Orlando Magic News & Notes: Schedule-Makers Not Kind to Magic

The Orlando Magic will take on the Chicago Bulls tonight at 8:00 pm. You can read about that game here.

The Magic will also have to travel to Cleveland Thursday night to take on the Cavaliers. Orlando has to play four games in the last five nights before the All-Star break, all against teams that are .500 are better, and three on the road.

Dwight Howard was once again named to the USA Men’s National Basketball team.

Jerry Colangelo says Dwight Howard’s rebounding and defense will be key for team USA.

"“Dwight came highly touted, as we all know, coming out of high school,” Colangelo said. “To see how he has developed is amazing. He’s matured as a player. He’s matured as an individual.“And I think he still has a lot of upside in front of him, but there are very few people playing basketball in the world today with that size and strength and dominance, especially rebounding and in blocked shots. I think that is really the thing we look to in Dwight, because he can dominate a game in that sense: defensively and in getting rebounds.“I think he continues to improve on his offense and that’s something that will kind of set him apart as he goes forward as he continues to get better offensively.”"

Josh Robbins has more on that here.

Dwight Howard actually has 12 technical fouls, not 13.

"Orlando Magic C Dwight Howard continues to move perilously close to a league-imposed suspension — but not quite as close as commonly thought.In the NBA, a player receives an automatic one-game suspension once he accrues his 16th technical foul of the regular season. The league issues an additional one-game suspension for each two additional “Ts” thereafter. A player’s technical-foul count restarts once the playoffs arrive.Howard picked up a technical foul Monday night in the Magic’s victory over the New Orleans Hornets. But while the league’s Web site on Tuesday listed Howard as having 13 techs for the season, the all-star center in fact now has 12 of them.A league communications official told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that NBA.com’s tally didn’t account for the league’s decision to rescind a tech Howard received on Dec. 14 against the Indiana Pacers. Even some Magic team officials were under the impression Monday night that Howard had accumulated 13 technicals.So, Howard now can accrue three more technicals over the Magic’s remaining 30 regular-season games without being suspended. In the meantime, he’s already on the hook for $16,500 in league fines because of his 12 technicals."

Read that and other Magic notes here.

Vince Carter’s big night showed a lot of promise.

"Carter said his confidence never wavered — at least that’s what he kept saying publicly.“It’s a new month. A new month brings new things,” Carter said. “The past is the past, and it’s going to be that. I’ve had rough months before. That’s just how it goes. And I know the expectations, and so you work to have an impressive resume. … so it’s expected each and every night.“I don’t have a problem with that.”But Carter, an eight-time all-star, had never been in a situation like this: The Isleworth resident and former Daytona Beach Mainland High star not only was “home,” but he was playing on the best team of his 11-year career. He was brought in last summer to push the NBA finalists over the hump, a controversial move that sent the popular Turkoglu packing."

Brian Schmitz has the story here.

In case you missed it, you can see the top scoring nights in Magic history here.

Tyrus Thomas was huge in Chicago’s victory over Indiana Wednesday night.

"Before the game, Thomas said he had “no regrets” about the incident and “there’s nothing to be frustrated about.” Afterward, he addressed his night, which included him grabbing three rebounds and playing six minutes before his first shot — a strong drive and score after passing up a jumper.“I felt good,” he said. “I was just playing ball, trying to win, working for the team. I’m always ready to play. The more you’re out there, the more you can do.”"

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune has the story 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.)