Orlando Magic @ Denver Nuggets Preview: 12/6/04 <div align="center"> Orlando Magic @ Denver Nuggets Where : Pepsi Center Date: Sunday December 6th TV: NBALP, Sunshine Coach Johnny Davis Probable Starters ( Steve Francis PG, Cuttino Mobely SG, Grant Hill SF, Dwight Howard PF, Kelvin Cato C) Sixth Man Hidayet Turkoglu SG/SF Coach Jeff Bzdelik Probably Starters ( Andre Miller PG, Greg Buckner SG, Caremlo Anthony SF, Kenyon Martin PF, Marcus Camby C) Sixth Man Earl Boykins PG</div> <div align="center"> Key Players </div> Why are they the Key Players? First off lets start with Stevie Franchise in 2003-04, joined Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill as the only players in NBA history to average 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in each of their first five seasons . Now in the 2004-05 season he has continued the streak or looks tobe continuing it by averaging 20.4, 6.80, and 6.4. Francis will be going against a player who at one time lead the league in assits in Andre Miller. Although, he is far from what he use to be he is still avery productive player, and will look to make his mark on one of the leagues best players in Steve Francis. I think Francis will ahve a big game tonight when Boykins is in I think he will be able to take advantage if they do put Boykins on him. Next Carmelo Anthony Anthony has had a rough very rough start to the season. With so many off the court issues, and he is a bit banged up, but he is still averaging 19.8 points per game for the Nuggets this year to lead there team in scoring and was 12-19 from the field last game against the Miami Heat. He is there most explosive player on the offensive end of the court and should look to make a big impact on this game. He will be part of one of the best matchups this night the one between him and Hill he will be facing a vetern that knows the game very well, and knows a lot of moves. Last Games Miami 95, Nuggets 104 W Orlando 96, Griz 91 W Dont Look for to much Magic from... IR 55 Andrew DeClercq IR 7 Michael Bradely IR 8 Pat Garrity Denver IR IR 50 Arthur Johnson IR 1 Voshon Leonard IR 41 Mark Pope Magic Keys... * Have a good game out of Howard Howard has really been struggling these last two games after only failing to reach double digit rebounding 2 of the Magics first 14 games Howard has combined for a total of 9 rebounds the last two games. The Magic need him to perform well on this road trip or they will be putting to much pressure on Cato to perform who has had double digit rebounding the last 4 games, and a double double 3 out of the last 4 games. * Have a good game form Hill and Francis this is a repeating thing. When Francis and Hill perform they have won when they dont they have lost. Its a simple thing, but it has held true all year. * Limit turnovers. Turnovers imo if the Magic do not learn to control them it will be there down fall. Especially in the playoffs when the game becomes more of a half court game in which it will require more ball handling. Francis had 5 turnovers last game, but in the end the Griz finished with more turnovers and the team pulled out a win. Golden Keys for the Nuggets... * Get a good contribution from Carmelo Anthony like stated before he has gone through a rough stretch so far this year, but shot well there last game so if they can get a good contribution from him they will have a good chance to win. * Limit the Magic fast break points the Magic had been on a streak of scoring over 100 points the last few games until the Memphis one.I do not think the Nuggets can out run the Magic they need to turn it into a slow pace to stay in it with the bodies they have they could control the half court game. Leo's Prediction I predict that we ( Magic) will fall behind early in the first by 5 points. Then come back in the second with bad shooting and fall behind by double digits at half time, but I do see us making a run in the third, and using our defense to eventually win the game with a second half come back 99-95. I think that Francis and Hill will have good games, and Howard will break out of his slump. I think that Cato will have aanother good night on the boards and finish the game with a double double. We will have a good matchup between Nelson and Boykins this game and Jameer will play well scoring double digit points in this game. he benches for both teams will play a huge factor for them this game I think hedo will be one of our leading scorers this game along with Hill and Francis.
I don't really have a good feeling about this game for the Magic. I think that the Nuggets will play good ball and beat us by 7. Mobley needs to have a huge game for us to win, IMO. Melo and Kmart will be too much to handle. Dwight will break out of his slump tomorrow. He always seems to come out and play against the great PF's and Kmart is one. The key matchup IMO is Cato/Camby. Whichever controls the boards and changes the most shots around the basket will be the winning team.
I think K-Mart and Dwight Howard is the key matchup. Grant Hill against Melo is another good matchup. I think the Magic will win this game because we have a better bench than they do. Like Pure Skillz said, we need to limit turnovers because the Nuggents will take advantage of them. This should be a good game and we can actually watch it this time .
