Atlanta Hawks @ Orlando Magic: Magic Win 123-86

The Orlando Magic will play host to a divisional rival – the Atlanta Hawks, live from Amway Arena tonight. The game starts at 8:00 PM EST and will be shown on ESPN.

I’ll be in attendance so check the site for updates and analysis and follow me on twitter (@howardthedunk).

Update: Tania Ganguli reported that both Ryan Anderson and Mickael Pietrus will start tonight.

Stan Van Gundy’s starting five for tonight will look familiar (well… maybe not look familiar to most of you who will see the Magic on TV for the first time tonight on ESPN). He’s starting Mickael Pietrus and Ryan Anderson along with Dwight Howard, Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson.

When asked why this wouldn’t be the starting lineup come opening day on Wednesday, Van Gundy said it could go either way.

Read the Magic Basketblog here.

Starters

Orlando

Dwight Howard
Ryan Anderson
Mickael Pietrus
Vince Carter
Jameer Nelson

Atlanta

Al Horford
Josh Smith
Marvin Williams
Joe Johnson
Mike Bibby

End of the First Quarter: Magic lead 37-16.

• Things couldn’t have gone much better.
• Ryan Anderson has 14 points and 3 rebounds in just 6 minutes.
• Vince has been great. He has 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting along with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Plus, he had a vintage Vince Carter dunk.

Halftime: Magic lead 62-41.

• Vince Carter has 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
• The Magic are shooting 61% and are 8-of-11 from downtown while the Hawks are shooting 38%.

End of Third Quarter: Magic lead 101-67.

• Dwight Howard had 20 points in the third quarter alone. He now has 25 points and 13 rebounds for the game.
• Carter now has 26 points on 9-of-10 shooting.

End of Fourth Quarter: Magic win 123-86.

• Wow. That was ridiculous.
• Vince Carter had 26 points.
• Dwight Howard finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds.
• Ryan Anderson finished with 18 points and Brandon Bass had another effective game on offense, scoring 14 points.
• The Hawks shot 37.5% while the Magic shot 62%.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)