Howard, Magic Tame Bobcats

Shapecity · Oct 9, 2008

Two games into the NBA's preseason and it has become quite apparent that Orlando Magic superstar center Dwight Howard is ready for the regular season.

Clearly, Howard brought more home from the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, than just that sparkling gold medal.

Two nights after swatting eight shots in the Magic's exhibition opener, Howard demolished 2004 draft rival Emeka Okafor and the Charlotte Bobcats with 20 points, eight rebounds and five more blocked shots in just 26 minutes. Howard's effort was good enough to lift the Magic to a 118-80 thumping of the Bobcats before 13,617 fans at Amway Arena.

Most impressive of all for Howard, the player who has embraced "Superman" as his new nickname, may have finally rid his game of the Kryptonite from the free-throw line. Howard hit 8 of 10 from the stripe on Wednesday and has hit 81.2 percent (13 of 16) in two games. He is a 60.3 percent shooter during the past four NBA seasons.

"He makes free throws and you have absolutely no chance to stop him," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "What teams have done in the past is foul him. I'm just glad I don't have to figure out how to stop him."

Said Howard, somewhat peeved he has missed three free throws in two games: "I've been working and I think it shows."

The Magic (1-1) ended this one quickly against a Charlotte squad that was a trainwreck in the first quarter. Orlando led 40-9 after one quarter when Charlotte (0-1) missed 18-of-21 shots and turned the ball over six times. And by the time Orlando was ahead 57-20 midway through the second quarter, Howard already had 17 points, six rebounds with a blocked shot.

J.J. Redick, who had the fourth-year option on his contract picked up on Tuesday, had his second strong outing with 12 points in 14 minutes. Redick is vying to become the top shooting guard off the bench behind Mickael Pietrus.

No brainer. General manager Otis Smith said it was never a consideration that the Magic wouldn't pick up the fourth-year option on shooting guard J.J. Redick. And he said that the timing of the deal had nothing to do with Redick scoring 12 points and hitting two 3-pointers in the preseason opener.

The Magic picked up Redick's option for the 2009-10 season on Tuesday, guaranteeing the reserve shooting guard $2.8 million on top of the $2.1 million that he will earn this season.

"We could have done it anytime before Oct. 31 and it's not like we needed to see him play a game before we got (the contract) done," Smith said.

Smith said he isn't worried about the Magic's logjam at shooting guard. Mickael Pietrus is the starter, while Keith Bogans was a part-time starter a season ago. Redick has been the Magic's best shooting guard in training camp so far, according to Van Gundy, and the coaching staff has also been quite impressed with rookie Courtney Lee.

Bogans is the top candidate to be traded because of his expiring contract at the end of the season, but Smith said he isn't of the belief that the Magic will need to deal one of the guards.

"How many (shooting guards) did we have last season? Four," he said. "Regardless of what we do we're going to have four players at one of the positions. We can do some things with MP (Pietrus) and Courtney (Lee) at other positions, so we think we'll be fine."

Etc. Smith, who attends almost every Magic practice and game, will miss two of Orlando's next three exhibition games as he embarks on a nine-day, nine-city scouting trip of other NBA teams. Smith said his travel plans won't allow him to see Fran Vazquez, the Magic's first-round pick from the 2005 NBA Draft, play in Los Angeles for FC Barcelona. . . . The Magic plan on maintaining flexibility with their roster and could keep just 13 players, two below the maximum. Dwayne Jones and Jeremy Richardson are longshots to make the opening-night roster. Third point guard Mike Wilks' contract only becomes fully guaranteed if he's still on the roster on Jan. 10. . . . Pat Garrity, who retired in August after nine seasons with the Magic as a reserve forward, worked Wednesday night as an analyst on the Magic Radio Network. Garrity could provide spot relief during the season for Richie Adubato.
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Source: Florida Today

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Howard, Magic Tame Bobcats

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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Howard, Magic Tame Bobcats

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