The Orlando Magic defeated the Indiana Pacers 106-98 on Monday night. See my recap and analysis here.
Alex Kennedy was also in attendance Monday night and he shares his postgame thoughts here.
Kelly Dwyer goes behind the box score.
"The Magic developed a counter before too long, though, developing better spacing as the night went on by continually going to Howard in the middle, and even if the results weren’t pretty (Howard missed nine of 22 free throws and six of ten shots), Orlando prevailed.21 points and 23 boards for Dwight, with four blocks, while Vince Carter(notes) worked well all contest, finishing with 23 points. Mike Dunleavy Jr. barely topped his team-mandated minute limit, scoring 28 points in just over 33 minutes, and the Pacers dug themselves a hole by only earning 10 free throws all night (making seven)."
You can read that here.
John Denton analyzed Monday night’s victory.
"Possibly still stuck on Pacific time after nine days on the West Coast, Orlando had to rally out of a 17-point hole in the second quarter. That equaled the largest come-from-behind victory of the season, tying the 17-point rally against the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 28.“Our defense was lacking at different points,’’ Redick said. “Stan wrote up on the board, `17,’ because that’s the number of points they had in the fourth quarter. Obviously we dug in enough to get a win because they had 30 points in the first quarter. That’s not the way we wanted to start a home stand, but we got the win.’’"
Read the full analysis here.
Anthony Johnson had his second consecutive excellent game. I caught up with A.J. after the game. You can find that here.
Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star shares his thoughts from the Pacers’ perspective here.
The game was overshadowed by Troy Murphy’s hard foul on Dwight Howard and Howard’s attempted shove that the Pacers interpreted as a punch.
Steve Kyler of Hoops World discusses the situation here.
Tim Povtak of NBA Fanhouse wonders if Dwight Howard is being punished or protected. Read that story here.
Tania Ganglui writes that Dwight Howard’s teammates immediately came to his defense.
"“If he’s suspended I’ll be shocked,” Redick said. “And I think Troy Murphy should be suspended. You can’t go for somebody’s head and Dwight didn’t do a thing to retaliate. I think it’s BS guys are going for Dwight’s head.“In any other situation that’s a flagrant all the time. And Dwight gets flagrant 1 fouls twice a game and it’s never called. … I don’t think a guy just because he’s stronger should be reffed differently.”I asked Carter if the situation fired up Howard.“It fired us up period,” Carter said. “We want to protect him the best we can. He’s done a great job for us as far as protecting the paint, rebounding. We need to keep him on the floor.”"
Read that story here.
There is going to be a giant LED screen outside of the new Amway Events Center.
"The big LED screen is a premier element of a $10.5 million package of high-tech video signs and screens that will blanket the arena inside and out. Magic executives have boasted that their screens will be the most advanced of any NBA arena.“These screens have become commonplace in the modern era of facilities,” Magic Chief Operating Officer Alex Martins told the Orlando Sentinel. “It brings the building to life.”"
Read that story here.
Today marks the first day that players who signed contracts this past offseason can be traded.
(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.)