The Orlando Magic put together their best basketball game of the season, especially in the second half, in defeating the Atlanta Hawks 93-76.
I can’t think of a better way to bounce from a heartbreaking loss to a division rival then to come from behind to beat the first place team in your division, moving back into first place in the process.
The most impressive part of Orlando’s come-from-behind victory was that they had to do it on the second night of back-to-back while the Hawks had four days rest prior to the game.
The Magic struggled throughout the first half and trailed by 12, 51-39 at halftime. In fact, a Rashard Lewis 3-pointer was Orlando’s only field goal in the last nine minutes of the second quarter. During that span, the Hawks outscored the Magic 20-to-7.
It looked like the Magic were on their way to their second consecutive loss before Stan Van Gundy spoke to the team at halftime.
"“I said to them at halftime, ‘The question is, does anybody want to play? I think we were pouting. We were tired. It’s easy to make an excuse, but at the end of the day they’re going to give you a W or an L. Nobody cares how long they’ve been rested or anything else. Nobody cares.”"
Van Gundy’s comments must have woke the Magic up because they dominated the game on both ends of the court in the second half, scoring 54 points and allowing the Hawks to score just 25 points in the half.
The Magic had taken the lead by the end of the third quarter and put the Hawks away in the fourth quarter.
After Zaza Pachulia cut Orlando’s lead back to two in the fourth quarter, the Magic scored the next eight points and ended the game on a 22-to-8 run.
Orlando’s defense was excellent in the second half. After struggling again in the first half, the Magic held the Hawks to just six field goals in their final 34 possessions. Atlanta’s 76 points was nearly 30 points below their season average of 105.5 points per game. Atlanta came into the game shooting 47%, but shot just 38.8% on Thursday night. The Hawks also attempted only seven free throws, hitting three. The Magic had seven steals and blocked six shots. They also forced 13 Atlanta turnovers while committing 12 turnovers themselves.
The Magic, one day after being outrebounded 49-to-42 against the undersized Miami Heat, outrebounded the Hawks 53-to-40. As I stated before the game, the Hawks are a very good rebounding team, especially on the offensive end, but Orlando really crashed the glass on Thursday night. The Hawks had just 11 offensive rebounds which is a big accomplishment, considering the Heat grabbed 14 offensive rebounds against the Magic Wednesday night.
After Joe Johnson hit a bucket for the Hawks to open the second half, Dwight Howard took the game over, scoring 10 points in the first seven minutes of the half. Howard, who scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and blocked three shots in the second half, finished the game with 22 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks. Howard was more aggressive, attempting 14 shots, making nine of them. This led to his increase in scoring. Howard was also smart with the ball. He did a good job of passing out of the double team as he has all season and even dished out three assists. Howard really asserted himself on both ends of the court and showed just how good this team can be when he is playing at a high-level. If you missed the game, watch the highlights because you will see a highlight reel of dunks from Howard that has been missing lately. The only real problem you can find in Howard’s game on Thursday night was – surprise, surprise – his free throw shooting. Howard was just 4-of-9 ( 44.4%) on the night.
Vince Carter made some clutch plays – again. In fact, his three-point play with 2:09 to go in the third quarter gave Orlando a 64-63 lead. It was their first lead since having a 12-11 lead just five minutes into the game. It’s a good thing Carter continues to make clutch plays because he is still very inconsistent. Carter shot just 39% (7-of-18) from the field, but was 3-of-7 (42.8%) from downtown and grabbed a season-high nine rebounds.
Surprisingly, backup Point Guard Anthony Johnson may have been the star of the night for the Magic. Johnson, who came into the game averaging just 1.6 points per game in 9.5 minutes per game, scored 17 points in 21 minutes. Johnson was 6-of-10 from the field, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, and 2-of-2 from the free throw line. Entering the game, Johnson had hit just five field goals, one three-pointer and two free throws. On Thursday night, Johnson grabbed two rebounds and dished out three assists without turning the ball over. At one point in the fourth quarter, Johnson went on an 8-2 run by himself (he hit two 3-pointers and two free throws) and finished with 15 points in the final quarter.
Matt Barnes was held scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting but made excellent contributions off of the bench. Barnes played with his usual intensity, guarded Joe Johnson fairly well and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Mickael Pietrus couldn’t get it going on offense – he was 2-of-7 with five points – but once again, he was excellent on defense. Although Joe Johnson scored 21 points, Pietrus and Barnes allowed him to shoot just 9-of-21 from the field.
Rashard Lewis continues to struggle – he was just 6-o-16 from the field and finished with 14 points. Lewis took just five 3-pointers, making two, and was much more aggressive, getting himself to the basket. He looked better tonight, but still has a ways to go.
J.J. Redick missed both of his 3-point attempts, but got to the basket and got himself good lucks, hitting all four of his 2-point attempts to finish with 9 points.
Game Notes:
- The Magic had 11 more rebounds than they did Wednesday night against the Heat.
- The Magic held Atlanta to just 25 second half points, a season best.
- Orlando held Atlanta to 11 fourth quarter points, just one more than a season best performance in the fourth quarter against the Bobcats on November 10 (10 points).
- Vince Carter scored at least 21 points for the fourth consecutive game. He is averaging 23.25 points per game during that span.
- The Magic once again struggled from the free throw line, going just 13-of-20 (65%).
- Jamal Crawford shot just 30.7% from the field and scored 10 points. He came in shooting 44.4% and scoring 16.7 points per game.
Final Thought: The second half was the most impressive performance by the Magic we have seen since last year’s postseason.
Next Up: The Magic will travel to Milwaukee to face rookie phenom Brandon Jennings and the Bucks on Saturday night at 9:00 pm EST.
(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.)