The Orlando Magic look to bounce back after losing two games in a row for the first time this season when they host the New Jersey Nets on Monday night.
Orlando had a disappointing finish to their west coast road trip, finishing the trip with a record of 2-2. Orlando comes into Monday night’s game with a record of 17-6. The Indiana Pacers enter the game with a record of 8-13. The Pacers have won their last two games after a six-game losing streak.
Orlando is 7-2 at home while Indiana is 3-7 on the road.
Tip off from Amway is at 7:00 pm EST. You can catch the game on television on 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.
Vince Carter injured his knee in Friday night’s loss to Phoenix but according to the Orlando Sentinel, it sounds like he will play tonight.
"“We’re pretty hopeful that he’ll be ready to go,” Van Gundy said. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”"
Carter averaged 32.3 points per game against the Pacers last season.
Update: Dahntay Jones will not play. Mike Dunleavy will start in his place.
The Line: Orlando – 12
Starters:
Orlando
Dwight Howard
Rashard Lewis
Mickael Pietrus
Vince Carter
Jason Williams
Indiana
Roy Hibbert
Troy Murphy
Mike Dunleavy
Brandon Rush
T.J. Ford
Last Meeting: The Pacers defeated the Magic on February 6th last season 107-102. Both teams shot 43.8% from the field (35-of-80) but the Pacers made seven more free throws than the Magic despite attempting two less. Danny Granger led the Pacers with 33 points while T.J. Ford had 21 point and Troy Murphy had 20 points. Dwight Howard had 21 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Magic.
Season Series: The February 6th meeting was Indiana’s lone victory in the series last year as the Magic took it 3-1. In their first meeting, Dwight Howard had 24 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Magic to a 100-98 overtime victory. Howard blocked what could have been the game-winning shot in regulation.
The two meetings in Amway were blowouts. On November 29th, Dwight Howard had 32 points and 21 rebounds to lead the Magic to a 110-96 win. On January 27th, Mickael Pietrus had 27 points and 10 rebounds while Dwight Howard had 22 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes to give the Magic a 135-111 victory.
About the Magic: The Magic lost two straight road games after winning their previous eight games on the road. It was the first time the Magic have lost two games in a row since dropping games 4 and 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2009 NBA Finals.
Dwight Howard has seven straight double-doubles against the Pacers and averaged 24.5 points per game and 13.5 rebounds per game and had two games where he scored over 20 points and and grabbed 20 rebounds.
Speaking of Howard, he is coming off a game in which he attempted just one field goal and it’s been a little overplayed. He did attempt 17 free throws and turned the ball over 5 times.
Defense has been a problem for the Magic. They had a good run, climbing from 21st to 6th in defensive efficiency and are still 8th in the league but they did not play well during their road trip. The Magic gave up 107.5 points per game while they were out west.
The Magic need some work on defense and since the Pacers are one of the worst offensive teams in the league (26th in efficiency), Monday night would be a nice place to start.
About the Pacers: The Pacers have won two straight games after losing 10 of their last 11 prior to that. The Pacers have been extremely streaky. They lost their first three games, won their next five games and then lost 10 out of their next 11 games.
As I mentioned above, Indiana is one of the worst offensive teams in the league. They are the league’s 26th most efficient offensive team and score 98 points per game.
Leading scorer Danny Granger is out torn right plantar fascia. The Pacers have won two out of three games without Granger’s 24.4 points per, 6.1 rebounds per game and 2.6 assists per game.
Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Tyler Hansbrough have picked up the scoring load during Granger’s absence. Dunleavy has averaged 16.3 points per game in that three-game stretch, up from his season average of 13.8 points per game. Murphy, who averages 12.2 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game, has averaged 17.7 points per game 10.3 rebounds per game without Granger. Tyler Hansbrough has averaged 17.7 points per game during that same stretch (he averages 8.9 points per game during the season).
Part of Indiana’s problem is that they’re not careful with the basketball. Their turnover rate is 25.8%, fifth worst in the NBA.
In terms of efficiency, Indiana is a much better defensive team. They rank 11th in the league in efficiency.
The Pacers have the fifth worst rebounding rate in the league, so Orlando should be able to dominate the boards.
Look for Dwight Howard to be aggressive early. When Howard has an off-night, the Magic usually try to get him the ball early and often. With the inconsistency of Pacers’ Center Roy Hibbert, Howard should be able to take advantage and have a big night.
(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.)