It’s a good thing the Magic are so deep because the injuries are piling up for this team. See my preview of tonight’s game between the Orlando Magic and the Oklahoma City Thunder here.
Matt Barnes is sick with flu-like symptoms, but expects to play tonight. See the full story here.
J.J. Redick was awarded the “Iron Man” award by the Orlando Magic. The award is based on several strength, speed and agility tests that the players participated in during the pre-season.
"But deep down, the “Iron Man’’ accomplishment was a tremendous one for Redick because it shows just how far he has progressed as an NBA player. Doing this would have never been possible four years ago when he was fresh out of Duke, new as a NBA player and maybe not quite ready to be a steady contributor.But Redick has progressed to the point now where he is one of the Magic’s most trusted players in coach Stan Van Gundy’s eyes. It’s why Redick has filled in admirably for the injured Vince Carter, and why he’ll likely start again Sunday when the Magic face the Oklahoma City Thunder. Redick has come a long way, and he knows it.“I really think a big part of having success is being in the right spot at the right time. But you have to be ready for it,’’ Redick said. “Maybe I wasn’t ready to do this sort of thing last year or a couple of years ago. Back then I probably couldn’t have stepped in and played a lot. It’s a testament to the coaching staff who has helped me improve.’’"
John Denton has the story here.
Joshua Robbins reports that Stan Van Gundy is very concerned about his team’s defense.
"Stan Van Gundy had a message for his team prior to practice Saturday at RDV Sportsplex.It was simple: The defense needs to improve.It’s hard to disagree. For all the publicity the Magic receive as an offensive juggernaut that loves to shoot 3-pointers, it’s easy to forget that their success last season primarily came because of their work on the defensive end. The Magic allowed their opponents to shoot just 43.27 percent from the field last season, third-best in the NBA, trailing only the Boston Celtics (43.05 percent) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (43.06 percent).This season’s only six games old, but the Magic have allowed their opponents to shoot 46.0 percent from the field."
Van Gundy said that he wished his team gave a better full-game effort, much like the Boston Celtics do. The Magic evaluate their defense based on nine different statistics that you can see here.
Dwight Howard discusses his triple double last season against the Thunder and the team’s lack of defense on his official blog.
"Our coach kind of let us have it after we beat Detroit on Friday, and I guess we deserved it because we didn’t play as good a defense as we should. We know that we can score with any team in the league, but what is going to help us get back to the finals and win a championship is our defense. We’ve got to make a better effort on defense every night and not let up."
You can read that here.
(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.)