Preview: Orlando Magic @ Charlotte Bobcats

The Orlando Magic, coming off a 28-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, travel to Charlotte to do battle with the Bobcats at the Time Warner Cable Arena on Tuesday night.

The game starts at 7:00 pm EST and can be seen on Sun Sports.  As always, if you can’t watch the game, you can hear it locally on WDBO 580 AM and in Spanish on WONQ AM 1030.

The Magic are 5-2 but are coming off a terrible all-around performance on Sunday night in a 102-74 loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy was very upset with Orlando’s defensive performance, as he has been all season.

The Bobcats have started the season 3-3 and had won two straight games before dropping one to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.

Per the Orlando Sentinel, Vince Carter has been ruled out of tonight’s game with the Bobcats.

"Magic shooting guard Vince Carter (sprained left ankle) will not play tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats, missing his fifth game of the season. The club had hoped that Carter would be well enough after participating in portions of Monday’s practice."

The line: Magic – 4

Starters

Orlando Magic

Dwight Howard
Brandon Bass
Matt Barnes
J.J. Redick
Jameer Nelson

Charlotte Bobcats

Tyson Chandler
Boris Diaw
Gerald Wallace
Raja Bell
Raymond Felton

Last meeting: The Magic blew out the Bobcats on the final day of the regular season last year, 98-73. The Magic, who were resting players for the upcoming post-season were led by Tony Battie’s 21 points and 9 rebounds. Mickael Pietrus added in 19 points and Dwight Howard had 10 points and 12 rebounds in just 24 minutes. Raymond Felton led the Bobcats with 13 points. Gerald Wallace had 10 rebounds, but just 3 points.

Season Series: The Magic swept the Bobcats 4-0 last season. In their first meeting of the 2008-09 season, Dwight Howard fouled out in just 26 minutes but every other starter scored in double figures to lead the Magic to a 90-85 victory.

Back on February 17, the Bobcats took the Magic to overtime after J.J. Redick’s three-pointer tied the game with 8 seconds left. Raymond Felton missed a last second jumper and the Magic came away with a 107-102. Dwight Howard had a monster game, scoring a career-high 45 points, grabbing 19 rebounds and blocking 8 shots.

Just three days later, the two teams met again and the Magic dominated defensively in route to a 92-80 victory. This game was Rafer Alston’s debut for the Magic. Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with 24 points. Howard had 13 points and 16 rebounds as the Magic survived a terrible shooting night.

About the Magic: Stan Van Gundy was very unhappy about Orlando’s performance in Oklahoma City on Sunday night. As he should be. The Magic shot just 36.8% from the field and were just 3-of-16 from beyond the arc. Orlando’s defense, which is Van Gundy’s main concern, was even worse. The Thunder shot 57% from the field and were 9-of-16 from downtown.

The Magic are allowing 99.6 points per game and opponents are shooting 47.5% from the field against them.

To be fair, the Magic were without Guard Vince Carter and Forward Ryan Anderson because of ankle injuries and were still missing Rashard Lewis due to his suspension. Matt Barnes also was sick with flu-like symptoms.

The Magic will once again be without Lewis as he must sit for three more games (including tonight) before returning to the lineup on November 16 against these same Bobcats. Ryan Anderson and Vince Carter will also miss tonight’s game due to their ankle injuries.

The Magic will probably have to resort to some different lineups. Both Anthony Johnson and Jameer Nelson have seen time at Shooting Guard while Jason Williams has run the point. Marcin Gortat and Dwight Howard have also been in the game at the same time, creating a “Twin Towers” look. Once again, Brandon Bass will have to fill in as a starter because he is the only Power Forward who will be dressed for tonight’s game. Bass, like the rest of the Magic, struggled on Sunday night.

About the Bobcats: Charlotte is coming off a loss to the Chicago Bulls and is 3-3 on the season. The Bobcats are 3-0 at home and 0-3 on the road. I didn’t expect much from the Bobcats this season and I still don’t, but they haven’t looked bad early on in the season. Their home wins over the 1-7 Knicks (in overtime) and the winless Nets don’t look all that impressive, but they did blow out the 5-2 Atlanta Hawks on Friday night 103-83. The Bobcats’ three losses are nothing to get upset about – they were beaten on the road by two of the league’s five best teams, Cleveland and Boston. Their other loss came in a close game (93-90) against the 4-2 Chicago Bulls, making the Bobcats 1-3 against playoff teams from last season and 2-0 against non-playoff teams.

Surprisingly, Bobcats Small Forward Gerald Wallace is leading the entire league in rebounding with 13.8 per game (Dwight Howard is sixth at 11.1). Wallace is also the team’s leading scorer, going for 14.3 points per game, but he’s shooting just 32% from the field. Four of the fix Bobcats starters average double-figures in scoring to somewhat make up for their lack of a go-to scorer and sixth man DJ Augustin averages just under 10 points per game.

The Bobcats could be a good team for the Magic to get back on track against defensively. The Bobcats average just 85.3 points per game and lack a go-to scorer. As a team, the Bobcats are shooting just 38.6% from the field and just 32% from downtown.

The Bobcats do play pretty good defense. The Bobcats hold their opponents to 87.7 points per game. Opponents shoot just under 44% from the field against the Bobcats and just under 33% from three-point land.

The Magic should be able to beat the Bobcats if they make smart decisions, have good ball movement and hit the boards. The real key will be to see how Orlando responds defensively after being called out by Stan Van Gundy – again.

(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.)

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