The biggest news of the day came from Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.
"Magic General Manager Otis Smith said before the game that he believes the Magic’s Nelson — PG Jameer Nelson — is “two to three weeks” away from practicing with the team. “I think that’s the timetable, where we’re at right now,” Smith said.Nelson underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Nov. 18 and was expected to out four to six weeks. He remained home in Orlando to rehab rather than accompany the Magic on its four-game trip West.Jason Williams has started in Nelson’s place and is backed up by Anthony Johnson. Smith had tried to sign Warriors PG C.J. Watson this summer, but he elected to stay in Golden State."
This is great news. Williams has been excellent but the Magic need depth at the position and Nelson can also provide the Magic with another great scorer if the rest of the lineup is struggling to get the ball in the basket. You can read more here.
Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy called Saturday’s game with the Warriors “crazy basketball.”
“That’s crazy basketball,” Van Gundy said. “Just crazy. There were some wild match-ups. We had trouble getting stops and rebounds. They made some mistakes, some bad plays. The best thing we did was hang around.”
Read the full story here.
You can find my recap and analysis here.
Van Gundy said that Saturday night’s game against the Warriors was Vince Carter’s best performance of the season.
"Carter scored 27 points and added seven assists to help lift the Magic’s record to 16-4, a performance that Van Gundy labeled as Vince’s best this season.What Van Gundy loved seeing on Carter’s stat line most was his 12-of-12 effort at the free-throw line. The number didn’t just show perfection; it showed purpose.“Those are the numbers I’ve been looking for from him,” Van Gundy said. “We’re at our best if he’s attacking the basket.”Van Gundy believes that Carter is such a good shooter and can create a shot out of nothing that “it’s just easier” to remain on the perimeter. But Van Gundy said that when Carter drives to the basket, he provides balance to an offense that already has capable, willing shooters."
Read that story here.
The San Francisco Chronicle documents the excellent game that Anthony Randolph had against the Magic here.
Bethlehem Shoals takes a look at the Marcin Gortat situation.
"Stay tuned, I guess. Retaining Gortat was a luxury and perfectly within the Magic’s rights. You’d have figured, though, that this year would’ve brought us more Gortat, so it’s understandable he’s frustrated. Presumably talking it out will make sense of it all, because it would’ve been massively weird of the team to sign two backup centers if they only planned on playing Howard. If they do end up trying to move him, though, there should be takers for a young, skilled center—like maybe the Mavs?"
You can read that here.
Tuesday, I’ll attempt to explain the reasons for Dwight Howard’s struggles, his recent resurgence and what the Magic need him to do to win a championship.
(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.)