The Orlando Magic overcame terrible 3-point shooting, poor free throw shooting, sloppy play and an injury to Guard Vince Carter to defeat the New Jersey Nets 95-85 on Friday night.
In Head Coach Stan Van Gundy’s post-game press conference, he said he liked this game better than Orlando’s 120-106 blowout win over Philadelphia on Wednesday because of the way the Magic defended the Nets, holding them to just 85 points on 38.5% shooting from the field.
Vince Carter started the game with a bang as he drove down the lane and finished with a thunderous slam dunk. He was scoring from the outside and the inside, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He also had 4 assists and 3 rebounds before injuring his ankle with about 3 minutes to go in the second quarter. See more on Carter here.
The Magic played a very sloppy game throughout the night. The Magic had 14 turnovers, were 6-of-21 from behind the 3-point line (28.6%) and were just 15-of-25 from the free throw line (60%). Jameer Nelson also picked up two quick fouls and had to leave the game early in the first quarter. The Magic won the game by playing excellent defense. They held the Nets to just 38.3% from the field and frustrated most of the Nets’ players the entire night.
Orlando had a 29-24 lead after the first quarter behind Howard and Carter’s combined 25 points. The Nets tied the game at 33 before the Magic took back over. Orlando went on a 12-2 run and took a 10-point lead. Orlando’s lead grew to as high as 11 at 50-39 after a Ryan Anderson 3-pointer before the Nets scored the last 5 points of the quarter to cut the halftime deficit to 6.
Jameer Nelson took over early on in the second quarter, scoring 7 of Orlando’s first 9 points to give the Magic a 61-48 lead. The Nets would never get any closer than 5 for the rest of the night.
Ryan Anderson started at Power Forward and had another very good outing. Anderson scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, but only two of his field goals came on 3-point shots. He put the ball on the floor and made some big plays, including an assist on a powerful Dwight Howard dunk. Midway through the third quarter, Anderson made nice use of a spin move to get a lay-up. On the next possession, he drove to the hoop again and drew Brook Lopez’s fifth foul.
Dwight Howard was Dwight Howard. He had the 24th 20-20 game of his career. He finished with 20 points, 22 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He dominated the boards, owned the paint on defense and hammered home dunks all night.
Van Gundy was very excited about Howard’s defense on Friday night. He loved the way that Howard altered several shots and blocked four more.
Dwight is also becoming a much better passer, especially out of the double-team. The one drawback Friday night was the Howard once again struggled from the free throw line. He was 4-of-11 on Friday night.
Brandon Bass struggled in the first half, but played much better in the second half. He had an especially good stretch of play, starting late in the third quarter and going on into the fourth quarter. He hit back-to-back jumpers and then went to the hoop, finishing strong. Bass finished the night with 13 points.
J.J. Redick stepped in for the injured Carter and played pretty well. He was just 4-of-10 from the field, but he had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.
Jason Williams scored 4 points and had 8 assists, with most of his production coming in the first half when Jameer Nelson got into early foul trouble, but Van Gundy said he was not particularly pleased with either Point Guard.
Matt Barnes had a night to forget. He took several bad shots and it showed; he was 0-of-6 from the field. He scored 0 points, had 0 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 turnovers. Hopefully, Matt can shake that one off quickly.
Game Notes:
- The Magic played excellent defense all night but the Nets committed just 6 turnovers.
- Courtney Lee led the Nets with 18 point, but was just 6-of-17 from the field.
- All Star Point Guard Devin Harris had 16 points but was 6-of-18 from the field.
- Former Magic Point Guard Rafer Alston had 9 points and 3 assists. He was 3-of-9 from the field.
- Brook Lopez had just 11 points and 5 rebounds a game after going for 27 and 16 because of foul trouble.
- Orlando struggled on offense but still shot 49.3% from the field (37-of-75).
- 10 Magic players played 10 or more minutes and five players scored in double figures, including two reserves (Bass, Redick).
- The Magic are now 2-0 after starting last season 0-2.
- For those of you that bet on Orlando, you’re in luck. The Magic were favored by 9.5 points and won by 10. Devin Harris missed the second of two free throws with 21 seconds left.
Next up: Orlando will travel to Toronto to take on former Magic Forward Hedo Turkoglu and the Raptors in a Sunday matinee at 1:00 PM EST. Carter’s status is up in the air.
Final Thought: It was great to see the Magic win a different type of game. They didn’t play particularly well and had to grind it out with good defense.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)