Who: Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets When: 8:00 PM ET Where: T.D. Waterhouse Centre <u><font size="3">Projected Starting Lineups</font></u> <font color="Blue"><u>Orlando Magic</u></font> <font size="1">(Steve Francis, Doug Christie, Grant Hill, Dwight Howard, Kelvin Cato)</font> <font color="Blue"> 6th Man</font> <font size="1">Hedo Turkoglu</font> <font color="Red"><u>Houston Rockets</u></font> <font size="1">(Bob Sura, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Yao Ming)</font> <font color="Red">6th Man</font> <font size="1">Dikembe Mutumbo</font> <u><font size="3">My Prediction</font></u> This is going to be a great game with the return of Tracy McGrady to Orlando. Hopefully, we can contain McGrady and Yao Ming because they are capable of dominating a game. Doug Christie should match up against McGrady with ex-Rocket, Kelvin Cato matched up against Yao Ming. I think the Magic should win this game if we can get rebounds and do well early. Steve Francis and Kelvin Cato are also facing their old team so hopefully they can play well in front of them. <font color="blue">I predict a Magic win 102-97.</font>
The game is going to be the most exiting magic game of the season. My prediction is a magic win probably 105-85. Don't look at me like I am crazy but the magic this season are capabe of taking out any team in the N.B.A. M.V.P Francis-48 pts,8 reb- 7 assists- 2 steal McGrady-50 pts, 8 reb- 2 assists, 1 steal Expect Francis to duck on Yao and T-whack to dunk on Cato or Hill. When you have the leagues best Pg, a all star Sf, and a rookie who has no limits you should never lose. Magic 2005 record should be 60-22 It probably will be 50-32 Top 4 seed in East baby LETS GET IT STARTED!!!!!!!!!!
We lost, of course we lost. Why? Because we played no defense. At least that's what the box score and recap implies. Why do we still try to outscore our opponent, even though we now have one scorer less? Why on earth are we still playing with a tall and slow SF, who can't play any defense, on the SG starter spot? I hoped DC started by now and would take control of the opponents most threatening offensive player, this time no other than T-Mac. But know, Hedo starts at SG, Hedo who we normally need off the bench to provide bench scoring, something we lack since he starts, we only had 9 points off the bench. Speaking of bench, DeClerq comes to my mind: 5 minutes and 2 fouls. That's right, thats all he did, 2 fouls, Kasun would've done better than that. It's just his second game ofter coming back but I doubt that his production for us will increase. Rebounds? We got dominated, allowing 17 offensive rebounds leading to 28 second chance points. Positive Things? Even though Francis played a season high 46 minutes in which he scored 28 points, dishing out 9 assists, grabbing 7 rebounds, plus 1 steal and 1 block, he only committed 1 turnover! Alltogether we only committed 11 as a team. Dwight had a solid game, his FT perfomance is getting better and better, I think it's time for him getting the ball more often, he only averages about 7 shot attempts per game. I haven't seen the game, so I need your feedback on how accurate my interpretation of the boxscore and recap is. Also I like to hear your opinion of the game and the reason why we lost.
your reading WAY to much into this. We have just come of the back of two very tough wins, Indiana where we had to fight to just keep hold of the lead at their home then pistons where we constantly fought back, and the task of doing that against Houston (which we nearly did, with 3 mins left we were down 4pts) was just a bit to much. Why we lost, the offensive boards gave them way to many 2nd chance points, which we usually never give up, since we are the #1 rebounding team. That killed us. Hedo starter? Whats wrong with that, hes averaging over 20pts as a starter, way more than Cat did, and infact the final games of Cat playing with us he averaged under 10pts a game (with a 3, a 4 and a 8 in 3 of 4 games i believe). Hedo has done a awsome job at SG and I find it hard to believe that no one would agree with me. DC is still just to new to start straight out, probably next game he will be put out in the SG position. But to steal from Jonny Davis's words, why change whats not broken. With Hedo @ starter we were winning, and against tough opponents. DC I think will start next, vs 76ers, and try and contain Iverson probably. It was a tough loss because it was actually closer than it seems. We shot ourselves inthe foot 1st quater, going down by 9, that is basically where we lost the game, since the final 3 quaters we actually clawed back alot of points. It was just enough for the offensive boards to keep their lead at a good margin for them (around 9 to 11 pts). Hell we fought from 17 to 5. I am quite proud of the team, they are now not backing down when going down early. BUT from this game it doesnt show a lack of players or offensive threat, but the fact that we do let ourselves go down to much, something I really think that DC, who will start in one of hte next two games, will slow down, and maybe we will see Fracis hit out to a dominating first quarter, rather than starting at teh 2nd or 3rd as he often does. Glad to see Hill back to old ways, good game from him!
