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Orlando Magic Daily
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Game Recap: Orlando Magic vs Charlotte Bobcats

By Brian Serra

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October 14, 2010

The Magic played their fourth preseason game tonight and it ended much as the previous 18 preseason games have for the Magic, with a victory.  Orlando spread their preseason winning streak to an impressive, yet meaningless, 18 straight games despite the absence of Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter from the game.  All three players received a standard preseason game off.  Jameer Nelson and Quentin Richardson both came off the bench as the Magic’s starting lineup consisted of the team’s projected second five of Duhon, Redick, Pietrus, Anderson and Gortat.  Despite the second unit being in a starting role, the Magic had little difficulty with the Charlotte Bobcats and won the game by 13 points, 86-73.  Brandon Bass led the Magic with 16 points and 9 rebounds and received strong praise from Stan Van Gundy in his post game press conference.  Quentin Richardson scored 15 points and Chris Duhon led the team in assists with 6.  The Magic also showed a strong effort on the defensive end, especially for a veteran team during the preseason, by taking a total of 8 charges throughout the game.  This drew rave reviews from both Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard after the game.  To see a team going that hard and providing that sort of effort is a sign of good things to come for the Magic this season.  Continue reading “after the jump” for more news and notes from the game tonight.

  • The beginning of the game was delayed for just under 30 minutes as Amway operations were unable to get the lights to turn back on after the pre-game introductions.  I am thinking that you Magic fans out there on Twitter need to start a trending topic called #amwaykinks.
  • The lack of lights or scheduled pre-game entertainment then turned into what might have been the longest “kiss cam” segment of all-time.  The “kiss cam” is always good for one fantastic LOL moment and tonight it came from Dwight Howard kissing a courtside fan on the top of the head.
  • Quentin Richardson shot 4-9 from long distance tonight further proving that he will be a major upgrade from Matt Barnes in the shooting department.
  • Q has also been very vocal on the sidelines and is showing that he fits in very well with the team’s chemistry.  Stan also praised the leadership that he has brought to the team and said that the conditioning issues he had a few years ago are well behind him.
  • Despite Brandon Bass’ big game tonight, he has an uphill battle to overcome Ryan Anderson as the backup PF.  Ryan continues to improve his rebounding and Stan said that, outside of Dwight, he has been the best on the boards throughout the preseason and camp.
  • Marcin Gortat said after the game that he was a little nervous about starting and wasn’t completely sure what he was supposed to do during pre-game introductions.  He was excited, but that the light delay really threw him out of his rhythm.  Overall, Marcin was very disappointed in his play tonight and rightly so.  He is a better player than any big man on Charlotte’s roster and he still only managed 3 points and 7 rebounds in almost 33 minutes.
  • J.J. Redick mentioned that as he and Vince Carter have been playing a lot more PG during scrimmages and practices, that everyone on the team has been calling him Bob Cousy all week.  He still struggles with his ball handling at times, but his ability to set up the offense and distribute the ball has been very good.
  • The new technical foul rule is still becoming an adjustment to everyone on the court as Stephen Jackson and Tyrus Thomas both received T’s for chirping at the refs.  When asked about it after the game, Dwight Howard said that he is trying to revert back to his high school days and all the strict rules they had as a private school and that overcoming the rule is all about adjustment.

The next Magic game is home on Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls.  Game time is at 7PM and will once again not be televised.

Brian Serra is a contributing blogger at Howard the Dunk and the founder of MagicBasketballOnline.com.  You can follow/add him on Twitter and on Facebook.