Now that is how you bounce back from a loss.
After a terrible performance in the palace of Auburn Hills against the Pistons on Tuesday night, the Magic played an excellent game offensively and easily defeated the Phoenix Suns 122-100.
If you’re a Magic fan, you had to have liked what you saw tonight. Everybody got into the action for the Magic – six players scored in double figures and Guard J.J. Redick was just at point short. The Magic shot the ball extremely well, going 46-of-88 from the field (52.3%) and 12-of-23 from downtown (52.2%). The Magic also played their best defensive game of the season. The Suns came in shooting 51.4% from the field and 48.8% from beyond the arc. The Magic held the Suns to just 45.5% shooting from the field and 31.8% from downtown. They also forced 18 Phoenix turnovers. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy was pleased with Orlando’s all-around performance for the first time this season.
All this with Vince Carter in street clothes with his injured ankle and Rashard Lewis still suspended. Impressive.
"“That was a good bounce back game for us. Maybe the first time in these first five games, yes the first time in these first five games that I thought we played well on both ends of the floor. They still ended up with 100 points but based on who we’re playing and what we had to play against, I thought we did a very good job defensively. Much better than we have all year. And offensively, except for one stretch in the second and third quarter where we were shooting the ball too quickly and not moving the ball, I thought probably for 42 or 44 of the 48 minutes, we moved the ball well offensively. “"
The Magic had a few chances to blow it open. They had a 12-point first quarter lead, but the Suns ended the quarter on an 8-0 to cut the lead to 29-25. Finally, the Magic broke it open in the third quarter. They started the quarter on a 25-8 run, spearheaded by back-to-back three-pointers by Matt Barnes and Ryan Anderson.
The Magic didn’t do everything right. They still need to limit their turnovers (they had 15 tonight) and as Van Gundy said sometimes the Magic take too many quick shots and get too comfortable from the outside. Even though Orlando is thought of as a finesse team who lives and dies by the three-pointer, the Magic have a lot of players who are capable of getting to the basket and they proved that tonight. The Magic also gave up a lot of second chance points, especially in the second half. Phoenix had 16 offensive rebounds, but the Magic seemed to correct this at halftime and wound up winning the rebounding battle 47-44.
Van Gundy was very happy with the way Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson bounced back from off nights Tuesday.
"“I thought we got some good efforts from guys who played very poorly last night. Jameer, Dwight, I didn’t think got to play much last night. I thought those guys bounced back and played very well.”"
Dwight Howard had a very difficult first half, picking up three quick fouls again. Two of the fouls looked like they could have been called flops and the third was away from the ball. But the big man bounced back. Howard dominated the quarter, showing off his hook shot and, as always, his dunking ability. He caught an incredible near-half court pass from Jason Williams and slammed it down in the third quarter. Howard finished the game without a double-double for the second game in a row, but that he can be attributed to his lack of minutes due to his foul trouble (23:20). He finished with 25 points and 6 rebounds. Those weren’t the most impressive numbers Dwight had. 7 and 8 were, as in Howard was 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
Howard continues to get into foul trouble and although I agree there have been some bad calls, he needs to keep his composure. Van Gundy believes that Howard is held to a double standard by the officials – they allow more contact on him because he’s a strong player – but Van Gundy wonders why a strong player like Dwayne Wade or LeBron James have fouls called with less than half of the contact that Howard gets.
Jameer Nelson was awesome all night. He pretty much did whatever he wanted in the first half. He got to the hoop with ease and either finished or hit a wide open teammate. He was extremely aggressive throughout the game. He shot the ball well, going 7-of-13 and finished with 16 points. He an incredible assist to turnover ratio for a Point Guard – 10 assists and just one turnover.
Matt Barnes once again filled up the stat sheet. He scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out 5 assists and had 2 steals. He has great energy. His motor never stops at either end of the court. One especially great hustle play by Barnes that came in this game was when he got back on defense after a turnover and stole the ball right back for the Magic. Van Gundy had good things to say when I asked him about Barnes’ play.
"“I think Matt, as he’s gotten more minutes; I think he’s starting to do more of what it is that we want him to do. We know he can rebound the ball and that is a huge help. Especially when we have times with Dwight in foul trouble so he’s been doing that consistently. But I think as he’s gotten more minutes, he’s relaxed offensively, he’s making smarter, more solid plays. He’s not in a big hurry. He’s a smart guy, he really knows how to play the game and when he relaxes himself and lets his instincts take over, he’s pretty damn good. And he’s just a guy who fits in with everybody else. And we need that. We need a guy who will move the ball and help everyone else. And he does that.”"
Van Gundy made it sound like Barnes is the definition of a team player. What a pick-up he is going to be.
Ryan Anderson was excellent. A day after going 1-of-11 from beyond the arc, Ryan Anderson was 8-of-14 from the field and 3-of-3 from downtown, scoring 20 points. Anderson is continuing to pump fake and put the ball on the floor. He’s had some success getting to the basket. He also had his best rebounding game – he grabbed 10 rebounds with 7 of them coming on the offensive end. On 4 of those offensive rebounds, Anderson put the shot right back and scored, with one of them resulting in a 3-point play. Ryan Anderson is much more than just a shooter.
J.J. Redick is a player. He is doing a good job of drawing the defender and using the pump-fake to get open looks. He didn’t shoot the ball well today (9 points, 3-of-9 shooting), but he got it done other ways. Redick did a good job of boxing out and wound up with a surprising 5 rebounds. He looks quicker with the ball and used this to get open looks for his teammates. He had 4 assists and had 2 passes that were especially good. The first game in transition when he Marcin Gortat for a breakaway dunk. The second came when he found a cutting Mickael Pietrus for an open three-pointer.
Speaking of Pietrus, he was listed as doubtful for the game today, but wound up playing. Van Gundy found out he’d be available earlier in the day and decided to use him off of the bench. Pietrus hit open looks from downtown and took the ball to the basket. He was very aggressive and it paid off – he scored 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting (3-of-5 from downtown).
Brandon Bass was effective again, mostly from the baseline. He hit a couple of his patented baseline jumpers but added to his repertoire by driving from the baseline and making two dunks. He finished 6-of-8 from the field for 12 points. Marcin Gortat was also solid off of the bench, scoring 8 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. He had one rim-rocking dunk in the third quarter that brought the crowd to their feet.
Game Notes:
- Grant Hill was booed every time he entered the game.
- His return to Orlando did not go well. He played just 18 minutes and scored zero points on 0-of-5 shooting.
- Amare Stoudemire, who is from Central Florida and was cheered throughout the game, led the Suns with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
- Jared Dudley was very effective for the Suns, scoring 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He hit back to back three-pointers when Phoenix cut a 12 point first quarter lead down to 4.
- I like the way the Magic are drawing fouls. They are learning to draw contact when they can’t find an open man or shot. Pietrus earned himself three free throws doing this on Wednesday night.
Next up: The Magic will host the Pistons, the team that defeated them Tuesday night, on Friday night at Amway Arena.
Final Thought: This is how a great team is supposed to rebound from a bad performance.
(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.)