The Orlando Magic bounced back from their blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder by defeating the Charlotte Bobcats 93-81. It was the Bobcats’ first home loss of the season.
The Magic turned it up on defense in the second quarter and in the fourth quarter, after awful defensive performances in both the first quarter and the third quarter.
The Magic got off to a very hot start. They shot 61.5% (16-of-26) from the field in the opening period and scored 35 first quarter points. Brandon Bass was looking for his shot and went 6-of-6 from the field, scoring 12 points. Unfortunately for the Magic, they still allowed the Bobcats to shoot 52% (12-of-23) and score 23 points.
The defense played a lot better in the second quarter until the final 1:50 when the Bobcats scored the half’s last six points. Before that, the Magic had out-scored the Bobcats 22-12 in the quarter. The Bobcats shot just 6-of-14 in the quarter.
The third quarter was not kind to the Magic. The Bobcats dominated the Magic offensively, scoring 30 points in the quarter on 70.5% (12-of-17) shooting. Raymond Felton scored 12 points in the period and the lead was cut to just 6 at 77-71 by the end of the quarter. It was a very forgettable quarter for the Magic – they didn’t seem to do anything right.
Orlando’s defense finally stepped up in the fourth quarter. The Magic showed some effort, hustle and intensity in the final period for the first time since the first quarter. Stan Van Gundy commented on his team’s intensity in his post-game press conference.
"“We started the game with it and we ended the game with it. You won’t get to 48 minutes overnight but it’s a good start.”"
Vince Carter started the quarter by hitting two straight shots and they finding a Marcin Gortat off of a pick-and-roll for a three-point play. That put the Magic back up by 9. Matt Barnes got a steal and a lay-up and the Magic were back up by double-digits. Neither team got much going on offense in the final quarter. The Magic were held scoreless from the 7:09 mark until the 4:24 mark when Jameer Nelson hit a 3-pointer to put the Magic up 14. Charlotte did not score from the 6:52 mark until there was just 3:32 to go in the game. Orlando allowed Charlotte to score just 10 points in the final quarter and came out of the game with a 92-80 victory.
The Magic played pretty well offensively, but just in spurts. The Magic wound up scoring 92 points, 11 points below their season average, but they did improve on their shooting from Sunday night’s embarrassing loss, shooting 47% (38-of-81) from the field. Orlando was also 9-of-25 from beyond the arc (36%). Orlando had 14 turnovers but assisted on 21 of their 38 field goals.
The Bobcats shot 44.2% from the field (34-of-77) but that was mainly due to a strong defensive fourth quarter by the Magic. The Magic defended the three-point line well. Charlotte was just 2-of-17 from there. Both teams attempts 14 free throws. Charlotte made 11 while Orlando made just 8.
The Magic had 10 steals, blocked 6 shots and forced 19 Bobcat turnovers.
The Magic wound up being out-rebounded by the Bobcats 39-37. This was a stat that the Magic had a big lead in at one point in the game.
Matt Barnes made a huge difference in the game. He made a lot of big plays to stop big runs and key Orlando’s late run with two steals. One came on a tipped pass by Jason Williams and the other resulted in a Barnes layup that extended the lead to 11. Barnes finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.
I really liked what Brandon Bass did offensively…in the first quarter. Bass shot a perfect 6-of-6 in the first quarter, but scored just 2 more points on 1-of-3 shooting during the rest of the game. Van Gundy instead chose to play Matt Barnes and Marcin Gortat at Power Forward.
Gortat played just 17 minutes but managed to have his best game in quite some time. He had 6 points and 5 rebounds. He also played some very good defense and blocked 4 shots.
Dwight Howard was single teamed throughout game but shot 7-of-13 only attempted two free throws, making one. He finished with a team-high 15 points. He did fill up the stat sheet with 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Dwight’s passing is probably the most improved part of his game. He’s been especially good out of the double team.
The Magic got a good contribution off of the bench from Mickael Pietrus. He had 12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
The individual story of the night for the Magic was Vince Carter.
Early in the day, it was reported that Vince Carter would not play, but Vince told Van Gundy he wanted to give it a go and asked Van Gundy not to start him because he has not been practicing.
Vince stayed outside for the most part during Tuesday night’s game. He went inside a couple of times and actually looked fairly effective doing so. He had a bad shooting night, going 5-of-16 from the field and 3-of-8 from downtown. He finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
Game Notes:
- Jason Williams had 4 assists in just 17 minutes. He’s posted some very good assist numbers.
- Monday’s game against Charlotte will be Rashard Lewis’ first game back in the Magic lineup.
- Gerald Wallace is the NBA’s leading rebounds, averaging 13 a game, but he had just 9 tonight.
- Wallace also blew three different dunks in the game.
- Starting Center Tyson Chandler played just 11 minutes.
- Nazr Mohammed scored 11 points.
- Raymond Felton led all scorers with 18 points.
Final Thought: Orlando got a win and had an excellent fourth quarter on the defensive end but they still must improve significantly on defensively.
Next up: The Magic will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals tomorrow night at Amway Arena.
(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.)