The Orlando Magic will travel to the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, to take on the New York Knicks tonight.
Orlando is coming off of their second come-from-behind in a row after beating the Milwaukee Bucks 100-98 on Saturday night.
The Knicks come in reeling. They have lost their last four games and are just 3-13. The Knicks played pretty well in the Pepsi Center against the Nuggets on Friday night, but couldn’t come away with a win, losing 128-125. Carmelo Anthony scored 50 points for the Nuggets. All Harrington came off the bench to score 41 points for the Knicks
Tip-off is set for 6:00 pm EST and the game will be shown by 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 Line: Orlando – 6
Starters
Orlando
Dwight Howard
Rashard Lewis
Mickael Pietrus
Vince Carter
Jason Williams
New York
David Lee
Danilo Gallinari
Wilson Chandler
Larry Hughes
Chris Duhon
Last Meeting: The Knicks defeated the Magic 105-95 in Orlando on April 10, 2009. The Magic, who sat out several players down the stretch last season, had all five starters in this game. The Magic had a two point halftime lead but the Knicks dominated the third quarter and held on in the fourth quarter for the win. Three players scored at least 20 points for the Knicks – Al Harrington (27), David Lee (20), and Wilson Chandler (22). All five Magic starters scored in double figures.
Season Series: The April 10th contest was the only meeting that the Knicks won between the two teams last season, but the Knicks present the Magic with some problems and were very competitive in every game.
In their meeting last season, the Magic jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead before nearly giving it back. Hedo Turkoglu scored 33 points and Dwight Howard had 24 points and 21 rebounds to lead the Magic to a 114-109 win. Wilson Chandler scored 27 points while Al Harrington scored 26 for the Knicks.
The two teams met again on March 21 and the Magic won 110-103. Rashard Lewis led the Magic with 27 points. Dwight Howard fouled out of the game after scoring 15 points and grabbing only 7 rebounds. The Knicks were led by Quentin Richardson’s 33 points. Nate Robinson added 27 points and Al Harrington was held to just 8 points.
They played again just two days later (much like this year when the Magic and Knicks meet Sunday evening and then again on Wednesday night). The Magic trailed by nine entering the fourth quarter but outscored the Knicks 36-23 in the final period to come away with a 106-102 win. Orlando was led by Dwight Howard’s 29 points and 14 rebounds. Six players scored in double figures for the Knicks, led by Nate Robinson’s 19 points.
About the Magic: The Magic will play for the fourth time in five days. After losing the first of those four games, Orlando has come from behind to win each of their last two games against the Hawks and the Bucks, both on the road.
Orlando’s improving defense was lousy in the first half of their last two games, but they really clamped down in the second half when they needed too.
Dwight Howard has had a resurgence as of late. Howard has averaged 23.5 points per game, 18.5 rebounds per game and 4 blocks per game in Orlando’s last two victories. Howard has played smarter and managed to stay out of foul trouble, allowing him to be the defense presence that the Magic need. This is evidenced by the lack of points in the paint by the opposition and the amount of blocks (8) Howard has posted in these two games. Howard has attempted 29 shots in his last two games. He took 29 total shots in the four games prior to that. The 15 shots Howard attempted Saturday night was the the most shots he has taken all season.
Jason Williams continues to play fantastic basketball. Saturday night, Williams hit three key 3-pointers during Orlando’s rally and finished the game with 12 points, 10 assists, and zero turnovers. Williams’ assist-to-turnover ratio is a league-best 5.64.
Vince Carter has been inconsistent at times, but has been the go-to guy in clutch situations, which is exactly what the Magic wanted out of him. Carter hit the game-winner in Boston and what should have been the game-winning 3-pointer against the Heat on Wednesday.
Carter has also been getting to the basket much more, in large part because of the return of Ryan Anderson and Rashard Lewis, which has spread the floor and allowed Carter a much easier path to the basket.
About the Knicks: The Knicks score a lot of points (101.9 per game) but they give up a lot more (108.9 per game). Although, the Knicks score a lot of points, their offense rating is just 102.7 (good for 25th in the league) and they are the seventh least offensively efficient team in the league.
The Knicks shoot 43.3% but allow opposing teams to shoot 48.9% from the field. The Knicks also give up an eFG% of 53.1%, which is something Orlando’s 3-point shooters can take advantage of.
It gets worse. The Knicks rank 24th in the league in defensive rating (109.7) and 24th in defensive efficiency.
It’s easy to see why the Knicks are just 3-13 and are one of the worst teams in the league.
Al Harrington is the Knicks’ leading scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game on 44.7% shooting.
The Knicks have six players average in double figures. David Lee is probably the team’s most effective player. He is their second-leading scorer, averaging 18.1 points per game and is their leading rebounder, grabbing 9.9 rebounds per game.
The Knicks get up and down the court and run a lot of pick-and-rolls, much like Orlando’s opponent Saturday night, the Milwaukee Bucks, do. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy talked about it in the postgame Saturday night.
"“Our pick-and-roll defense was terrible. They’re hard to guard. They’re playing with two point guards and a combo guard. Theyre playing with unbelievable quickness and multiple pick-and-rolls, but we’re going to see the same thing tomorrow. So were going to try within 18 hours to vastly improve our pick-and-roll defense.”"
The Magic defended the pick-and-roll a lot better during the second half yesterday and that needs to carry on in today.
The Magic were lit up by Luke Ridnour off of the bench Saturday night. That bodes well for Knicks backup Guard Nate Robinson, who averaged 22 points per game against the Magic last season.
The Knicks are a pretty bad rebounding team and the Magic have been better on the glass in the last two games. Dwight Howard and co. should be able to dominate the glass on Sunday night.
The Magic need to feed the beast. Dwight Howard has three career 20-20 games against the Knicks and averaged 26.5 points per game, 17.5 rebounds per game and 4 blocks per game in Madison Square Garden. Vince Carter also loves playing the Knicks as he has traditionally been very good in Madison Square Garden.
Orlando’s offense should be able to have their way with the Knicks’s defense as long as they come out with energy.
Energy will be the story of the game. Whether Orlando can play at a high energy level will determine the outcome of this game. That may be a problem, because this will be Orlando’s fourth game in five nights.
(Andrew Melnick 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.)