The Orlando Magic defeated the Dallas Mavericks 110-105 last night.
See my recap and thoughts from the game here.
New Magic Guard Vince Carter scored 21 points in his Magic debut.
"Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard has coined a new nickname for Vince Carter, who was called “Half-Man, Half-Amazing” in his high-flying, younger years.Laughed Howard, “He’s now ‘Half-Man, Half-Retired.’“He’s not the Toronto Raptors Vince Carter who was dunking on seven-footers, but he’s still one of the league’s best players.”Carter, the eight-time all-star acquired in a trade this summer, showed flashes in his Magic debut Monday night as Orlando opened their preseason with a 110-105 victory against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Arena."
Brian Schmitz has the story here.
Schmitz also discusses the help that Magic received from Dallas during the offseason.
"Gortat, 25, was disappointed at first, realizing he had lost a chance for more playing time in Dallas. He laughed and said he was the Mavs’ starter “for a few hours.” But a few hours later, he knew when he returned to Orlando that Magic General Manager Otis Smithdecided to keep him.“When I came back here, I just knew….after Otis’ reaction, after Otis’ answers….The way people in the organization were talking to me, I just knew I was going to stay here. Obviously, playing time could be different,” Gortat said.“But come on, man. I’m going to be on a team with the best center in the league and it looks like we might make it to the Finals again and this time win the championship. Another year, playing behind Dwight….. maybe more minutes and compete at the 4-spot (power forward.) It’s not going to be a bad year for me.”"
Orlando also signed former Mavericks Power Forward Brandon Bass.
The Dallas Star-Telegram’s Eddie Sefko also discusses the Gortat situation.
"Already with Dwight Howard, the league’s best center, the Magic took a major financial risk by matching the Mavs’ offer. It’s hard to see Gortat producing much more than last year’s 3.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 12.6 minutes with Howard ahead of him."
You can find the rest of the story here.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Stan Van Gundy has already mapped out most of his game-plan for the preseason.
"“Rashard will play four of these first five. The last three I don’t know — sparingly,” Van Gundy said. “He can’t go the whole preseason and not play.”Van Gundy said some nights that Lewis will also play small forward, allowing newcomers Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson to play power forward. Either Bass or Anderson will start for Lewis when the regular season begins."
This makes sense. The team needs to get used to playing without Rashard so that they can still perform at a high level during the 10 games that Lewis is suspended for, yet Rashard still needs to prepare for the season. It seems like Van Gundy will find a happy medium for the two.
Click here to listen to audio from Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus and Brandon Bass while they were on the team bus on the way to the airport after the game.
Click here to see my blog about the Bobby Bowden situation and click here to see my weekly college football blog.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)