The Orlando Magic got off to another slow start and struggled on offense, but they played solid defense and came away with a 104-99 victory over the Utah Jazz. Rashard Lewis keyed a late run and J.J. Redick had one of the most efficient games of his career, scoring 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Dwight Howard was his usual, dominating self on the defensive end.
Orlando showed great effort, intensity and energy for the second time in two games.
Neither the Magic nor the Jazz shot the ball well in the first quarter. The Jazz were just 8-of-24 while the Magic were 7-of-17. Orlando had trouble getting shots of because they turned the ball over. Those turnovers led to half (nine) of Utah’s first quarter points. Jason Williams started the game but Jameer Nelson entered the game with 3:56 to play in the first quarter. Nelson missed his first shot, but quickly made up for it by driving into the lane and throwing a perfect pass to Vince Carter, who drained a 3-pointer to end the quarter and give the Magic a 19-18 lead.
Both teams had poor shooting second quarters as well. Orlando started quick in the second quarter, building a 39-28 lead before allowing the Jazz to close the half on an 11-1 run. Orlando shot 44.8% in the first half and held the Jazz to just 34% shooting, but turnovers did them in. Orlando had 12 first half turnovers that led to 16 Utah points.
Both teams played much better offensively in the second half. Orlando went back into the lead and saw that lead grow to as many as six in the third quarter only to see the Jazz use a 14-4 run to take an 84-79 lead. From that point on, it was all Magic. Rashard Lewis hit two 3-pointers and J.J. Redick scored nine of his 20 points in the last seven minutes to give the Magic the victory. Orlando turned the ball over just four times in the second half. Orlando forced 11 second half turnovers and scored 11 points off of those turnovers.
Dwight Howard was an absolute monster as usual. He finished with 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He went 11-of-15 from the free throw line, which is excellent for Howard. He grabbed just nine rebounds but made up for it by playing phenomenal defense. Howard blocked five shots, but altered or prevented shots a countless amount of times. Per Hoopdata, the Jazz only attempted 28 of their 89 shots around the rim and made just 11 (39.3%). They scored just 28 points in the paint. Howard turned the Jazz into a jump shooting team when the Jazz are usually one of the top teams when it comes to points in the paint.
J.J. Redick was excellent for the Magic. He drove to the basket. He hit layups. He drove baseline. He hit both of his 3-point attempts and all four of his free throw attempts. Redick finished the game by scoring 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting and had an eFG% of 88.9%. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy commented on Redick’s performance.
"“On top of the confidence, the guy is just so focused and tough. He’s on top of everything. He’s a guy you can trust defensively. He plays with great energy offensively. He’s certainly, heck, I don’t know, I don’t think he’s the fastest guy we have in the sprint. But he runs harder and gets down the floor better than anybody we have.”"
J.J.’s patience and hard work are really paying off and he even had another witty retort, this time about his speed.
"“I don’t know if Stan has seen the Iron Magic results.”"
Redick, of course, won Orlando’s “Iron Magic” award.
Rashard Lewis was 7-of-14 from the field and 4-of-8 from the 3-point line. He scored 18 points, but his biggest buckets came down the stretch. Leiws scored eight fourth quarter points and hit a 3-pointer to give the Magic the lead with 5:01 to play. It was a lead the Magic would never relinquish.
Jameer Nelson looked healthy. He didn’t shoot the ball well (he was 0-of-6 from the field) and Stan Van Gundy thought that Nelson made some more decisions on when he passed and when he shot but Nelson looked quick. He was able to get in the lane a couple of times and didn’t really show any signs of his injury, but he played just 13:59. Nelson looked like he just needs to shake off some rust.
Vince Carter shot the ball poorly again. He was just 5-of-15 from the field and had 18 points but he did do some good things. Carter got the ball on every possession down the stretch and did some good things. Carter scored four points and assisted on a Rashard Lewis 3-pointer during this time. He did this all while playing Small Forward because Van Gundy did not want to take Redick out of the game. Carter also managed to grab nine rebounds. Vince made a better effort of getting into the lane tonight. When he does, it pays off – Carter had three assists and attempted nine free throws tonight.
From the four factors chart, it’s easy to see why the Magic came out on top.
The Magic shot an eFG% of 55.3% and held the Jazz to just 44.3%. The Magic played tough defense and as stated above, Dwight Howard is absolutely dominating on defense in the paint. Plus, if it wasn’t for Utah’s 23 points off of what were mostly sloppy Orlando turnovers, their shooting percentage would have dipped even lower.
Orlando really did an excellent job of getting to the free throw line. After letting Utah attempt 46 free throws in their first meeting with the Jazz, they allowed the Jazz to shoot just 27 free throws and shot 41. Orlando outscored the Jazz by 11 on the free throw line and by six from beyond the 3-point line after the Jazz made four more shots (on 23 more attempts) than the Magic did.
Stan Van Gundy had his own numbers.
"“To me, the numbers were; holding them to 40%, only 28 points in the paint, and we’re talking about one of the best field goal percentage teams and they’re in the top two or three in points in the paint. Those are two huge numbers and then to outrebound was the third.”"
Game Notes:
- The Magic outrebounded the Jazz 41-38.
- Jason Williams was ejected in the third quarter for apparently calling the official a certain two-word expletive.
- Marcin Gortat scored 5 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in 11 minutes.
- Brandon Bass played six minutes tonight, scoring three points.
- Orlando had 24 fast break points to Utah’s 13.
- Orlando did an excellent job on Carlos Boozer (17 points, 7-of-16 shooting), but struggled with Paul Millsap, who had a game-high 23 points.
- Deron Williams, who led the Jazz with 18 points and 11 assists injured his hand in the game.
"“I don’t know if I got hit or what, but something happened to my right thumb.”"
Next Up: Orlando’s homestand continues on Wednesday as they welcome the Houston Rockets to town.
Final Thought: It was a great effort from the Magic and I think Stan Van Gundy summed up Monday night’s performance best:
"“I was really happy with our guys and if we continue to play with this kind of focus and intensity then we’re going to be in pretty good shape. I was very happy with them and very proud of the way they played.”"
(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.)