Knicks @ Magic- 12/27/04 Preview <div align="center"> @ Date: December 27th, 2004 7:00 PM TV: Sunshine Last Games Knicks, 91, Bobcats 82 W Orlando 93, San Antonio 87 W </div> Davis is one of the most contriversal coaches in the league not for anything he says, but for the moves he makes. The plays he runs often over looking or not running enough plays for one player who is doing very well that ngiht. A lot of people think that the Magic right now are winning just on pure talent not on Davis' coaching skill. A big reason why this is believed by some is that his career coaching record coming into this season in two years of coaching experence was 55-120 in the regular season. He also makes moves like sitting a player at the wrong times of the game or not sitting him quickly enough when he is in foul trouble, but still right now he is the Magic head coach, they are winning, and I trust his choices as long as we continue to win. <div align="center"> PG- Steve Francis ( 21.5 PPG, 6.9 APG, 6.0 RPG) SG- Cuttino Mobely ( 17.2 PPG, 2.1 APG, 3.4 RPG) SF- Grant Hill ( 19.9 PPG, 4.0 APG, 4.4 RPG) PF- Dwight Howard (10.4 PPG, 1.4 APG, 10.5 RPG) C- Tony Battie (4.5 PPG, .6 APG, 6.5 RPG) F- Hidayet Turkoglu (13.1 PPG, 2.2 APG, 3.5 RPG)</div> Steve Francis lately although he has been great has been struggling a bit with his shot. Last game against the Spurs he scored twenty nine points yet. thirteen of those came rom the line that is nearly half of them. He shot only 8-21 from the field not horrible, but not incredable either a good shooting game will be needed from him in this game for us last time we played the Knicks we won, but Francis shot only 9-22. So if he picks up his scoring it will help us in the effort. A big reason why we beat the Knicks last time was due to the effort from Cuttino Mobely. Mobely scored 34 points and shot 10-21 in our slim win. I think Mobely will be capable of doing that again this game with the injury to Crawford he will probably be guarded by Allan Houston who's age and past injuries may hinder his defensive performance against Mobely. Grant Hill did not have a incredable game against the Spurs 13 points 3-6 shooting from the field, but he made the most of his shots when he got the ball which is something we need and I will come back to later in my keys for this game. Hill last time againt the Knicks had 21 points and 5 assists. A very good game considering that game three players broke into twenty point scoring for us there was a lot of ball movement going on. A Dwight Howard what can i say about the kid. He just got schooled in the art of bball by Kurt Thomas last time we played. he held Dwight to only three boards. While Howard normally averages a double double for the season. Howard played pretty badely against the Spurs our last game as well so he will not have a lot of confidence going into this game. Hopefully he can pull outa good effort against the Knicks this time around. Tony Battie last time we faced the Knicks did not have as big a responsability as he has this time with Cato possibly still out (he is expected to return sometime this week). Last time we played the Knicks Cato had double digit rebounding I expect the same out of Battie this game he is just as good on the boards. Last time around against the Knicks we got a pretty good contribution from our bench. I hope we can ge tthe same type of contribution this game. I think that we need Hedo to get hot early get us some points, because with the Knicks sixth man Sweetny he has to get into the flow of the game before he starts scoring that is not the case for Hedo. He is a goos shooter and can create which will get him points. <div align="center"> </div> Lenny Wilkens. there have been some reports out of NY that if the Knicks fall below .500 again that Lenny might be saying good bye. So he is basically coaching for his job at this point. The NBA's most winning-est and most losing-est coach in history. Wilkens has been around a while. He is a goof coach for coaching guards like Marbury since he was a point guard himself, but not much else he seems to make a lot of questionable calls on the court that along with the over hype from the NY media seems to make him the perfect target for the media. <div align="center"> C - Nazr Mohammed (12.4 PPG, 9.4 RPG, 0.3 APG) PF - Kurt Thomas (11.2 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 1.8 APG) SF - Tim Thomas (9.8 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 0.8 APG) SG - Allan Houston (9.4 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 1.6 APG) PG - Stephon Marbury (19.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 8.7 APG) </div> Stephon Marbury one of the best in the business at running the point. Like said many times before he is the only player along with Oscar Robertson to average 20 and 8 for his career. He played well against us last time very well 28 points and 8 asssits, but was 1-7 rom the arc we need to keep a hand in his face that will be the x factor tonight his three point shot. Allan Houston is also a factor tonight. Him added with the subration of Crawford for the time being from this team will make a huge impact on our game plan. Crawford does not have nearly the shot that Houston does so we will have to change up the way we play him. he will have to limit and be quicker on double teams and getting back on help defense. TT is just TT not much you can say. A good player for putting out offensive numbers horrible defender. I think Hill once again will have no trouble with this matchup. Thats all I can really say about him we defend him take out his offensive numbers its a 5 on 4 game when he is on the court. Kurt Thomas just look up in the preview to the part where I talk about Howard. Thats really what you need to know about the guy he is a good defender steady as a rock. Hopefully he does not take advantage of Howards youth and lack of experence like he did last time which really cost us. He put up 16 and 8 last time against us. Nazr you never know what you will get with this guy he seems to be streaky to me. So if he is on I think he will take advantage of his matchup with Battie. Battie is a good defender, but when Nazr has his little short mid rnage jumper nad his post up game he is a big threat, but if he doesnt have that or we take that away like i said before with TT. it will be a 5 on 4 game. Sweenty like said before takes a little while it appears to me to get into the glow of the game. if we keep him out of that glow he may never get going. <div align="center"></div> * Have a good night with ball movement. When we have good ball movement we normally win. With Steve Francis making nice passes our offense runs smoother. Last game we had a total of fifteen assists with only 12 turnovers when we are passing the ball inside and swinging it we force the defense to try and go for the ball which will leave there man open thats what we need. * Remember the fundamentals. I dont know why, but lately when I watch this team it seems like its tring to hard to get on the highlight reel on espn, and all that ****. We need to remember that when we started the season we started playing tight defense, and then all of a sudden our offense picked up we got to remember how we where playing defennse earleir in the season, and also use pump fakes on defense like that bucket Hedo scored that pushed our lead into double digits that they wont stop showing on magic.com. * Have a good night from Mobely. Mobely always seems to be a x factor on the team no matter who we are playing he has this thing about him that he often leads us in scoring yet is the most under rated player in this team imo. He has lead us in scoring so many times yet we all care about ishow many points francis, howard, or hill socred. I thinkt hat Mobely will light it up this game. <div align="center"></div> I predict we get off to a fast start in the first quarter like we did in the game against the Nuggets, and we never look back. New York keeps it close, but we never really seem like w eare in any worry about losing the lead every time they cut it down we just bring it right back at them and push the lead out again. I think it will be a cat and mouse game with the Knicks being the mouse. Final score 101-92 Magic win.
