The Orlando Magic will take on the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night. You can read more about that game here.
Josh Robbins writes that the Magic must cut down on their turnovers, starting tonight.
"Although the Magic won three of those four games, those miscues proved especially costly in Orlando’s Christmas Day loss to the Boston Celtics. The Magic turned the ball over 18 times, and while the Celtics didn’t do a particularly good job of converting those errors into points, the turnovers prevented the Magic from developing any offensive rhythm.“We’ve just got to value the ball a little more and not try to do too much,” point guard Jameer Nelson said. “Sometimes simple is better.”The Magic will attempt to put the “simple is better” theory into practice at 7 tonight when they host the Milwaukee Bucks at Amway Arena."
Read that story here.
Matt Barnes has proved his toughness.
"“Rebounding the ball, touching the ball, trying to strike the ball — it’s all painful,” Barnes said. “It just knocks the wind out of you.”Barnes said the damage won’t worsen if he continues to play and that rest, not surgery, will heal the injuries. But as he noted, there’s no time to rest. The only good news for Barnes is that he’s right-handed, so the injuries don’t affect his shooting.It’s common to see Barnes leave RDV Sportsplex after practices and Amway Arena after games with his hand wrapped in ice.“The thing I really like with him is I just think that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win games,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “A lot of guys will say that that’s what they’re about. But I think with him that’s really all that it’s about with him. He just wants to help you win.”"
You can read that here.
Dwight Howard’s idol is Wilt Chamberlain.
"“Just the way he dominated the game,” Howard said. “He changed things. He changed how teams played the game. Everything, the paint used to be real short. It wasn’t wide like it is now because of him. He would just stand in the paint he could just do like this (spreading his arms out wide) and he’d be bigger than the paint so nobody could go in there. They had to change that. Blocking, back then you throwup a shot you could just block it. Then the free throw line. I read up on it. He used to just throw the ball up at the free throw line and dunk it. nobody could stop him. So they had to change the rules, so that’s why I like him.”"
Read more on that here.
Dwight also discussed his idol on his official blog.
"People ask me all of the time who I looked up to as a player when I was a kid. Ya’ll are gonna think this is crazy, but it was actually Wilt Chamberlain. I know he stopped playing before I was even born, but I’ve read all about him and watched highlights of him. He was, without question, the coolest big man of all time. I actually have an old article about Wilt in my locker right now and I sometimes read about him before games."
Read Dwight’s blog here.
As reported earlier, Magic fans could be in for some trouble when it comes to watching their team on FSN. You can find more on that here.
Kevin Pelton rated last season’s Orlando Magic squad as the 18th best team of the decade. See his complete list here.
Pelton also listed Vince Carter as the 14th best player of the decade. Former Magic Guard Tracy McGrady was eighth. See that list here.
(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.)