Preview: Warriors @ Magic vs <font color="DarkOrange">Golden State Warriors</font> at <font color="Blue">Orlando Magic</font> When: Friday, December 19th Where: TD Waterhouse Time: 7:00 ET TV: Local Records Warriors: 12-11, Third in Pacific Magic: 5-21, Seventh in Atlantic Previous Games <u>Orlando</u> <ul>December 17th, Won 94-90 @ Indiana December 16th, Loss 102-88 @ Chicago December 13th, Won 105-102 @ Atlanta[/list] Last 10: 4-6 <u>Golden State</u> <ul>December 17th, Won 98-85 @ Atlanta December 16th, Won 104-86 @ New York December 12th, Loss 96-85 vs New Orleans[/list] Last 10: 6-4 Probable Starters Andrew DeClercq vs Erick Dampier Juwan Howard vs Troy Murphy Gordan Giricek vs Mike Dunleavy Tracy McGrady vs Jason Richardson Rod Strickland vs Nick Van Exel Injury List <u> Orlando</u> Tyronn Lue (hip flexor) Pat Garrity Reece Gaines Grant Hill <u>Golden State</u> Adonal Foyle Popeye Jones Sean Lampley Evan Eschmeyer Team Updates <u>Orlando</u> Orlando has won 4 of the last 6 and are showing signs of life. They beat the Pacers 94-90 in the Conseco Fieldhouse with a great team effort. Rod Strickland got his first start of the season in place of injured Tyronn Lue. He contributed well with 13 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. Rookie Keith Bogans came off the bench to contribute with a double double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. <u>Golden State</u> The Golden State Warriors climbed over .500 with a victory against the Atlanta Hawks. Mike Dunleavy tied a career high with 14 rebounds for the Warriors and Jason Richardson tallied 22 points. Troy Murphy was activited from the injured list December 16 and is expected to play against the Magic. [quoteright]"It's (getting over .500) very important, especially when we want to consider ourselves a playoff contender," -Jason Richardson[/QUOTERIGHT] Keys to the Game <u> Orlando</u> <ul>Team effort. In all the Magic victories thus far, the entire team has contributed.[/list] <ul>Play defense[/list] <u>Golden State</u> <ul>Attack the basket.[/list] <ul>Contain McGrady[/list] Current Team Leaders <u> Orlando</u> <ul>Points: Tracy McGrady (24.5) Rebounds: Drew Gooden (7.8) Assists: Tracy McGrady (5.6) Steals: Tracy McGrady (1.3)[/list] <u>Golden State</u> <ul>Points: Jason Richardson (18.4) Rebounds: Erick Dampier (12.0) Assists: Speedy Claxton (3.5) Steals: Speedy Claxton (1.18)[/list] Key Bench Players <u> Orlando</u> Drew Gooden<ul>11.8 Points Per Game, 7.8 Rebounds Per Game, 1.4 Assists Per Game[/list] Keith Bogans <ul>3.6 Points Per Game, 3.6 Rebounds Per Game, .4 Assists Per Game[/list] Shammond Williams <ul>6.8 Points Per Game, 1.4 Rebounds Per Game, 2.6 Assists Per Game[/list] <u>Golden State </u> Speedy Claxton <ul>8.2 Points Per Game, 2.1 Rebounds Per Game, 3.5 Assists Per Game[/list] Clifford Robinison <ul>10.9 Points Per Game, 4.7 Rebounds Per Game, 3.3 Assists Per Game[/list] Brian Cardinal <ul>10.4 Points Per Game, 3.8 Rebounds Per Game, 1.7 Assists Per Game[/list] Key Matchup <font size="1">Tracy McGrady vs. Jason Richardson</font> The 'X' Factor(s) How will Troy Murphy come out? Ice's Take Close game, could go either way. The Magic have been very unpredictable with a victory against the Pacers and a loss to the Bulls. Recap and Boxscore following the game <font size="1">Go to NBA.com for the official preview</font>
Very hard game to predict. Should be close. As I predicted a Magic loss against the Pacers, and was shamefully wrong , I will predict a win here. Well rounded performance for the Magic.
I have to go with my Warriors. They have won the first two games of their road trip, convincably. They are playing great ball as a team and Murphy will only bring more to the table. I am not sure that Murphy will start, I don't expect him too. It would be nice if he could get in the game and get some solid minutes though, I've been waiting for this all season long. Warriors by 8.
As I mentioned on the Warriors board.I feel the guard play and now that I come to think about it the post play of GS should be too strong for the Magic.Although the Magic are playing better lately and need to take advantage of every home game as possible.
Hopefully we will win. I'll predict a close win, by about 3 pts. The whole team will be balanced with 5 guys in double digits.
