The Orlando Magic take on the Houston Rockets tonight at 7:00 PM EST. Since the game will not be televised, I will be providing a running blog live from Amway Arena.
Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy would not announce the starters, but Tania Ganguli found out that Mickael Pietrus will rest his injured ankle as a precaution and that Rashard Lewis is going to start at Power Forward.
Click here to see other news and notes about tonight’s game.
Starters for Orlando:
F Rashard Lewis
F Brandon Bass
C Marcin Gortat
G Vince Carter
G Jameer Nelson
Probable Starters for Houston
F Trevor Ariza
F Carl Landry
C David Anderson
G Chase Budinger
G Aaron Brooks
Live Blog
- Just got to the arena, hoping to talk to some of the players at around 5:30 or so.
- Tonight’s officials will be Scott Bolnick, Sir Allen Conner and Byron Jarrett.
- Just saw some of the players warming up. Tracy McGrady looked like he was really getting after it.Tracy has never been able to stay healthy since his final year in Orlando. Hopefully, T-Mac will see more action this season.
- The Orlando Sentinel is now reporting that Marcin Gortat is expected to start at Center while Dwight Howard rests.
- I’m excited to see how Lewis does back at Small Forward. He has played there sparingly with the Magic. It will be nice to see Marcin Gortat receive extended minutes tonight.
- About 30 minutes until tip-off.
- The starters were just announced. We’re ready to begin.
1st Quarter
- Gortat with a nice block on Aaron Brooks
- Trevor Ariza starts the game with an air ball.
- Rashard Lewis is being aggressive early in the game.
- After two missed 3-point attempts, Vince Carter takes it to the hole and goes to the line for 2.
- Carter and Bass hit back to back jumpers. Carter assisted on Bass’ bucket. 6-0 Magic.
- Nelson got into the lane and made two good passes. Bass got a dunk out of it and Gortat drew a foul.
- Jameer is getting into the paint with relative ease. 12-6 Orlando.
- Matt Barnes and Ryan Anderson enter the game. Marcin Gortat and Rashard Lewis exit.
- And Anderson immediately nails a 3.
- Vince throws up another 3, but this one goes in. 19-8.
- Matt Barnes hustles to keep a play alive and Anderson hustles to get an easy bucket. Good too see the Magic playing so hard.
- Jermaine Taylor gets a nice ovation.
- Gortat and Jason Williams in. Jameer and Bass out.
- Vintage Vince Carter on reverse dunk. Then, Gortat blocks a shot and Anderson nails a 3. 27-12.
- Carter has decided to drive and he is having his way with the defense.
- Only 9 total fouls in the 1st quarter. Magic lead 29-15
2nd Quarter
- The Magic will start Rashard Lewis, Ryan Anderson, Marcin Gortat, Jason Williams and JJ Redick.
- JJ with a nice job drawing a foul.
- Beautiful pass by Williams and Redick draws the foul.
- The Magic only had 2 turnovers in the first half.
- Lewis is getting down load and posting up a lot. And he’s doing it well.
- Jermaine Taylor cuts the lead to 39-33.
- Magic lead 50-43 at halftime.
- Marcin Gortat has just 1 point, but has 7 rebounds. Vince Carter scored 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Ryan Anderson was effective again, scoring 9 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.
- Kyle Lowry leads the Rockets with 12 points.
3rd Quarter
- The Magic start the 3rd quarter with Gortat, Anderson, Lewis, Carter and Nelson.
- Lewis is having a great day down low.
- 64-56 Magic. 6:10 left in the 3rd.
- Jason Williams in for Jameer Nelson.
- Bass throws down a monster slam. 68-61 Magic.
- Aaron Brooks is one fire. Tie game.
- Rockets take the lead, but Bass ties it up. They take the lead again, but Vince Carter ties the game.
- Rockets lead 78-76 as Anderson misses a 3 at the buzzer.
4th Quarter
- Orlando was out-scored 35-26 in the 3rd quarter.
- Magic playing good defense to start the quarter. Back up 81-78.
- Jermaine Taylor just had a huge dunk that drew some cheers.
- JJ Redick puts Orlando up 83-80 with 10:20 to play.
- Gortat throws down a thunderous dunk off of the pass from JJ Redick. Magic up 90-82 with 7:48 left.
- Technical Foul on Jason Williams.
- The Rockets get it down to 105-102 and Ice-O hits a 3 to virtually end the game.
- The Magic win 113-104. Rashard Lewis leads the team with 22 points. Marcin Gortat registered a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Vince Carter had 19 points on 8-of-19 shooting. Brandon Bass was very effective, scoring 16 points. JJ Redick added 14 points. Chase Budginer lead the Rockets with 17 poins.
- I’ll have a full recap and analysis later tonight.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)