Preview: Orlando Magic @ Toronto Raptors

First Orlando, then New Jersey, now Toronto.
What’s next? Chapel Hill?
After tonight, Vince Carter will have hit three stops on what the Orlando Sentinel is calling the “Vinsanity Reunion Tour,” but it is unknown if Carter will play after suffering an ankle injury in the second quarter of Friday night’s win over the Nets.
The other major storyline of the night is that the Magic will face their former teammate, Raptors Forward Hedo Turkgolu. Turkoglu spent five seasons with the Magic before signing with the Raptors as a free agent in July.
The Orlando Magic (2-0) travel to the Air Canada Centre to take on the Toronto Raptors (1-1). The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Florida. As always, if you can’t see the game, you can hear it locally on WDBO 580 AM and in Spanish on WONQ AM 1030. The game is set to tip off at 1:00 PM EST.
Starters
Magic
C Dwight Howard
F Ryan Anderson
F Mickael Pietrus
G Vince Carter
G Jameer Nelson
Raptors
C Andrea Bargnani
F Chris Bosh
F Hedo Turkoglu
G DeMar DeRozan
G Jose Calderson
Last Meeting: Toronto overcame 30 points from Dwight Howard and stopped a late Magic comeback to defeat Orlando 99-95.
Season Series: The two teams split the season series last year with each team winning once on each team’s home floor. Dwight Howard averaged 29 ppg and 10 rpg against Toronto last season. Chris Bosh has traditionally put up big numbers against the Magic and that didn’t change last season. He averaged 24.5 ppg and 12.75 rpg, including a 40-point, 18-rebound effort in a 103-90 loss back on November 18th last season. These two teams also met in the first round of the 2008 NBA playoffs. The Magic won the series 4-1. Howard averaged 22.6 ppg and 18.2 rpg in that series. He had a double-double in each game, including three 20-20 games.
About the Magic: The Magic overcame sloppy play, poor shooting from the 3-point line and free throw line, and a Vince Carter ankle injury to defeat the New Jersey Nets on Friday 95-85. Orlando was led by the 24th 20-20 game of Dwight Howard’s career (20 points, 22 rebounds). Stan Van Gundy sounded very excited about the way the Magic defended the Nets, holding them to 38.3% shooting and just 85 points in Friday night’s win.
About the Raptors: Toronto took a 3-point lead into the fourth quarter, but couldn’t hold it, losing 115-108 in Memphis to the Grizzlies despite 37 points and 12 rebounds from Chris Bosh. Zach Randolph scored 30 points for the Grizzlies and was one of six Grizzlies in double-figures. Toronto allowed Memphis to shoot 51.2% from the field (42-of-82). Former Magic Forward Hedo Turkoglu is averaging just 12.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg and 3.0 apg in his first two games with the Raptors.
(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.)











you think we should rest VC just to make sure hes good? or if hes cleared medically, just let him go?
October 31st, 2009 at 5:52 pmlet him go and play he scores about 27.9 ppg against them plus 7 rpg and 7 apg
October 31st, 2009 at 11:33 pmanyone else having broadcasting problems?
November 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm[...] Preview: Orlando Magic @ Toronto Raptors [...]
November 1st, 2009 at 3:01 pmYeah, I saw that GoMagic. I have no idea what was going on there!
November 1st, 2009 at 4:00 pmFor some reason all I was hearing was the crowd. It could have just been my cable provider and or TV but all other stations were fine. It took me to 5:14 left to think about connecting my surround sound to realize there were actually announcers.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:48 pm