<div align="center"><font color="Blue"><font size="3">Bucks at Magic</font></font> @ When: November 3, 2004 Where: TD Waterhouse TV: Sunshine Network Time: 7:00 Fast Fact: The Bucks won three of four meetings with Orlando in 2003-04 and are 22-14 in season openers.</div> <font color="Blue">Probable Starters</font> Center Kelvin Cato / Dan Gadzuric Power Foward Dwight Howard / Joe Smith Small Foward Grant Hill / Keith Van Horn Shooting Guard Cuttino Mobley / Michael Redd Point Guard Steve Francis / Mo Williams 6th Man Stacey Augmon / Desmond Mason <font size="1">(Note: With Ford and James on the IL, Desmond Mason could possibly slide into the starting lineup.)</font> Head Coaches Johnny Davis / Terry Porter Top Matchup: Cuttino Mobley / Michael Redd <font color="Blue">Orlando's Outlook: </font> After finishing with the league's worst record last season, the Magic are welcoming changes. The Magic's starting lineup finally has something that it has been lacking since the McGrady era - a balanced team. Mobley, Francis, and Hill are all capable of putting the ball in the basket, and Dwight & Cato can rebound efficiently. After winning 4 straight preseason games, Orlando hopes to keep the streak alive. <font color="Purple">Milwaukee's Outlook</font>: Michael Redd is the bright spot on the young Milwaukee roster. He's emerged as the team leader and is capable of knocking down important shots. Guards Mike James and TJ Ford are starting the season on the injured list, so the Bucks have a very thin frontcourt. My Prediction: With Orlando having such a deep frontcourt this year, and the Bucks running thin due to injuries, I'll take the Magic by 7.
I agree. I look for the Magic to start off the season really well. I think the 3 former Rockets will play really good in their Magic debut. I think that Dwight might have an off game just because of all the jitters he will have. I pick the Magic by 4. Great preview like always Ice. I just can't wait for the season to start.
Great preview Ice, hopefully you got my PM. I definatly think the Franchise is going to have a killer game.
The Magic starters are just better then most of the Bucks starters.Not to mention the Magic have a bench with more depth, and have a lot more young talent. For the Bucks, their sucess realies on Michael Redd and Desmond Mason.When those two players play their game and play it well the Bucks are often a team to beat.They do have a problem as a team with defense,most of the guys on there rosters are average defenders and that may not be good enough for a team like the Magic. I say the Bucks take this in an upset 88-82
Good to see that you put Augmon ahead of Turk(in hopes of his shutting down Redd). I expect a Magic victory for the Bucks have really been crippled...
Finally! The season started.. Great Preview Ice, nice to see you back doing previews .. I think Dwight will have a good game, but I'm really looking foward to see how Hill performs. I hope he does a lot so he is all around the news ! Magic by 6. 19 straight wins baby!!
Magic up by 1 at the half. Hill has looked great and Howard already has 7 boards. Hopefully they pull this off.
This was a very short preview compared to others. Due to my lack of time I wanted to know if you guys even wanted these. If there isn't much feedback regarding the games then it's a waste of my time. So.. do you guys still want me to make them (and will you reply)? As for the game - Dwight has played great from what I've seen, but lets just hope he'll stay consistant. Magic up by 12
Hill is playing a nice game, 18 points so far. I thought Franchise would have been doing better at this point though...
hell yeah!!! so, what happened in the last 3 seconds? edited: wtf i can bet on my life that on nba.com it said buckrlando - 92:93 but now it shows orlando 91 bucks 92 so we lost?? edited #2: what the hell is going on on nba.com? everytime i refresh it, it says diferently now its 93-92 for magics again
No, we won. Francis made the game winner and there was .2 left on the clock. All the players started heading to the locker room b/c they thought it was over - but it wasn't and then Francis got to go to the line. He intentionally missed the shot so the clock could die out and declare the Magic victorious. Steve's final stat line was 26 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists. Dwight finished with 12 and 10. Magic - 93 Bucks - 92
no... you guys won it! 93-92, three lead changes Hill made it 91-90, Redd made it 92-91 with 3 ticks left and Francis scored on a lay up at the buzzer to win it 93-92... Hill made a successful comeback debut with 20 pts... I hope he can just stay healthy this season... go Magic
Ha, great performance by Francis already in his first game in Orlando. In Houston, McGrady has led the Rockets to two straight losses. I really wonder why we traded Steve, I was always against it even as a Rockets fan.
Awesome...I only get to see highlights but I got to see the last Part live!! G.Hill is back baby lol, look at Franchise 3 assists and a rebound shy from a triple double.. what a game!! 1 - 0 , 18 to go ... edit: Btw.. Dwight leads the NBA on block shots right now if I'm not mistaking hehe he had 4 edit2: and Yes Ice keep this going!! I'll try making previews when possible but I've been really busy
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Anton:</div><div class="quote_post">What a thriller. This is a great way to start the season.</div> You guys see that Francis dunk over Williams! That was sick! Magic are not going down easy this year, and the playoffs are expected. Hill looked very good, and Howard was great...4 blocks, how many will Emeka have in his first game?
I was very impressed with the Magic today. They played overall pretty good defense. The shot that Redd hit at the end was very well defended. Dwight started off his NBA career off very well. He's going to be a superstar in a couple of years. Dwight for ROY. Dwight will eventually learn to hit the FT's. After he missed the first 2, you could tell it got to his head. He was thinking too much when he was shooting the FT's. Once he gets more experience he will just let missed shots go and not be down on it. Franchise started off with a monster game. I know he's going to be awesome in a Magic uniform without Jeff Van Gundy as the coach. I'm so glad he warmed up to wanting to play for us. I loved it after he made the shot that he pulled his jersey and seemed really happy to be on the Magic. He will have a couple of triple doubles this year for sure. The thing that impressed me the most about Francis was his 2 TO's. That was his "weakness, he turned it over so much as a Rocket" If he can continue to keep his TO's down there for most of the year, then we will be very good. The person I was most impressed with was Hill. 20 pts and that clutch shot to give us the lead with 19 secs left before Redd and Franchise made theirs. He ran the floor very well and was bringing the ball up and running the offense even with Francis on the floor. I just hope he can continue to play to this level. 2 more thoughts about this game. Remember last year we barely won against the Knicks on opening night on the same fashion, a layup at the buzzer. Then we followed it with the infamous 19 game losing streak. My last thought is that if Tmac was still on the team we would have lost. Even last year, when he was on the Magic, I never liked him taking the shot at the end, just because he misses at least 90% of the time. Hopefully Franchise will give us some more clutch shots. EDIT: btw, Ice definetely do the previews. They are very good to read. I'm just glad the season has started.
