<div align="center"><font color="Purple">Los Angeles Lakers (3-3)</font> @ <font color="Blue">Orlando Magic (3-2)</font></div> <div align="center">November 12, 2004</div> <div align="center">TV: WRBW UPN 65 in Orlando, NBA League pass otherwise.</div> Projected starting lineup for the Magic: Tony Battie - C (depending on the severity of Cato's ankle injury) Dwight Howard - PF Grant Hill - SF DeShawn Stevenson - SG (depending on the severity of Mobley's groin injury) Steve Francis - PG Projected starting lineup for the L.A. Lakers: Chris Mihm - C Lamar Odom - PF Caron Butler - SF Kobe Bryant - SG Chucky Atkins - PG Overview: The Los Angeles Lakers come to Orlando for the third game in a four game road trip to face the Magic who are coming off a loss on the road to the Washington Wizards. Neither team looks anything like they did last year as the Lakers are now more centered around Kobe Bryant, have a new coach and traded away Gary Payton and Shaq to get the majority of the players currently in their starting lineup. On the other hand, the Magic - as well all know - did a complete overhaul of their roster in the offseason as well. The coaches of both teams come into this game looking to prove themselves. Rudy Tomjanovich is looking to prove that he is worthy of coaching the Lakers and Johnny Davis is trying to convince everyone that last year's debacle of a season was not due to poor coaching, but rather due to a lack of depth. So far this season, both teams have done relatively well with the Lakers coming into the game 3-3 and the Magic a slightly above average 3-2. Both teams appear to be lower tier playoff teams in their respective conferences, but given the fact that both teams have greatly changed rosters, all bets are off this year. Matchup to watch: The guys that I think everyone should be watching in this game are not the players that everyone is going to focus on Friday night. Unfortunately, the matchup of Lamar Odom and Dwight Howard is going to be overshadowed by the matchup of Kobe Bryant and Steve Francis. Seeing how Francis is playing more and more off the ball as the season goes on with Nelson or Hill controlling the point, it wouldn't be shocking to see him matched up with Bryant throughout the game. However, I think that the matchup of Dwight Howard and Lamar Odom is going to be a big key to the winning team's success simply due to the fact that both players lead their teams in rebounding. Whichever player performs better in the paint is going to give their team a huge boost on both sides of the court in my opinion. Also, Lamar Odom is going to be the second option on offense for the Lakers and therefore, if Dwight Howard can make it tough for him to score, it's just going to put more pressure on Kobe to put up big numbers. <font color="Blue">explosive's Keys to a Magic Victory:</font> <ul> [*]Establish a productive halfcourt offense - The Magic's inability to produce within the halfcourt offense so far this year has caused them to look much worse than they actually are on the offensive side of the ball. When you watch the Magic, you see that they score most of their points on the fast break and in transition. Even when the other team scores, they try to push the ball up court as quickly as possible. It's almost as if they're admitting that they are stagnant within a halfcourt offense. I love Steve Francis, but he struggled playing in Houston last year for the same reason. Somehow the Magic are going to have to play well on offense without relying on running so much. In my opinion, if they relied less on running an uptempo offense all the time, turnovers would be less frequent and the Magic would have an easier time putting opponents away in the second half. [*]Shoot better from beyond the arc - There was a little bit of improvement in this area the other night against Washington, but the Magic are still not shooting three pointers like they should be and are in the proverbial cellar statistically when it comes to shooting beyond the arc. Hedo Turkoglu and Pat Garrity, the best three point shooters on the team, need to get hot...quick. If they can start making the defense come out to respect their long range jumpers, it's really going to open things up on the inside for the Magic who love to drive to the basket this year. [*]Don't allow the Lakers second chances on offense - This one goes back to the Dwight Howard/Lamar Odom matchup. If the Magic can avoid giving the Lakers second opportunities on offense and rebound better defensively, they're going to have a much easier time winning games. One of the main reasons the Magic were the worst team in the league last year was because they couldn't rebound effectively on defense and the current Magic still have that problem in my opinion. Dwight Howard is great, but he can't do it all. With Cato injured, it is going to be interesting to see how Battie, Michael Bradley and Garrity attempt to assist Howard in carrying the load in rebounding. [/list] <font color="Blue">explosive's Prediction:</font> The Magic seem to play really well at home this year for some reason, so I'm going to bet on the underdog in this one and say that the Magic take this game by no more than 2-3 points. Kobe Bryant is going to light them up given the fact that he is probably going to have Deshawn Stevenson guarding him more than anybody (unless JD puts Francis on him) and because he's really their first option on offense, but the other players are going to have a hard time scoring against this new Orlando team who is playing some great defense thus far in my opinion (except for the Charlotte game ) <font color="Blue">Magic by 3 </font> So yeah, that's my preview. Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I figured that I would skip that and try to focus more on the content and analysis of the game. Any criticism/opinions are welcome.
