Orlando Magic News & Notes: Revenge

The Orlando Magic defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-94 Wednesday night. See a recap, my analysis, and quotes from the game here.

Joshua Robbins says that better energy yields a better result.

“Whatever it takes for us to win, we have to do it,” Dwight Howard said. “I think tonight as a team we brought a lot of energy and our effort was great from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. So, that was a great thing to see because in past games we haven’t played with a lot of energy. But tonight we made a great step forward in playing with a lot of energy.”

Click here to see the full story.

As I mentioned yesterday, The Magic don’t plan on signing another player at this time.

Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie goes behind the box score.

Oh, and to anyone who wanted Rashard Lewis to head back onto the court to get the assist needed for his triple-double?

Anthony Bowie, man. Anthony Bowie.

You can find that here.

John Denton analyzes the game here.

“I just try to run all the time and hope that the rest of the guys run with me,’’ said Williams, who handed out five assists to celebrate his 34th birthday. “I think (the Magic are better running) because then teams can’t load up on Dwight (Howard). When we slow down to the halfcourt, they’re geared up to stop Dwight. So we’re better when we run.’’

Kevin Durant says that Vince Carter his still his favorite player.

“When I was growing up and 8 or 9 or 10 and I really started getting into basketball . . . I thought he was the best player ever,” Durant said before tonight’s game. “I still look up to him. Even though people say he’s not the old Vince Carter, I’ve watched him in the league since I’ve been here, and he’s proved people wrong. So, I’m still a big fan. He’s still my favorite player.”

You can find more on that here.

Will Carroll discusses Jameer Nelson’s injury with the guys at 3QC here.

Dwight Howard has updated his blog. Dwight is trying to help out the young guys.

I try to help out as many of the young guys in the NBA as I can the same way the veterans helped me out back when I was a skinny 18-year-old kid straight out of high school. Guys like Tony Battie and Grant Hill and even Rasheed Wallace back when he was on the Pistons took time out to give me advice about being a pro, and that’s something I’ll never forget.

I was kind of a mentor last season to Courtney Lee – even though he’s older than me!!! How crazy is that??? I kind of took him under my wing and he blew up and had a great rookie season for us. We became really good friends and I miss that dude now that he’s playing up in Jersey.

Click here to read Dwight’s blog.

The play below sums up the energy the Magic brought last night.

(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.)