The Orlando Magic were without three starters – Mickael Pietrus, Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis. Pietrus was sent home with the flu, Carter couldn’t go due to the ankle he injured Friday night in New Jersey and Lewis was serving the third game of his 10-game suspension, yet they were still able to defeat the Toronto Raptors in a shoot-out, 125-116.
Orlando was absolutely awful on the defensive end. The Magic gave up 116 points and Toronto shot a ridiculous 54.1% from the field (40-of-77). Luckily, the Raptors, who started 9-of-11 from the behind the 3-point line, finished by making just one of their last six attempts.
The Magic may have struggled defensively, but they played great on the other end of the floor. They were just 36-of-82 from the field (43.9%), but they more than made up for it by hitting 17 3-pointers (17-of-32, 53.1%). Seemingly every time the Raptors cut the Magic lead, a Magic player hit a very timely 3-pointer.
The Magic also had a season-low 9 turnovers, while forcing 14 Raptor turnovers.
The Magic were really depleted and at one point had Jason Williams, Anthony Johnson, and J.J. Redick on the floor at the same time. Only nine players dressed for the Magic.
Dwight Howard didn’t have his normal shooting day from the field. Howard is a career 57% shooter, but he was just 5-of-13 today. (38%). That didn’t matter today because Howard, after struggling from the free throw line in the first two games (41%), went 14-of-16 from the line today (87.5%). He had his normal double-double, scoring 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, but he really seemed to pick up his play in the fourth quarter after he was fouled hard by his friend, Raptors’ Forward Chris Bosh. With just 5:27 remaning, Bosh grabbed Howard and began to get in his face before both players were restrained. The Magic seemed to respond after that, out-scoring Toronto 14-9 the rest of the way.
The Magic hit a cold stretch midway through the fourth quarter and the Raptors cut the lead to six, but Jameer Nelson took over. He had a nice fourth quarter stretch when he hit three of his five three pointers. Nelson scored 30 points and had 5 assists. He really seemed to spark the Magic every time they got cold. This is why Nelson was an All-Star last season.
J.J. Redick’s previous career-high was 17 points. He had 18 points on Sunday – at halftime. Redick stepped in at Shooting Guard for the injured Vince Carter and had what was easily his best game as a pro. Redick scored 27 points on 8-of-14 shooting and finally had a Duke-type day from downtown, going 5-of-8 from 3-point land. He did an excellent job of getting himself to the free throw on plays where he couldn’t make anything happen. Scoring wasn’t the only thing Redick did well – he had 6 rebounds and 5 assists. He set up his teammates very well.
Ryan Anderson, who had 16 points in each of Orlando’s first two games, scored 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He was 5-of-8 from downtown and had 6 rebounds. I really like the way Anderson has been putting the ball on the floor. He has been getting to the basket, which is huge for Anderson and the team, because now people have to account for other parts of his game – he’s not just a 3-point specialist.
Matt Barnes followed what must have been one of his worst games in the NBA by filling up the stat line. Barnes, who scored 0 points on 0-of-6 shooting Friday night, had 12 points, 9 rebounds, 6 steals, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. He played excellent defense and hustled on both ends of the floor.
The bench was relatively ineffective offensively(but then again, Redick, Anderson and Barnes won’t be starters when Carter, Pietrus, and Lewis come back), scoring just 12 total points.
Brandon Bass led the bench mob with 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He took just six shots, but was once again money on a few jumpers. He also was one of the few Magic defenders who played any kind of defense, frustrating Chris Bosh several times during the first half.
Game Notes:
- Dwight Howard wasn’t the only Magic played who had an excellent day on the free-throw line. The team was 36-of-41 (87.8%) from the line.
- Once again, Chris Bosh torched the Magic. He scored a game-high 35 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds.
- Hedo Turkoglu had a decent day against his former club. He shot the ball well (8-of-13), scoring 19 points. He also posted 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
- Toronto started the game by going 9-of-11 from downtown, but finished just 10-of-17.
- The Magic led by as many as 22 in the second quarter.
- Both Chris Bosh and Matt Barnes received technical fouls.
Next up: The Magic will be in Auburn Hills to take on Detroit Tuesday
Final Thought: The Magic played a terrible game defensively, but were without three starters and still got the win.
(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.)