Having been out in the field training the past three weeks, it's nice to come back and watch a game live. I had my roomate in the barracks tape the Orlando Magic games for me, and so far have been less than impressed with the team. I am going to try to keep up the Magic section, and get up my pregame previews, and after game thoughts when I can. <span style="color:#3366FF">Orlando Magic(3-2)</span>Jameer Nelson, Grant Hill, Hedo Turkoglu, Tony Battie, Dwight HowardKey Bench Players: Carlos Arroyo, Keith Bogans, Darko Milicic, and Keyon Dooling<span style="color:#330033">Indiana Pacers(3-2)</span>Jamaal Tinsley, Stephen Jackson, Danny Granger, Al Harrington, Jermaine O'nealKey Bench Players: Marquis Daniels, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Jeff Foster, Darrell ArmstrongLast year the Pacers beat the Magic in both games they played, including a thumping at the end of last season during the Magic's 16-6 run at the end of the game. The Pacers tend to always play well against the Magic, meanwhile the Magic have not had to much luck in recent years with the Pacers, not just last year. This year the Magic are turning the ball over alot, and playing sloppy at many times. Against a team that will run like the Pacers, the Magic can not afford to play like this. <span style="color:#3333FF">My X-Factors:</span>Both are going to be counted on as the sparks off the bench. I look for Arroyo to continue his good play off the bench, run the offense, and put the ball in the basket as he has been doing. I think this will be a point of power for us.<span style="color:#3333FF">Key Matchup:</span>Last year O'neal averaged 21.5 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots against the Magic, in route to leading his teams to victory both times. That happened while Howad averaged 14 points, and 8.5 rebounds, against the Pacers. For the Magic to win, they will need much better production out of Howard against O'neal. Push him in the back and get him uncomfortable in the paint, while trying to draw fouls on offense. I feel whoever has better production here, their team will win also.Jermaine O'neal is coming off a foot injury that kept him out of the game two days ago. They was totally embarressed by the Wizards something. I believe the Pacers will want revenge for that game, and take out that frustration on my poor old Magic. The Magic will hang tough, but I don't see them pulling out this win.
well 1st off we are 4-2 . I think we can win this game just lower the Turn Overs. We have been turning the ball over little to much the last two games.gotta get Dwight Howard into the game plan been kinda empty the last two games on the offensive side of the ball. Been a good defender so far but only had one big game that was the opening day. Nelson,Hedu,Hill,Carlos have been playing pretty solid latley. Hill looks great this season so far just hoping that he can stay health atleaset 85 percent of the season to have a good shot at the Playoffs. Nelson is doing pretty well and Carlos has giving us a nice jump off the bench.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Nov 10 2006, 01:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Damn, couldn't find a good pic of him? But yeah he's been playing very nice this season, I'm gaining more and more interest in the Magic every game that passes by.</div>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (mil @ Nov 10 2006, 02:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>well 1st off we are 4-2 . I think we can win this game just lower the Turn Overs. We have been turning the ball over little to much the last two games.gotta get Dwight Howard into the game plan been kinda empty the last two games on the offensive side of the ball. Been a good defender so far but only had one big game that was the opening day. Nelson,Hedu,Hill,Carlos have been playing pretty solid latley. Hill looks great this season so far just hoping that he can stay health atleaset 85 percent of the season to have a good shot at the Playoffs. Nelson is doing pretty well and Carlos has giving us a nice jump off the bench.</div>3-2 as we have not even played in 6 games this year dude. We beat the Sonics, Wizards, and Bulls. We lost to the Hawks and 76ers, past that we have not played in any games.Turning the ball over a little to much is an understatement. We are averaging 22 turnovers a game, and only 17.6 assists a game. We are trying to create off the dribble a bit to much, and not moving without the ball. Nelson has played good in two or three games, and played terrible in 2 games this year. He is turning the ball over alot, and standing still when the ball is not in his hands. He needs to get going back in motion, as does the rest of the team. He hasn't had a good season.Offensively Howard has been terrible this season. That first game he did well, since then he hasn't done anything worth seeing. He still is very raw offensively down low. He is loosing the ball when trying to dribble and back down people.
This game started out well but turned into a horrible game for the Orlando Magic. It was really a tale of two halfs for the Orlando Magic.At the end of the first half the Magic had been playing good ball and was leading 50-47 at that point in the game. They had caused around 13 or 14 turnovers, and had 16 or so points off of those turnovers. They have also scored a good 16 or so points in transition and on the fast break. The Magic were getting out and running every chance they get. Grant Hill's veteran leadership had kept this team in the lead, taking over on offense when we went down by 2 in the second quarter. Turkoglu was shooting well, having hit two threes, one in transition the other in the half court. In the half court the team was looking good, getting the ball downlow alot. That caused both Granger and O'neal to pick up foul trouble pretty early. They had good spacing, the players were hustling around and moving, and moving the ball around well.Then the second half came, and things went horrible. We scored only 33 points the entire second half, we scored that many points in the 1st quarter by itslef. It looks like Dwight Howard had a good game with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but he also had 8 turn overs this game and in the second half was hurting the Magic alot. Howard showed few offensive moves again, and is actually quite predictable. O'neal knew to keep positioning on the right arm of Howard and force him to go left. Howard was so terrible with his left hand, that he kept turning the ball over trying to do it. Keyon Dooling when he was in the game went back to the way he was playing last year, overdribbling, then suddenly picking up his dribble when two people were near him. Why he was doing that, I have no idea, but he was. He only took 7 shots, but 5 of them was just bad shot selection with people in his face. Then he would pass the ball when he had a wide open shot, what the deal was with that, I have no idea. The team shot a poor 56 percent from the free throw line, missing 11 free throws. We had 20 turnovers, 12 or 13 of them in the second half. It was really one of the worst halfs of basketball I have ever seen. Harrington had a very impressive game for the Pacers, scoring 32 points. He is a matchup problem, as Milicic and Battie were to slow to guard him, and Turkoglu got abused by Harrington when he guarded him. Granger had an outstanding game, and would have a much better stat line if it wasn't for first half foul trouble. He is a good player, and will be one to watch in the future. Jackson didn't shoot well, or score well, but he was moving the ball and getting his teamates involved. Overall I feel that the Magic are a better team than the Pacers, we should have won that game, but we played the worst second half I have seen from an NBA team. I expect coach Hill to jump on them, and a much better outing tomorrow night.
I did not like the way we played the second half at all. We looked really poor against the Pacers. After watching the 1st quarter thought we had this win by 20 pts. We could not stop Al Harrington at all putting up nice numbers.