I agree with sportsrock.. everybody will have a good game from both teams, which gives us a plus since they don't have Lenard and We have Mobley. I think that Cato vs Camby matchup will be it, unless K-Mart has a 25pts + game. Magic by 6... around 102 - 96
The Nuggets can be beat. I doubt you'll have the luck of Miami and they will shoot lights out on you or the refs will hand Denver the game. Nobody has that kinda luck. But I think the Magic will pull it off. By 8pts.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Miami's Finest:</div><div class="quote_post">The Nuggets can be beat. I doubt you'll have the luck of Miami and they will shoot lights out on you or the refs will hand Denver the game. Nobody has that kinda luck. But I think the Magic will pull it off. By 8pts.</div> Let it go. Heat lost because they were careless with the ball and didn't play good defense. Denver by 6.
This should be a good game, the Magic are a top team in the East this year, and they play a Nuggets team who is just as talented. Its going to be key for the Magic swingmen to be factors in this game. Cuttino Mobley, Hedo, and Grant Hill will have to produce, but they will find that Greg Buckner and Carmelo Anthony are not pushovers on defense. The Nuggets are going to have to attack the paint, I think Kenyon will be able to frustrate rookie Dwight Howard some, because K-Mart is a very agressive and emotional player. Carmelo should be able to use his strength to post up players like Mobley and Hill, I expect him to have a good game, he will start out going inside and then that will lead to defenders giving him the outside shot, which he will make more then miss(usually).
Grant Hill will have no problem to contain Melo and to win this game, we must control the board again, and we must cut down the turnovers. If Francis can hold the ball, and D12 will find back his form to get another Double Double, plus the contribution of the bench we shall win this one easily. I say we can win by 7.
Nuggets up 68-46 at the half. Dwight has 10 pts and 5 boards, Francis has 10 pts and 6 assists. Mobley leads with 12 pts. Hill has only taken 5 shots and has 6 pts. We need to get some defense and get Hill back into the offense to have a chance at making this game interesting. I told you that I just had a bad feeling about this game, I hope we can make an amazing comeback and win, but this road trip looks like it's gonna start off really bad.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting sportsrock37:</div><div class="quote_post">Nuggets up 68-46 at the half. Dwight has 10 pts and 5 boards, Francis has 10 pts and 6 assists. Mobley leads with 12 pts. Hill has only taken 5 shots and has 6 pts. We need to get some defense and get Hill back into the offense to have a chance at making this game interesting. I told you that I just had a bad feeling about this game, I hope we can make an amazing comeback and win, but this road trip looks like it's gonna start off really bad.</div> I thought we would be down at half time like I siad in my predictionour team just seems to come out after a win sometimes, and feel like there walking on air until like half time when they get a reality check. They have a history of going on runs in the third so lets see if that happens hopefully it will. We are not down like 36 points we can still come back, and make this game a contest.
14pts down final quarter, it is do-able. To win i think it might well be a OT game. ( i mean if we do end up winning I reckon it will be through OT, not saying htat we nec come back to win, but certainly I think it will be a close game)
Taking a possitive for a negative: As I write this Orlando are down to Nuggets by 115 - 102 Obviously this is a big loss with Cato getting injured (hopefully not major), and starting the road trip off badly. Sending our record to 11-6 and putting a fair few of our fellow forum bud's in a bad mood! But what possitive can you take? Its obviously the rookie Howard, again he is back, managing to rock a big 10 rebounds, but a joint team high of 23 (1 pt of his career high so far). BUT what is the point, a rare good point in what is a bad game? We all know the forumula to Orlando success, Francis and Hill put up 20+ each we win (unfortunatly it didnt work tonight). But we did see 3 players reach over 20 pts, including Howard who ususally puts only half that up. So we see Francis and Howard take a decent 23 each, Hill with 20 and mobley with a good average 17. Does this mean we might see Howard sharing in the points, it seems that he is more than capable of putting up big numbers in rebs and pts each night, if simply allowed to take the shot rather than dishing it back to stevie. Mind you, despite decent numbers from 4 of the 5 starters, it was a dissapointing bench performance, 19pts, which Hedo is more than capable of averaging near
Couldve...Shouldve...Wouldve Wow...This was one of the worst performances of the year. They had a horrible first half. I think they played great in the 2nd half. They COULDVE won They SHOULDVE won the WOULDVE won ...if they had their big men. Battie was suspended for this game. Cato was injured mid-way through the 3rd. Kasun had 5 fouls and couldnt play defense for crap. Hunter just fouled like hell and turned the ball over too many times. and Dwight Howard...the single light of this game...23 points 10 rebounds 4 assists no fouls 7/12 from the field, 4 steals and sadly 4 TO. They got within 11 points but they couldnt get back within the 10-point barrier. They played horrible in the first half trailing by 10 after the first quarter and losing 12 more in the 2nd quarter for a grand total of 22 point deficit at the half. In the 3rd quarter they were just starting to make a run when disaster struck. Cato was driving and jumped for a dunk. Someone was there and jumped with him. Cato came crashing down and dislocated his shoulder. he was also called for the offensive foul. Here are the reasons we lost: Turnovers Cato Refs Lackluster Defense in the 1st half The one bright side is that Howard played great. IMO he outplayed K-Mart. They both had 23 points. K-mart had 12 rebounds and Dwight had 10. Dwight had 4 assists and no fouls. K-mart had 1 assist and 5 fouls. K-mart also had a blocked shot. Dwight should get the ball more... Disappointing game. We can just hope Cato can get better soon.
