<div align="center"> <font color="Red">Portland Trailblazers</font> @ <font color="Blue">Orlando Magic</font> When: Wednesday November 24th Time: 7:00 PM Where: TD Waterhouse TV: Sunshine, NBALP </div> Starting Lineup Steve Francis/Derek Anderson Cuttino Mobley/Damon Stoudamire Grant Hill/Zach Randolph Dwight Howard/Shareef Abdur Rahim Kelvin Cato/Theo Ratliff 6th Man Hedo Turkoglu/Darius Miles Team Updates Orlando Orlando is coming off a very successful week. Grant Hill was named the Eastern Conference player of the week after leading Orlando to a perfect 2-0 week. Steve Francis is trying to reduce his turnovers, while maintaining Orlando's fast pace tempo. Portland The Blazers are currently 5th in the Northwest division. They have a record of 4-5 and have had a rather dull season thus far. The only bright spot on their roster is Zach Randolph who has been averaging a double double consisting of 21 points and 12 boards. Keys to the Game Orlando <ul>Maintain the tempo of the game. If Orlando can play their style of basketball then it should be a victory.[/list] <ul>Get Grant Hill involved. He's been hot as of late, and Orlando needs to try and take advantage.[/list] <ul>Make sure Dwight gets his rebounds. He's going to be playing with Zach Randolph, but Dwight must stay aggressive and fight for the boards.[/list] Portland <ul>Get off to a good start. If Portland can take the fans out of it early and get off to a good start, they could leave the Waterhouse with a W.[/list] <ul>Feed the ball to Zach Randolph.[/list] Key Matchup Dwight Howard/Zach Randolph Although the two aren't listed head to head in the starting lineup, they will be matched up together. Zach holds the edge, and Dwight needs to try and stand his own ground against him. My Prediction Mobley is back (hopefully), Grant is on fire, Francis is playing great ball, and we're at home. I predict a Magic victory.
Nice, im going to be at the game , well i predict magic win 101-94 lets see what turns out gl to blazers and magic.
The Magic will win if they can run their fast break offense effectivly. They play very well when they do this and it is a Key to the Game IMO. Dwight Howard needs to contain Randolph (like Ice said). Grant Hill will score 26 points in a winning effort. My Prediction Magic: 93 Blazers:87
Nice preview Ice, I see the Magic winning this one if they continue to play at the intensity they've been playing all season. We need to run the floor get a lead early and maintiain it so we can get the easy win. Also I hope we can get some bench play as well in this one. Magic by 6 is my predicition.
Nice Preview, your right the Magic are playing great ball so far this season, Grant Hill should have another great game, Franchise should have another great game. Hopefully Cat will come back. Magic - 94 Blazers - 84
Good preview, Ice. You're right about the key match-up being that of Howard-Randolph. I see that and, the PG match-up being what determines the out some of this game. I think Randolph will have a great game, call it a hunch. I'll go with the upset, Portland 91 Orlando 88
Cuttino Mobley will not play according to the Orlando Sentinel today, so that could be an edge for Portland, but I still think the home crowd will be a great 6th man and will help us get the victory. Hill and Francis are going to have another great game and Dwight will get 10 boards and 3 blocks.
yah, Mobley has to get healthy soon...im going to be at the game good luck to the magic we could use this win (and a heat loss ) to be ahead of our division
I didn't see the game but from the box score I can see that both of our key players had bad games, a combind 10-31 between Hill and Francis both of them scoreing 11 points each. But I noticed that Francis kept his turnovers down, only having 2. Turkoglu looked good, 5-7 from three point range, a season high 27 points, 3 steals. Turkoglu looks like he will contend to be the 6th man of the year this year.
What cost us in this game besides Francis and Hill not shooting well was the youth and lack of experence from Howard going against a dominate Power forward like Randolph. Hedo did real well he is playing like he use to play in Sac town before he lost his playing time.
