<div align="center"> <font color="Blue">Orlando Magic</font> (12-6) @ <font color="Orange">Golden State Warriors</font> (5-13) Previous Games: Magic @ Jazz 106-100 WIN Warriors @ Suns 118-104 LOSS Projected Starting Lineups <font color="Blue">MAGIC</font> <font size="1">(Johnny Davis)</font> <font size="1">(Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Grant Hill, Dwight Howard, Tony Battie)</font> <font size="4">VS</font> <font color="Orange">WARRIORS</font> <font size="1">(Mike Montgomery)</font> <font size="1">(Speedy Claxton, Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Cliff Robinson)</font> Factors off the Bench <font size="1">(Hedo Turkoglu, Derek Fisher)</font> Game MVPs MAGIC - <font color="blue">Steve Francis</font> Predicted Stats: 26 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists WARRIORS - <font color="orange">Jason Richardson</font> Predicted Stats: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists</div> Brandon's Analysis The Warriors are going to have their hands full in this game, especially containing Francis and Hill...two players who will not hesitate to attack the basket early and are very capable of putting the Magic up by 15+ going into halftime. For the Magic, Mobley will have to play hard-nosed defense against Jason Richardson, who could get hot late in the 3rd, and take that momentum into the 4th quarter to try and bring the Warriors back into this game. The Magic will need a productive night from Dwight Howard, who will more than likely rack up a double-double against Murphy...but his true test will be defending Troy, and keeping guys like Claxton and Fisher out of the paint for easy layups. Howard's long wingspan will play a factor against Murphy, who will have to use his strength to draw fouls and score on a more agile Howard. Orlando would benefit from Mobley's shooting in this game...especially from the arc. Also, swinging the ball back and forth around the perimeter will draw the defenders away from Howard, who will have an easier time scoring, as well as a cutting Grant Hill (look for oops in this game, unless Cliff keeps his eyes open). Off the bench, Fisher and Hedo will provide threes for both teams, which may be a "must-have" in the 4th quarter, if this game stays close. Fisher shoots well when the crowd is involved and on their feet...so look for him to hit a few clutch shots tonight, while Hedo answers each three with one of his own. Brandon's Prediction The Warriors will stay close in the first half, but start to lose their luster in the second half. Pietrus won't see many minutes (for whatever reason, I don't know) and Golden State will struggle to cut the Magic's lead in the 4th. Orlando pulls away after Francis scores his 26 points, and the Magic win this one on the road, 89-75.
Nice preview. My only concern about this game is that the Magic aren't looking past the Warriors to the Lakers and considering this an automatic win. I think we will win, but it should be really close, because the Warriors are a very talented team and can make the game a good one to watch.
I say the Magic by 10 or more. First off, the Warriors live and die by the jump shot. Second, the Magic are best rebounding team in the NBA. Jumpshots are not very high percentage shots and if the Magic do a good job of contesting shots and putting pressure I think that they're frontcourt can combine for 22 boads or more in this game (30+ if Cato was back). Not to mention that the Magic won't have much problems attacking the offensive boards for second chance points. With Cato and Grant Hill healthy, IMO, the Magic have one of the best frountcourts in the NBA
Magic's defense has to improve if they want a chance to win tonight. They have been behind the whole night. They gave up another 30+ pts in the first quarter. We're currently down 57-52 with 3:17 left in the first half. We need to give Dwight the ball. He's 3-4 from the field and has been getting some nice moves for easy layups.
