The Orlando Magic trailed the Toronto Raptors by as many as 11 before turning up the heat on defense to overcome poor shooting and come away with their fifth straight victory, a 104-96 win in Toronto. It was Orlando’s second win in Toronto on the young season. The Raptors fell to 6-8 while the Magic improved to a league-best (tied with Atlanta) 11-3.
The Magic had an awful start to the game – they couldn’t hit a shot or grab a rebound to save their lives.
The Raptors took an 11-point lead on Hedo Turkoglu’s three-pointer with 9:26 to play in the first half. J.J. Redick, who torched the Raptors for 27 points in their first meeting, answered with a three-pointer of his own. At that point, Orlando started to shoot the ball better and really turned the intensity up on the defensive end. Orlando out-scored the Raptors 26-14 and ended the first half with a 50-49 lead thanks to a beautiful pass by Vince Carter to Ryan Anderson, who hit a three-pointer.
Orlando’s defense but was off in the third quarter, but they made up for it with a 26-point quarter. The Magic rode some better shooting and Dwight Howard’s free-throw to build their third quarter lead to as big as seven but Amir Johnson got on a roll, scoring 9 points in the final five minutes of the quarter to give the Raptors the lead. The Magic beat the buzzer for the second consecutive quarter, this time on an 18-footer by Vince Carter, to tie the game at the end of three.
Orlando used their second unit for a good portion of the final quarter and boy did they play well. The Magic, led by Jason Williams and J.J. Redick, started the quarter on a 17-6 run. Jason Williams’ three-pointer with 6:22 to go made the score 93-82. The Raptors would cut the lead to as low as 6 at 99-93, but they couldn’t get any close. Vince Carter made some clutch plays and the Magic hit their free throws to win, 104-96.
The Magic were able to overcome a very slow and poor start because of good defense. The Raptors, who are the league’s most efficient offensive team, shot just 44.2% (34-of-77) and scored 96 points, 11 below their season average. The Magic limited some good three-point shooters on Toronto, giving up just six three-pointers on 16 attempts (37.5%). The Magic did, however, put Toronto on the line too many times – they were 22-of-28 (78.6%).
Fortunately for the Magic, they attempted 35 free throws, making 27 (77.1%).
Orlando held Raptors’ All-Star Chris Bosh to “only” 22 points and 5 rebounds. Sure, that’s not a terrible day, but that’s great for the Magic considering they usually are torched by Chris Bosh, including a 35-point, 16-rebound performance in his last game against the Magic. Bosh came into the game averaging 26.8 points per game and 12.2 rebounds per game. This was one of the major reasons the Magic were able to come away with the victory.
Orlando’s offense was shooting in the low 30’s for the majority of the first half but wound up shooting 41% for the game (34-of-83). Orlando attempted 32 three-pointers and made just nine. The tandem of Rashard Lewis (0-of-6) and Vince Carter (0-of-5) were awful from downtown. Luckily J.J. Redick (4-of-7), Ryan Anderson (2-of-6) and Jason Williams (2-of-3) picked up the slack.
The Raptors also started the game with a decided rebounding advantage, grabbing 17 of the game’s first 28 rebounds. After that, Orlando out-rebounded Toronto 35 to 26.
Both teams took pretty good care of the basketball. Toronto committed just nine turnovers while Orlando committed a season-low seven turnovers.
J.J. Redick has an excellent first six minutes. He made a huge impact during Orlando’s decisive 17-6 run at the start of the fourth quarter. During the span, Redick hit three long jumpers, one of which was a three-pointer and assisted on two Jason Williams three-pointers, making him responsible for 13 of Orlando’s 17 points during the run. Redick was great from downtown (4-of-7) and finished the game with 19 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 0 turnovers in 30 minutes. He also played very solid defense. Redick has now had his two best games of the season at Air Canada Centre. Unfortunately for J.J., the Magic do not have another game there this season.
Dwight Howard was plagued by foul trouble again. He picked up his second foul after playing just 6:02 in the first quarter. The Magic really struggled on the boards after Howard left the game and their early 12-11 lead turned into a 28-22 deficit by the end of the period. When Howard returned, he picked up his play, finishing the game with 17 points. Howard got his wish for more field goal attempts with 13, but only made four of those 13 shots (30.7%). After a pretty solid start (by his standards) to the season from the free throw line, Howard went into a slump that included a 5-of-11 night on Friday in Boston. He seemed to get out of that slump today. Howard made eight of his first 10 attempts and finished 9-of-14 for the night (64.2%). Howard grabbed 12 rebounds in 32 minutes and continued to show off his improved passing ability. Howard finished the game with 3 assists, but that doesn’t tell the story. Howard commits fewer turnovers and doesn’t put up nearly as many ill-advised shots. Instead, he makes crisp passes to open shooters or playmakers.
Vince Carter, who was boo’d throughout the game, had another off shooting night from the field (37.5, 9-of-24) and from beyond the arc (0-of-5), but I loved the way that Vince Carter went to the hole. He attacked the basket more than he has all year and got unlucky with some bad bounces. Carter did draw some fouls and went 6-of-6 from the line (six is the most free throws he’s made this season). Carter did have a season-high 8 rebounds and fished out 2 assists while committing just one turnover. For the second consecutive game, Carter wanted the ball in the final minutes. Instead of hitting the game-winner like he did on Friday night, Carter made two free throws to extend Orlando’s lead from 6 to 8 with 2:15 to go and hit a long jumper with the shot clock winding down to ice the game with 36 seconds left. It’s been quite some time since Orland has had a go-to-guy like this.
Jason Williams continues to fill in admirably for the injured Jameer Nelson. He was very efficient today. He played a team-high and personal season-high 39 minutes. He scored a season-high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting and hit two key three-pointers in the fourth quarter during Orlando’s 17-6 run to start the period. He had 5 rebounds, 3 assists and did not turn the ball over.
Orlando’s stretch Fours had rough shooting nights. Rashard Lewis (4-of-12) and Ryan Anderson (2-of-6) combined to shoot just 33.3%. All of Anderson’s shots were from beyond the arc while Lewis was 0-of-6 from downtown. Lewis finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists while Anderson scored 8 points, grabbed 4 boards and had 1 assist.
Marcin Gortat scored 4 points on 2-of-2 shooting and had 3 rebounds. The Polish Machine played 16 minutes.
Anthony Johnson (9 minutes) and Matt Barnes (3 minutes) combined to play 12 minutes and each player missed the only shot they attempted.
The hero for Toronto was a surprise – Amir Johnson scored a season high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds. He was instrumental during Toronto’s third quarter run that regained them the lead. Johnson’s 29 minutes played were also a season-high.
Game Notes:
- The Magic are 5-2 on the road.
- Toronto has just two home losses. Both came at the hands of the Magic.
- Both teams finished the game with 19 assists on 34 field goals.
- Brandon Bass received a DNP – Coach’s Decision for the second consecutive game.
- Head Coach Stan Van Gundy seemed to settle on an eight-man rotation today.
Final Thought: The Magic have won five straight games and are tied for the league’s best record at 11-3. And there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Next up: Orlando will get a few days before hosting the Miami Heat on national television (ESPN) Wednesday night. That starts a stretch of four games in five nights for the Magic. Rough way to spend Thanksgiving weekend.
(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.)