Nelson Is Ready To Go
Yahoo! Sports has posted a Magic team report.
A lot of this was talked about in the Magic Basketblog last week.
Once again, the most important thing to point out is that Jameer Nelson looks healthy and ready to go for the season.
"Nelson, the starting point guard and one of the team captains, has shown no signs of a problem stemming from shoulder surgery, which caused him to miss the second half of last season. He returned at the Finals, but looked rusty.G Jameer Nelson (right labrum surgery) continued his rehab this summer from the surgery that kept him out through the second half of the season. He has looked 100 percent recovered in recent workouts."
This is great news. We’ve heard this a few times but with how important Jameer Nelson is to this team, Magic fans shouldn’t be able to hear this enough. If anyone was wondering just how about Nelson was to the Magic, look at his performances in Orlando’s two regular season wins against the team that defeated them 4-1 in the NBA Finals last season, the Los Angeles Lakers. Nelson was averaging 16.7 points per game, 5.4 assists per game and 1.2 steals per game. What was most impressive about Nelson’s season was his low turnover ratio and his high shooting percentage. He shot a career-high .503 from the field and an incredible .453 from beyond the arch, another career-high. He also averaged just 2.0 turnovers per game. Nelson was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team but was unable to play due to his injury.
Back to his performances in the two regular season games against the Lakers.
In the first game between the two teams back on December 20, 2008, Los Angeles built a nine-point halftime lead in Amway Arena in Orlando. Nelson scored 27 points on an incredible 11-16 shooting. His downfall was that he shot just 1-4 from the free throw line, but he went 4-7 from downtown to make up for it. Nelson had just two turnovers and added five rebounds and four assists. Jameer was Orlando’s answer to a dominating Kobe Bryant who managed to score 41 points, including 25 first half points, and Derek Fisher, who dropped 27 points to match Nelson’s out-put.
Nelson showed a confidence that the rest of team began to gain after a victory over the defending Western Conference Champions. Confidence is one of Nelson’s best attributes. You can’t have fear and be an effective floor leader in the NBA.
"“We believe we’re contenders,” Nelson said. “The naysayers say we’re not. This means a lot. I think it’s a statement game. It shows we’re serious and we’re contenders for the East.”"
The second game took place in Los Angeles on January 16, 2009. Nelson finished the game with 28 points, shooting 9-18 from the field and 3-6 from three-point range. He also had eight assists, six rebounds and only three turnovers. The most impressive part about Nelson’s 28 points was that 15 of the points came during the 4th quarter. Orlando ended the third quarter trailing by one and wound up with a six-point win. In fact, they were down by eight at halftime after LA once again controlled the first half.
As impressive as Orlando’s first comeback victory was for Nelson, this game was in Los Angeles in front of a sold out crowd and Nelson had to take over the fourth quarter in order to complete the comeback victory.
"Jameer looks great.“It was a big-time win,” Nelson said. “We were in Laker Town, and the atmosphere was unbelievable. It definitely was a playoff atmosphere. The intensity level was high and they came at us every play, offensively, defensively and on the boards."
Nelson needs to bring this same confidence and intensity this season.
You have to think that Orlando not only could have had a higher seed in the Eastern Conference last year and may have defeated Los Angeles in the Finals, but that’s a moot point now. All the Magic can do is move forward with a healthy Nelson who should be back in All-Star form, leaving the Magic’s new revamped roster.
Another note about the ticket sales…
"The Magic are anticipating their most-watched season in team history. For the first time since Shaquille O’Neal left the franchise in 1996 to sign with the Lakers, the Magic stopped selling season tickets. They capped the number at 13,000, even though Amway Arena can seat more than 15,000. They wanted to make sure they had some single-game tickets available. The Magic season ticket base, earlier this decade, had slipped to 6,000."
This is great news. The Magic should have one of the best home court advantages in the league now and the best in team history since they had a 40 game home win streak in 1994.
If the Magic stay in contention, I can only imagine how many tickets they will sell when the new building opens for the 2010-11 season.
There are some other small notes in Yahoo’s Team Report.
Vince Carter is very excited to play in front of his home crowd.
Matt Barnes is a very smart player and should have no problem inbounding the ball in clutch situations.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)