The Orlando Magic will take on the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night. Read more about that here.
Steve Kyler of Hoopsworld asks, “Where’s the Magic?”
"The Magic have a tendency lately to let teams get out to early leads and then spend the rest of the game chasing their opponent. That works against lesser talented teams, but the good teams are not giving back the points the Magic seem to be spotting them early in games.Last night in Indiana, the Magic allowed the 11-23 Pacers to get out to a five-point lead in the first quarter and spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. The game was ultimately decided by seven points, but was a snapshot of the Magic’s season so far."
Find that here.
Mike Bianchi talks about Vince Carter’s shooting woes.
"He had another awful shooting night (2-of-15) in Tuesday night’s embarrassing 97-90 loss to the lowly, undermanned Indiana Pacers. Is it because Carter is playing on a tender left ankle or should Magic fans start being concerned that, after a dozen years in the league, Vince doesn’t have the incredible spring in his step that he once did?I never thought I’d ever say this, but maybe Magic coach Stan Van Gundy should figure out a way for J.J. Redick to take more shots and Vince Carter to take less."
Read that here.
Dwight Howard spoke to the team after Tuesday night’s loss.
"“We expect so much out of each other that sometimes I think we want to do too much,” Howard said. “I would say it’s like when you grab sand too tight; you tend to lose all the sand. If you just hold it in your hand and you just let it stay there, it sits. But when you’re trying to grab sand and you try to grab something so tight, usually it falls out.“Sometimes we don’t have a lot of energy, and I think it’s because we want to win so bad sometimes we’re so cluttered in our mind. We’re going to be OK. Every guy in here is a student of the game. We’re all professionals, and we know how to get out of this.”Howard said he spoke to his teammates shortly after the final buzzer.What was Howard’s message?“Stay focused, stay together,” Matt Barnes said. “We’re going through a rough time right now, so we don’t need to branch off to individual people and talk bad behind people’s backs. We’re a team. We win together. We lose together.”"
Read that story here.
It sounds like former Magic Point Guard Rafer Alston will join the Miami Heat. Read that story here.
Ben Q. Rock takes a look at Orlando’s recent road woes here.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com talks Marcin Gortat.
"At least two sources with knowledge of Orlando’s thinking remain convinced that the Magic will not consider trading reserve center Marcin Gortat before the summer.The Magic continue to give the impression that it’s too soon for them to consider shake-up moves, even when they’re “just playing terrible” … in the words of coach Stan Van Gundy after Tuesday’s road loss to lowly Indiana.After spending more than $80 million on this season’s roster, Orlando appears to have convinced most of its peers that it is going to give the current group a full season to see what it can achieve."
Read that 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.)