Very good game. I will get back after I analyze the teams a bit. It should definitely be a good game just how I like them.
Alright I didn't catch a single minute of the game, but how the hell did the Knicks win so easily on our home floor? According to the NBA.com boxscore they were up by as much as 19 points and we never had the lead. I figured we'd take this game since IMO we're better than the Knicks and we were at home.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ice:</div><div class="quote_post">Alright I didn't catch a single minute of the game, but how the hell did the Knicks win so easily on our home floor? According to the NBA.com boxscore they were up by as much as 19 points and we never had the lead. I figured we'd take this game since IMO we're better than the Knicks and we were at home.</div> Marbruy was jsut on fire early he scored 21 of his 34 points in the first half. Then there was one point where they went on a 9-0 run. So we fell behind early, and tryed to battle back, but could never take the lead in this game. It is just one of those things that come from not being prepared same thing happened in our lose against the Celtics at home we jus where not prepared Marbury and the Knicks where.
Good game guys. It was a very entertaining one for both teams but, unfortunately the Knicks were better
Naw, we played really bad. We couldn't get it together. You could tell that we had 5 days off with the way the defense played. Everyone kept mistaking their defensive assignments. Oh well, hopefully we can beat the Bucks on Wednesday. We have to beat the weaker Eastern conference teams on our home court. This is 2 Atlantic division teams that dominated on our home floor. (Celtics)
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">You could tell that we had 5 days off </div> I found that surprising too. Why did the NBA shedule give them 2 games in 12 days? I guess it can be both beneficial and detrimental to the team. In this case, it was detrimental for Orlando.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ice:</div><div class="quote_post">Alright I didn't catch a single minute of the game, but how the hell did the Knicks win so easily on our home floor? According to the NBA.com boxscore they were up by as much as 19 points and we never had the lead. I figured we'd take this game since IMO we're better than the Knicks and we were at home.</div> You guys had too much time off, your next game will be better, you'll be back in sync. Same thing happened to Washington, we had 5 days off & we had to play the T-Wolves, we got worked.
Thats the most annoyed that I have bene this season. It all went wrong from the tipoff. That 9-0 run they had right off just lost us the game in the long run. We basically were chasing the game from minute 1. I dont think knicks won it easy. WE gave them the first half. If knicks beat us easy they would have such as terrible record for 1st in their division, and we wouldnt be beating teams like San Antonio now would we . The turn overs down the stretch just lost us the game. We repeatadly cut a 14pt lead in the final 1/4 to as low as 6pts, only to give them the ball with fouls or poor shot selection. Having a long layoff once again ruined our momentum - we suffered last time we had such a long break and once again, especially over the xmas period didnt help. 2nd half we were the better team, the stats show it, we won both 1/4's, we had warmed up. Just had to contain them first half. Well u win some and lose some. But really if we can beat em in MSG we shouldnt throw away the game so easy.
It was a tough loss for us, but we should bounce back and we get Cato back for the next game. I will say though, Jameer played awesome yesterday. He sparked our last run in the 4th to cut it from 12 to 6 with great timely shooting and passing. He made the game interesting and Cuttino kept us in it from the beginning. He had like 8 of our first 12 pts and 11 out of 1st 17. Dwight played aggressive on the offensive glass, but couldn't help get defensive rebounds. They just destroyed us on the boards. I think we are gonna demolish the Bucks now. We're not gonna play this bad twice.
What REALLY REALLY impressed me - Jameer - 10mins but made a huge impact. I really hope we keep him, cos he would be a snap for another team- if he had 30mins he would be awsome I truely feel.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magicdamo23:</div><div class="quote_post">What REALLY REALLY impressed me - Jameer - 10mins but made a huge impact. I really hope we keep him, cos he would be a snap for another team- if he had 30mins he would be awsome I truely feel.</div> I doubt he will. He will always be behind Francis and I don't think will get much burn. Unless Mobley was gone and they wanted a super small lineup with Francis and Nelson. I think it will be in Orlando and his best interest to go onto another team. I really think it is a shame the player of the year should collect duste on the bench.
I meant 30mins for another team, as in if he left he would be given and chance that he wont get behind steve currently. But i think its in Orlando's interst to keep him. It provides a young player, with alot of potential and can already make things happen. Yes it will be fustrating for him, but imo i'd prefer to keep him, as he can come into the equasion, certainly this season off the bench, and maybe in the short future.