Magic win 113-109! Battie had 16 pts and 15 rebounds. Francis had 36 pts and 8 rebounds and 8 assists, with only 1 TO and the crucial steel to win the game. Augmon was huge, 4 clutch ft's and some key rebounds. The only problem to the gameplan that I saw was not giving the ball to Dwight. He went 3-4 in the first quarter, then had an explosive putback dunk as his only shot after the first quarter. He had his way at the beginning of the game. This game showed a lot of character in the Orlando Magic, fighting their way back with a crazy crowd cheering the Warriors on and then barely holding on for the win. Hoepfully we can win at least one more on this road trip.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting sportsrock37:</div><div class="quote_post">Magic win 113-109! Battie had 16 pts and 15 rebounds. Francis had 36 pts and 8 rebounds and 8 assists, with only 1 TO and the crucial steel to win the game. Augmon was huge, 4 clutch ft's and some key rebounds. The only problem to the gameplan that I saw was not giving the ball to Dwight. He went 3-4 in the first quarter, then had an explosive putback dunk as his only shot after the first quarter. He had his way at the beginning of the game. This game showed a lot of character in the Orlando Magic, fighting their way back with a crazy crowd cheering the Warriors on and then barely holding on for the win. Hoepfully we can win at least one more on this road trip.</div> Dwight Howard is not ready to have offensive sets run specifically for him. He still needs to work on his footwork and back to the basket game. Granted, some nights, you see them feed him the ball and you see flashes of brilliance, but he also is a liability at other times because he'll overstep his bounds and end up giving the ball away. He's getting there though, by the end of the season, look to see him getting the ball in the post a lot more and relying a lot less on putbacks for points. As for the rest of the game, it was very refreshing to see the Magic playing Francis at the off guard position and letting Nelson run the point. It ended up resulting in less turnovers. Grant Hill was missed during this game, big time. Pat Garrity came back and showed why he is such a valuable commodity off the bench. And to top everything off, Battie and Augmon who usually don't see too many minutes both stepped up and played well for the Magic. Finally, did anyone else love that dunk that Augmon had in the second quarter? It was phenomenal in my opinion, and the fact that he was able to finish it despite the very hard foul was impressive. I've always liked the Plastic Man for his defensive skills, but tonight he showed he still has a lot of finishing skills as well.
Nice to win this game without Cato and without HILL. Augmon and Battie did it for us, and of course Francis our man of the match He did well with only 1 TO and nearly a triple-double game for him. Hope Hill will be back for the Lakers match and we must improve our defence against the Lakers. Go Magic Go!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting explosive:</div><div class="quote_post">Dwight Howard is not ready to have offensive sets run specifically for him. He still needs to work on his footwork and back to the basket game. Granted, some nights, you see them feed him the ball and you see flashes of brilliance, but he also is a liability at other times because he'll overstep his bounds and end up giving the ball away. He's getting there though, by the end of the season, look to see him getting the ball in the post a lot more and relying a lot less on putbacks for points. </div> I was just saying, at the beginning of the game, when we gave him 4 shots, he got around Murphy pretty easily every time. I was just disappointed that we stopped giving him the ball, because I feel he could've had a huge game and the game wouldn't have been even close.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting explosive:</div><div class="quote_post">Dwight Howard is not ready to have offensive sets run specifically for him. He still needs to work on his footwork and back to the basket game. Granted, some nights, you see them feed him the ball and you see flashes of brilliance, but he also is a liability at other times because he'll overstep his bounds and end up giving the ball away. He's getting there though, by the end of the season, look to see him getting the ball in the post a lot more and relying a lot less on putbacks for points. </div> You make some good points, but at some nights when a player is off to a hot start like Dwight Howard was last night 3-4 you have to feed him the ball to help him take advantage of his mismatch. Not saying that you should feed him the ball every single game, and make him the main scoring option yet, but if he is hot why not give him the ball. I think that the only way he will develope his skills is playing and improving them with offensive sets ran for him in a game to see how other players from other teams defend him when that happens. I think that they will start giving him the ball more after all star break imo. It will be intresting to see how he performs in the rookie all star game granted they do not play much defense in that game he should get the ball a couple of times and have a couple plays ran for him so he may be able to show his skill and improve on it at that point enough to maybe added with the games he has already played be enough to show Davis he needs to have plays run for him. I think that we should look at Howard more often when we play mediocore/bad teams, because usually they are not the strongest at the power forward slot. Like the game against the Hawks, and the game against the Warriors unlike if we where playing a team with a seasoned vetern at power forward who is a good defender such as Kurt Thomas. It will be intresting to see how many times we feed him the ball when we play the Bobcats see how many times he gets the ball in that matchup. Either way good win to improve the team record we have a tough game tomorrow against the Lakers Lamar Odom I think at times is caught in the same situation that Howard is las ttime they where here in Orlando Odom appeared to have the advantage in the matchup, but was not given the ball enough for them to win. More and more in this road trip we will see Dwight go against good power forwards . I think if when we face the Suns if they still have Amare at center, and do not have him defend Howard we can take advantage of Marion although he is a good defender he does not have the size to defend Howard imo.