Nice Preview explosive. If Cato and Mobley can play, I think the Magic will pull off the win. If they don't play, I expect the Lakers to win because Deshawn Stevenson can't cover Kobe Bryant. Hopefully Steve Francis can take advantage of Chucky Aktins and score 20 points. The Magic need to make sure Dwight Howard stays out of foul trouble. And Last but not least, the Magic need Grant Hill to play big like he has in the last couple of games. We need a good defensive player on Kobe because he is one of the best one-on-one players in the NBA. If Cuttino Mobley can't suit up and stick him, the Magic will be in trouble.
This should be an interesting game for me seeing as how i dislike the lakers and love the Magic and everyone else in my family are the exact opposite. If Cato and Mobley are able to play and play well tonight along with Dwight and Steve,we shouldnt have a problem winning this game. If they don't then we lose but not by much. Also if we get a lad early we absolutely NEED to hold on to it and build on it, are games have been too close in the start of the season becuase we let huge leads slip out from underneath us. I say Magic by 2 in this one.
they have to defend kobe. forget about the other guys. just defend kobe. usually, when kobe gets the inbound, he won't pass and just take it to the hole. cuttino mobley should hold him down to less than 25 points for the magic to win. if he does that, orlando will win by 4 or more. also, another big game by grant will help.
first of all, nice preview, thanks for the effort <div class="quote_poster">Quoting explosive:</div><div class="quote_post">The Magic seem to play really well at home this year for some reason, so I'm going to bet on the underdog in this one and say that the Magic take this game by no more than 2-3 points.</div> but I don't think that magic is the underdog team tonight. in fact, the bookmarkers make the lakers the underdog, magic the favorite to win the game. the handicap is magic -1.5 pts that means if you bet on magic have to win two. head to head matchup is magic (1.77), lakers (1.97) i have a couple of questions: any updates on mobley and cato? are they going to be healthy and play to night? is bryant having injury as well? i'll go for magic win by 4. Hopefully they wont give up too many offensive rebounds to the lakers...
yeah me too....any update? are they going to play?????? i hope they play tonight...we must win this game
Kobe did have an injury of some kind. Didnt really hear what exact. Didnt have time to read the articel but they say he is still playable against Magic. As a Laker fan im saying Lakers by 2. I know people here aint gonna like me cause i said that but i have a good feeling about this game
OMG I don't like you cause you said that! LOL Just Kidding :mrgreen: Everyone has a right to there opioion.
At halftime the Magic are leading this one with a score of 57 to 55. Steve Francis leads all scores with 21 points. Francis also has 3 assists and 5 rebounds. Kobe Bryant leads his team with 19 points. This game has been a great one to watch with all of the offense. Steve Francis is playing awesome along with Grant Hill who has 12 points and 5 rebounds. I think that the Magic are going to win this one because they look so energized.
On Yahoo they have something called GameChannel if you look at the Box Score on this game. That doesn't have radio but it has play by play updates that come onto the screen.
Hill played a hell of a game a 27-12-4 also 4 steals and 2for 2 behind the arc, Howard is still on fire for the boards(15) Francis almost had another triple-dub. The Magic are really coming together
Magic ended up winning this game by more than I expected: 122-113. Francis, Hill, Garrity and Turkoglu all had huge games and the Magic put out a great effort to pick up the win. After tonight's game, you have to wonder if there is any way that that Magic aren't going to be able to compete for the division title this year. Yes, I think they're that good. I hate to toot my own horn here, but I feel I have to. The three keys that I listed to the Magic winning this game were all major parts of why they ended up coming back and beating the Lakers. They established halfcourt offense relatively well (still could improve some though), they rebounded well (see Dwight Howard's 15 rebounds), and most importantly - they shot 54% (12-22) from beyond the arc. Great game, good to see the Magic selling out the TD Waterhouse Centre again and hopefully I'll get to see them play the game against the Jazz on Wednesday.
The magic look like something that we havent seen in a magic ball club in a while, they are playing as a team! Steve Francis is leading this team to victories, while the supporting cast around him are playing very well.They can be the suprise team this year if they keep up consistancy and stay healthy.
The Magic are awesome. 4 Players with over 20 points! Dwight Howard had a game high 15 rebounds and Grant Hill looked amazing. I was freaking out when Garrity and Hill were hitting those threes! Steve Francis put up some great shots and had 32 points. The Magic are playing so great. I am so excited!
