The Orlando Magic look to bounce back from a disappointing effort against the Utah Jazz in Phoenix against the Suns, who are also looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss.
The Magic saw their six-game winning streak and eight-game road winning streak come to an end. The Suns started off the year on fire with a record of 14-3, but they have lost four of their last five games.
Tip off from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona is scheduled for 10:30. You can watch the game on FSN. Like Thursday night, you out of town fans are in luck – the game is also on ESPN. 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: Suns –2
Starters:Orlando
Dwight Howard
Rashard Lewis
Mickael Pietrus
Vince Carter
Jason Williams
Phoenix
Channing Frye
Amare Stoudemire
Grant Hill
Jason Richardson
Steve Nash
Last Meeting: Orlando had one of their best games of the season when they defeated the Phoenix Suns 122-100 back on November 4 at Amway Arena. The Magic shot the ball incredibly well, posting an effective field goal percentage of 59.1%. Ryan Anderson scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds, Matt Barnes had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Dwight Howard scored 25 points to lead the Magic. Amare Stoudemire had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns. Steve Nash was held to just 12 points and 4 assists.
Season Series: The Magic lead the series 1-0 by virtue of their November 4th victory.
About the Magic: Orlando saw several of its streaks come to an end with a loss in Utah Thursday night.
It was a disappointing loss for several reasons with the most painful reason being that the Magic had an 18-point second quarter lead, but saw it disappear by midway through the third quarter.
One of the few bright spots for the Magic in Thursday night’s loss was their bench production. Matt Barnes, Ryan Anderson and J.J. Redick combined to score 43 points, grab 13 rebounds and dish out 7 assists while playing a combined 71 minutes.
The Magic got back into some bad habits that cost them the game against the Jazz. I discussed those problems here.
About the Suns: The Suns are coming off of a very tough, one-point loss in Dallas Tuesday night.
After a great begining to the season that saw the Suns start out 14-3, Phoenix has lost four of their last five games and three of those losses were blowouts (126-99 at New York, 107-90 at Cleveland, & 108-88 at the Lakers).
The Suns are not a very good defensive team. They give up 105.8 points per game and rank 24th in defensive efficiency. The Magic could have some success from the 3-point line. Opponents shoot 36.6% and made 7 3-pointers per game against the Suns. In their meeting on November 4, the Magic went 12-of-23 from beyond the arc.
On Thursday night, the Magic allowed the Jazz to get too many open looks and were absolutely lit up by Point Guard Deron Williams.
It won’t get any easier as the Magic will face a team that loves to run and has another excellent Point Guard in Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns.
Nash is averaging 17.5 points per game on 52.4% shooting from the field and as usual, is passing the ball extremely well, averaging 11 assists per game.
Phoenix, as expected with a Point Guard like Nash, is fifth in the NBA in assist ratio at 16%. Orlando struggled to defend an excellent passing team in Utah Thursday night.
Phoenix is the NBA’s most efficient offense and scores 109 points per game. The Suns also have the league’s highest effective field goal percentage at 55% (Orlando is third at 53%). The Suns make 9.7 3-pointers per game on 43.1% shooting. If Orlando plays defense like they did in Thursday night’s loss to the Jazz, they could be in for a very long night.
Orlando should be able to win the battle of the boards. Phoenix is just 23rd in the league in rebound rate and is just 15th in offensive rebound rate.
Orlando held Phoenix to 100 points in their first meeting and Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy deemed it a success. That will be the case once again.
(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.)