According to Tania Ganguli of the Orlando Sentinel, Vince Carter will sit out tonight’s game and his status is day to day. On a more positive note, Mickael Pietrus will return to the lineup tonight after missing the last two games with flu-like symptoms.
The Line: Orlando – 8
Starters
Phoenix
Channing Frye
Amare Stoudemire
Grant Hill
Jason Richardson
Steve Nash
Orlando
Dwight Howard
Ryan Anderson
Matt Barnes
J.J. Redick
Jameer Nelson
See my game preview here.
End of 1st Quarter: Magic lead 29-25
- That was a very good quarter for the Magic…until the last minute when Phoenix ended the quarter on an 8-0 run. Jared Dudley hit two open 3’s during the run.
- Jameer Nelson was very aggressive early on. He got to the basket with ease. He has 8 points (4-of-5 shooting) and 3 assists.
- In fact, the whole team has done a much better job of getting to the rim.
- Matt Barnes, as usual, is all over the court. He already has 6 rebounds.
- Dwight Howard has two offensive fouls on what looked like two flops.
- Ryan Anderson is bouncing back from his terrible game last night. He has 10 points (6 points on 2-of-2 shooting from downtown) and has two put-backs (one dunk). Good to see him hit the glass.
- Amar’e Stoudemire has 11 points and 5 rebounds to lead the Suns.
Halftime: Magic lead 58-52.
- Jameer Nelson has been fun to watch tonight. He is getting to the basket, setting up his teammates and hitting his open looks. He has 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and has 7 assists to go along with it. Steve Nash is 4-of-10 from the field and has 9 points and 3 assists.
- The Suns are getting way too many second chance points.
- Ryan Anderson now has three put-backs on offensive rebounds. He is 6-of-9 from the field and has 14 points and 7 rebounds.
- Dwight Howard picked up his third foul (this time it was a call away from the ball), argue..d and received another technical foul. He has only played 12 minutes and has 6 points and 1 rebound.
- J.J. Redick is turning into a pretty good player. He hasn’t shot well (2-of-7 for 5 points), but he has set up his teammates well and has 4 assists to go along with 3 rebounds. He made a beautiful pass to Marcin Gortat in transition. He then made another good pass to Pietrus for a wide open 3-pointer.
- Pietrus has 13 points and is 3-of-4 from downtown after missing two straight games with flu-like symptoms.
- Grant Hill has been getting boo’d every time he checks in. He is 0-of-4 from the field and has not scored.
- Amare Stoudemire has 19 points and 11 rebounds.
End of 3rd Quarter: Magic lead 92-78
- Orlando built a 23-point lead but Phoenix out-scored Orlando 18-9 after that.
- Orlando scored 34 points in the quarter while the Suns managed 26.
- Jason Williams hit Dwight Howard for an ally-oop from near halfcourt.
- Howard dominated the quarter and now has 23 points. He had his hook shot working.
- Matt Barnes and Ryan Anderson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the Magic run as they started the quarter by out-scoring Phoenix 25-8.
- Jameer Nelson continues to pass the ball very well. He has a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists.
- Ryan Anderson also has a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds).
Final: Magic win 122-100
- I’ll have a full recap and analysis.
(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.)