizzlies, terrible loss for the Magic.
Grant Hill had a good night to, and I saw some good things tonight from the team. But for every good thing, I saw bad things also. I actually think this was a good loss for a young team like us, it will show them that they need to bring their best game night in and night out. Just because they are better than the Grizzlies, does not mean the Grizzlies or any other team will roll over for them. I am expecting them to come back strong from this game, and learn alot about it.