I really believe this loss is due the exhausting travelling to Denver, with adjusting to the air pressure and time zone difference, our team didn't have the energy to play both offense and defense. This was a good loss and hopefully a wakeup call for them: This is the Western Conference, and you're playing on the road.
Yeah, our offense was great. It's always hard to lose when you have 3 guys with 20+ pts. I sure hope Johnny Davis corrects this problem and they come out and shutdown the Jazz to under 90 pts. This was a big reality check for the Magic. They aren't going to come out and beat every team. Hopefully they can bounce back from this.
I think really what lost it was TO and Fouls, that just opened up our D to much. We did have a weak D, but we also were on offense well. We let in 20 points of TO's and missed like 10 free throws. We also just let them have the ball and set up a new offense WAY to much with stupid passes and fouls.
I totally agree with u on the Howard part, as I posted on the other thread w/ nuggets. Howard showed last night that he can score, EVEN when Hill, Mobley (sorta) and Francis are picking up big points. Typically we see Francis and Hill combine for about 40+ (say 20 from hill 25 from Francis, sometimes more, sometimes less) but Howard only puts in 10pts max. Last night he showed that hill and francis can combine for 43 and howard and mobley can had a further 40 to that. With those numbers (83pts) from our starters, more clever less lackluster play of TO's Fouls and stupid (yes, stupid) refs, and the fact that we wont be playing in some messed up air pressure that equates to the most unfair home court advantage in league history aside from fan support. Furthermore - Hedo - 15pts off bench + when Cato is back (I think battie will do a fine job being help side with Howard, who will now do the work for Cato and Howard, so expect another 20+ pt game, 10+ rebs and a few assists), and also deshawn getting maybe double figures we should have - if people score a decent average, ball distribution is clever we can just win on acedemic points alone, we will score more than people can put past us (in theory) OMFan pointed out something I missed - Howards lack of fouls. The past 2 games (knicks and grizz) were big foul games, esp for howard who got fustrated etc.. but he showed he learned quick, even against K-Mart, who many predicted to wind Howard up with his emotional play. Another benefit of Howard getting in on scoring, we have more scorers. Now that sounds stupid, and yes I agree, but when you look @ it like this. Currently we produce from Francis, Cat, Grant, hedo on his night, other wise we kick it under the ring for like 25pts combined between the 4 forwards. With Howard being a scoring threat down low in the post, with when kelvin is back another 10 means that we can have weight of defense pushed onto just stopping the shooters scoring, we can just kick out of the double teams or men up in the face and pass it into another player and expose the D alot more. I think Howard should be asked to produce 15+ pts a game really, cos he is more than capable of doing it.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting sportsrock37:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah, our offense was great. It's always hard to lose when you have 3 guys with 20+ pts. I sure hope Johnny Davis corrects this problem and they come out and shutdown the Jazz to under 90 pts. This was a big reality check for the Magic. They aren't going to come out and beat every team. Hopefully they can bounce back from this.</div> They will and they can. Denver is always a tough start for an East team on their road trip in the West. But Orlando has now a day off and then play Utah, and this one should comparable easy. They needed a day to get used to all the stuff around, the pressure and all that, they should be now okay, the energy should be back and Howard is coming from a good game and should have enough confidence, also Battie is back then and can give us some more defensive presence while Cato will be out for at least a week.
The fact that denver cheat alone by having stupid air pressure difference (yes cos they are a mile high, but still, do some funky underground stadium or something !!) annoys me. Should do a compesation ball that makes up for the difference in air pressure or something.