The Rockets were bent on winning this one. It was obvious in their demeanor. TMac played great, Yao was aggressive (which is unlike him), Sura was an assist away from a triple-double and Howard wasn't the typical drain on the team like he has been in the recent past. We had the momentum in the 4th quarter until Hill fouled TMac on a 3pt jumper. He got slowed down on a high pick and roll, and attempted (awkwardly) to block TMac's jumper. We could have had a chance IMO otherwise (we were only down by 4 with 3:44 left). The Rockets extended it back to 9 soon after that.
Yea i was at the game it was horriable iam never going to a bball game as a fan again the fans were horriable and so was the game. Ill blame why we lost on defense and alot on the refs Bob Sura should have been thrown out of the game he was in francis face twice and no techs were called, Yao over the backed twice and fouled stevio and them pushed him on the ground after it. I had good seats to see it all so iam not making this stuff up. Battie was fouled on his dunk but no call kato on a lay-up got fouled and howards put back should have been good. Everyone was booing and hating t-mac but i saw nothing special that he did i have to say stevio is the better player than tmac 9 assists he is a team Pg he gives the ball up and when nothing is working for anyone he shoots. T-mac shoots to many 3s and doesnt pass he had 3 assists probile the ball sliped out of his hands. We better come back w/ a vengence in houstan on monday and win also to the 76ers on Sat. DC better start i think if hedo is in control off the bench also w/ PG, Nelson coming off we should be good. I say either trade Declerq or IL him we got more out of Kusun then Declerq. I like our "Total Team Effort" beacuse we had enough of ball-hogs and 1 man shows its Team Orlando Magic not Hills magic or stevios magic.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">BOOOOOOOOO TMAC YOU SUCK!!!!!!</div> Wow T-mac sucks but he doesnt, I dont know how yall grew to become idiots but didnt t-mac dunk on someone i think it was francis, and didnt rockets win? Dont boo a player that jus beat yall respect him, just because those stupid magic fans booed him will cause francis to get booed at the rockets game
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting YugoRocketsfan:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow T-mac sucks but he doesnt, I dont know how yall grew to become idiots but didnt t-mac dunk on someone i think it was francis, and didnt rockets win? Dont boo a player that jus beat yall respect him, just because those stupid magic fans booed him will cause francis to get booed at the rockets game</div> I'm sorry, although I did not like the T-Mac Sucks comment, Yugo does not speak for all of us, we will NOT boo Francis no matter how bad the boos were at TD Waterhouse. Don't speak for all of us rocket fans Yugo, you're making us look bad.
The only reason why T-Mac got boo'ed, is because of his comments, which were terrible and so un-professional. Basically that severly annoyed the Magic faithful and put them in a mood. If he said nothing he prob would not have been so badly welcomed. End of the day the trade was great for us since it turned us from a .200 team to at least a .500 team or more, which is fantastic, and nothing to be bitter about really. But after the comments you can understand why he gets boo's and cuss's. I am sure Francis wont get boo'ed since he has gone and "Oh i didnt like Houston or give my all" basically. T-Mac doesnt suck, just his attitude leaves alot to be desired
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magicdamo23:</div><div class="quote_post">The only reason why T-Mac got boo'ed, is because of his comments, which were terrible and so un-professional. Basically that severly annoyed the Magic faithful and put them in a mood. If he said nothing he prob would not have been so badly welcomed. End of the day the trade was great for us since it turned us from a .200 team to at least a .500 team or more, which is fantastic, and nothing to be bitter about really. But after the comments you can understand why he gets boo's and cuss's. I am sure Francis wont get boo'ed since he has gone and "Oh i didnt like Houston or give my all" basically. T-Mac doesnt suck, just his attitude leaves alot to be desired</div> True I guess, come to think of it if T-Mac had left the Rockets saying he didn't try his hardest i'd be annoyed to, but I still wouldn't say he sucked. Just my opinion here but I think your team is actually doing alot better because of Grant Hill & not so much the trade, but hey what do I know lol
I'd say its a combination, Francis Cato and Cat (now DC) i think do more for us than the other 3 did @ houston did for us (as a 3, T-Mac did score a rediculous ammount, but didnt get everyone playing best, which say a player like Hill did). Last season we had 1 superstar - T-Mac. This season we have 2 - Hill and Francis. So yeah you are right, Hill does owe alot to the comeback, but lets face it, the trade was also good for us, gave us alot of depth, and also players that automatically clicked.