I'm not. 1st let's get double digit wins and make the playoff before you talk about winning the championship. BTW, Welcome to the boards.
I think we'll win by four. It's going to be a close game down to the wire. We should be able to pull it off though.BTw great preview Ice
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Drew Gooden:</div><div class="quote_post">Troy Murphy has the worst defence I have ever seen. We are killing him down</div> That's good to here
92-78 in the 4th quarter....wow, this is clearly a Orlando rout. Are the Warriors really for real by losing to a team like this?
This was a great game to watch, I loved seeing us spank the Warriors after what they did to us last year. That Drew Gooden rub in dunk was so amazing, I loved it. We had great balance with 3 guys getting double-doubles and Bogans, and Howard came pretty close..................... How come we couldnt play the Bulls like we did the Pacers and Warriors? If we play like this consistently we can make it back to the playoffs.
I agree. We played terrificly tonight. Everyone played a God-given game making this game the second home game we've won and 1st game we won in double digits. You might want to change your avator back to drew gooden the way he played tonight. I think he said cause of his diet he was playing like this. I never knew he was out of shape. Well got to pay more attention then. Good game magic
What a game. Tmac had a great night 29 pts, 12 assists, and 7 boards. Gooden had 25 pts and 13 boards. Rod Strickland also had a double double. This is how I was expecting us to play the whole season.
Here is the boxscore: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=231219019 The Magic dominated on the boards tonight 54-31. You gotta love that.
How many times do you hear that? The Magic killing the other team on the boards. We got offensive rebound after offensive rebound. This was the best passing game from an Orlando team that I've seen in a long time. The ball movement was amazing.
The Magic are playin great along with T-Mac. 29-7-12 are great stats... 3 rebounds away from a triple double... Warriors aren't a bad team themselves. Magic are climbing their way back up the standings chart lol
When was the last time we killed someone off the boards?! Thats really nice to hear. Solid game for Gooden as ever off the bench. I really think he deserves a start. <u>Johnny's Postgame Thoughts.</u> "That was a total team effort and a good win over a very good Golden State Warriors team. We came out with a lot of intensity; we came out with great purpose and we stayed true to that for the full 48 minutes. We got contributions up and down the line from guys on the roster. It was just a great team victory for us. It's our team and we are evolving; we are growing. We're taking it one step at a time. We know we still have a lot of work to do but we think we're headed in the right direction. Our chemistry is really coming together now and we work at it. We talk about it and we know if we stay together, we'll have a chance. If we do the little things, and we do them over the entire basketball game, we'll have a chance. We've been competitive in a lot of games and now we're starting to see some of the benefits of our hard work in practice and some of the benefits of us staying tied together as we go through the NBA season. We played very well offensively tonight. We moved the ball very well. We had a couple guys with double figure assists and that indicates ball movement right there. We also rebounded the ball very well tonight against a very good rebounding Golden State team. We came in and more than held our own in that area with them. And we got out to the shooters and made it a tough game. Our guys have been working hard and it's good to see some things going our way finally. On Rod Strickland: Rod is a veteran player, he's been there before, he knows how to play. And now he's starting to really get in condition. When we first got him he wasn't in top shape obviously, but now he?s starting to round into shape. And he's really doing some nice things for us on the floor. On Rod being a starter: Well, obviously Tyronn Lue is our starting point guard and Rod is filling in very nicely for him. And again, it's not about starting, it's about playing. It's about doing what we need to do to win and it takes all 12 guys. Starting, off the bench, that's insignificant to me. The important thing is that everyone is ready when called upon and Rod certainly has been ready. On the effort tonight: We got about 45 minutes of hustle tonight. I thought for a couple minutes there we had a lag but we put it back together and did a nice job throughout the game. On Drew Gooden: I don't think it matters to him whether he starts or comes off the bench. He gives you the same performance and certainly that speaks to his professionalism knowing that this is what he needs to do to help our team. He's embraced that role, and as we speak, that's where he'll be. Any concerns coming off a big win: The only concern is that you have a little bit of a let down. We haven't played particularly well at home and we want to re-establish that we can win basketball games here. Home court advantage is important and we certainly want to take advantage of it. On Toronto: They added some very good players to their roster. Obviously Jalen Rose is a scoring point guard type guy who can also rebound. Donyell Marshall is another post guy who hurt us here against Toronto earlier. But, again, our focus is not going to be so much what Toronto is doing, it's what we're doing. And if we stay focused on what we need to do as a team, then it doesn?t matter who our opponent happens to be. We'll have a chance to be competitive and hopefully win the basketball game. Our guys were really focused on rebounding tonight. We did a good job. We knew that that was one of the keys against Golden State, to come in and hold your own with them on the glass and then also get back in transition and take away some of their easy baskets." ____________________ Gooden for 6th man?
