Orlando Magic News & Notes: Magic Have a Happy Thanksgiving

AP/Gregory Smith

The Orlando Magic got a big come-from-behind win last night against the Atlanta Hawks 93-76. You can read my recap and analysis here.

Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo Sports goes behind the box score in Orlando’s victory.

Precious memories. I’ll never forget where I was on the night that the Orlando Magic started playing defense again, and if you weren’t around to see it, the rebirth was quite the show.

After allowing the Hawks to score 51 points in the first half, every member of the Orlando rotation put on a defensive clinic in that second half, overcoming a 12-point deficit to Atlanta on its way toward thrashing the Hawks by 17 overall.

You can find that here.

The Magic were a completely different team in the second half Thursday night than they were in the first half.

Orlando allowed Atlanta to shoot 52.4 percent from the field during a first half in which Atlanta built a 51-39 lead. But in the second half the Magic limited the Hawks to 25.6 percent shooting and an anemic 25 points.

“We were two different teams,” Van Gundy said.

The Hawks closed out the first half on a 16-3 run, largely at the expense of the Magic’s starters. Van Gundy likened that dismal stretch of basketball to “six minutes of sleepwalking.”

Van Gundy recalled that he asked his team a simple question at halftime: “Does anybody in here want to play?”

They responded in the second half — no one more so than Howard and Johnson.

Brian Schmitz has the story here.

Rashard Lewis is trying to end his recent shooting slump.

Rashard Lewis knew it would take him a little while to return to form after he completed his suspension to start the season. He just didn’t expect that it would take at least five games before he found his rhythm offensively.

Lewis has struggled with his outside shot since he returned to the Orlando Magic lineup on Nov. 16. Entering Thursday night’s game in Atlanta, Lewis had made just 5 of 29 shots from beyond the arc — a slump for someone who had made 39.1 percent of his career 3-point attempts before this season.

“I feel like my legs are still not under me for some reason,” Lewis said. “I feel like I’m pushing my shot. My legs are just real heavy when I’m shooting the ball. Right now, I just feel like I’m playing catch-up with the guys. On the defensive end, I feel like I’m playing pretty good. But on the offensive end, I haven’t gotten myself into a good rhythm yet.”

Lewis, however, had a plan to break his cold streak. He said he wanted to try to get to the rim more often for a few layups and crash the offensive glass.

Read about Lewis and see other Magic notes here.

(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.)