The Orlando Magic avoided going winless in the Air Tran Pro Summer League with an 80-77 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats Friday afternoon. The Magic had no answer for Sherron Collins, who went 7-of-11 from beyond the arc and dropped 32 points but got 24 points and 8 rebounds out of former Michigan State star Paul Davis. They once again had to rally from a double-digit deficit to get the win.
After the jump, you can read some of my thoughts from day 5.
- Patrick Ewing Jr., Yaroslav Korolev, Trey Gilder, Sean Singletary, Ben McCauley, and Jerome Randle were all absent Friday. The Magic played with just 8 players.
- Orlando surprisingly outrebounded Charlotte, grabbing 38 rebounds to Charlotte’s 36.
- Michael Jordan made his first appearance of the week and sat at the end of the Bobcats’ bench.
- Paul Davis played well this week. He got the line 16 times and finished with 24 points but the most impressive number might have been the 6 offensive rebounds he grabbed Friday.
- Curtis Stinson did a better job running the point Friday than anyone has done all week. He looked more comfortable and dished out 7 assists while turning the ball over just 3 times. Stinson also scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. An excellent all-around performance for the former Iowa State guard.
- I’ve been waiting all week for Stanley Robinson to show off his hops and he did so Friday when he got out in front of the defenders and threw down a windmill dunk that drew “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” from the media.
- Robinson was also much more aggressive, taking 10 shots. He hit 5 of those shots and finished with 13 points. It would have been an even better day had Robinson not gone just 3-of-7 from the free throw line. He also had 10 rebounds and turned the ball over just once.
- Daniel Orton struggled again, scoring just 3 points on 1-of-7 shooting. He did have a dunk that surprised some of the onlookers.
- Orton played over 20 minutes and could not grab a rebound.
- Orton did have a couple of good looking plays. On one possession, he ran the floor, got excellent position and missed a wide open hook. On another, he made a great spin move but couldn’t finish the play.
- Orton did have some decent moments on defense. One that sticks out was a play where he bodied up the Nathan Jawai (which is no easy feat considering Jawai is listed at 280 lbs). He forced Jawai to turn the ball over, leading to a Magic fast break.
- Orton did look more into the game on Thursday and Friday than he did the rest of the week.
- Jeff Adrien continued to play pretty well. He scored just 5 points but was good on defense and pulled down 9 rebounds.
- Joe Crawford continued to show his offensive ability. He shot poorly (4-of-14) but finished with 15 points.
- Vladimir Stimac, who my colleagues Brian Serra, Charlie Bernstein and I called “The impaler” all week for obvious reasons, saw some action and made the most of it, scoring 4 points on 2-of-3 shooting and grabbed 2 boards in just under 5 minutes of play. No one can say Vlad doesn’t give a good effort.
- Much like Crawford, Donell Taylor had an off-day, shooting just 1-of-8 from the floor.
That’s all from summer league, which was held at the RDV Sportsplex for the last time.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor on the Fansided Front Page. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).