Jazz End Magic’s Winning Streak
Gone is the six-game winning streak, the eight-game road winning streak and the streak of 23 straight wins when scoring over 100 points. Orlando blew an 18-point second quarter lead and lost to the Jazz, 120-111. Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 14 rebounds. The Magic had no answer for Deron Williams. He finished with 32 points, 15 assists and 8 rebounds. C.J. Miles had 22 points off of the bench. Vince Carter led the Magic with 34 points. Dwight Howard had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Orlando Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy summed the game up.
"“We didn’t move on offense. We played with no energy. They just played very well and we played very poorly.”"
Once again, the Magic got off to a hot start. Orlando shot an effective field goal percentage of 77.5% in the first period. Ryan Anderson and Matt Barnes had to fill in for Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus and did an excellent job. Anderson scored 10 points and Barnes had 7, but there were some bad omens in the opening period. Lewis picked up his second foul with 6:42 to play in the quarter. Mickael Pietrus got a cut under his eye and went to the locker room at the 9:36 mark (he later returned). The Magic also were dominated on the offensive glass. They had just one offensive rebound while the Jazz grabbed six. Orlando played solid defense, holding Utah to just 9-of-22 shooting from the field and held a 35-22 lead at the conclusion of the period.
The Magic started the second quarter strong as well, building their lead up to 18. They had a 51-33 lead with 6:47 left in the first half, but from that point on, it was all Jazz. They got the ball into the paint and finished the half on a 19-9 run.
It got worse in the third quarter. Orlando’s defense fell apart. Utah shot 13-of-21 from the field in the quarter and scored 38 points. Orlando managed 21 points on just five field goals. Utah was 9-of-10 in the free throw line in the third quarter after going just 10-of-22 in the first half. Utah ended the third quarter with a 9-point lead. Utah got the lead up to as big as 16 in the fourth quarter. Orlando attempted to stage a late rally in the fourth quarter and cut Utah’s lead back down to 8, but C.J. Miles hit two daggers to put the Magic away with less than 2 minutes to go.
Vince Carter had a season-high 34 points. Carter shot very well from the outside, going 5-of-11, but he was just 4-of-12 on 2-pointers and settled for too many jumpers. He got to the hoop with ease when he attempted to and did an excellent job of drawing fouls, going 11-of-12 from the line, but he could have driven more. Carter also had 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Ryan Anderson had a very fast start replacing Rashard Lewis after Lewis picked up two early fouls. He hit his first five shots, including four 3-pointers and had 14 points in the first half. Anderson had a nice spin move that got him an easy layup and did a good job of rebounding the ball when he was in. He kept Rashard Lewis out for most of the second quarter. Unfortunately, Ryan missed his last four shots and finished with just 16 points.
The Magic had some other good production from the bench. Matt Barnes had a season-high 17 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Barnes easily had his best shooting night of the season and this could be what he needed to get out of his shooting funk.
J.J. Redick also added 10 points off of the bench.
Orlando’s defense was absolutely awful. Utah shot 50% from the field and scored 120 points.
Orlando had no answer for Deron Williams. He did whatever he wanted all night. He ran the pick-and-roll well, set up his teammates perfectly, he drove the hoop and drew fouls and even made two 3-pointers. Williams finished the game with 32 points, going 9-of-18 from the field and 12-of-15 from the free throw line. Williams lived up to his billing as great passer and had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios I’ve seen with 15 assists and just one turnover. Williams also crashed the boards, grabbing 8 rebounds.
Carlos Boozer had a good night. He scored 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting and had a game-high 14 rebounds. He did a good job of defending Dwight Howard, stripping the ball from him on three different occasions.
C.J. Miles, playing in just his fifth game of the year, scored 22 points in 28 minutes.
The Magic allowed the Jazz to get to the free throw line way too often. Although the Jazz shot just 65.2% from the field, they attempted 46 free throws, so they were still able to get 30 points from the charity stripe.
In what is becoming a trend, the Magic were beaten on the offensive glass. Utah dominated that category, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds to Orlando’s 5.
Orlando had 13 turnovers and assisted on just 18 of their 35 field goals. Utah made 42 field goals and assisted on 28 of them, showing just why they are the best passing team in the league.
Game Notes:
Orlando’s eFG% (55.3%) was actually higher than Utah’s eFG% (53.6%).
Utah scored 48 points in the paint while Orlando had just 34.
Looking for the good? Dwight Howard was 6-of-7 from the free throw line.
The Magic, as a team, shot the ball very well from the free throw line, going 27-of-32.
Stan Van Gundy said that he asked Rashard Lewis to enter the game with six minutes left in the second quarter, but Lewis refused, saying that he had two fouls and Ryan Anderson was playing well.
Next Up: The Magic have to turn right around and fly to Phoenix to play the Suns.
Final Thought: It’s just one game. Orlando has 60 more.
(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.)