The Orlando Magic picked up right where they left off on Tuesday, dominating the Bulls in the first quarter. After the game started 6-6, the Magic went on a 7-0 run and didn’t look back, eventually building an 11-point lead. A late offensive rebound and buzzer-beater by J.J. Redick was overturned and the score remained 28-17 as the quarter came to a close. The Magic shut down the Chicago offense, holding them to 8-of-20 shooting from the field. The Magic, on the other hand, shot an effective field goal percentage of 65.8%. The Magic got 11 points and 4 rebounds out of Matt Barnes and 7 points and 2 rebounds from Dwight Howard. Taj Gibson was the man for the Bulls, scoring 6 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. His impressive first quarter may have been overshadowed by the huge block of one of his shots by Howard, who nearly sent the ball to midcourt. Howard also collided with Derrick Rose for the second time this season. Rose seemed okay at first but later went to the locker room to have his left wrist checked out.
Orlando’s second quarter was even better. Orlando started the quarter on a 10-2 run, pushing their lead to 38-19. Vince Carter absolutely took over. He scored 16 points in the period on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting and scored 21 points in the first half Carter did it all – he hit three-pointers, he hit two-pointers, he drove to the basket and he even dove on the ground after a loose ball with the Magic on top 50-30 (Brandon Bass dove after the same loose ball and the Magic forced a jump ball). Orlando ended the quarter on a 20-3 run and took a 65-33 lead into the break. Orlando shot 12-of-18 from the field in the quarter and allowed the Bulls to shoot just 4-of-17 in the period. Besides the hustle plays, the highlight of the quarter may have been Jason Williams’ alley-oop pass to Marcin Gortat. Dwight Howard also swished an 18-footer just after the clock expired in the first half.
Stan Van Gundy did not looked pleased over halfway through the third quarter. Defensively, the Magic kept playing well. They held the Bulls to just 18 points on just 8-of-19 shooting. The Magic managed just 14 points on 5-o-15 shooting and turned the ball over seven times. The Bulls got the lead down to 19 at 69-50, but the Magic bounced backed, finished the quarter on a 10-1 run to push the lead back to 28 at 79-51 as the quarter came to a close.
Orlando emptied the bench (well what was left of it from the third quarter anyway) and those at the bottom of the bench didn’t lose the lead at all. In fact, the team kept hustling until the very end as evidenced by a Marcin Gortat block with under 40 seconds to go. The crowd even started a “We want Foyle” chant late in the game. Foyle dressed out due to Pietrus’ injury, but he did not enter the game. The Magic closed things out for 111-82 victory.
Vince Carter led the Magic, who have now won seven games in a row with 23 points. Rookie James Johnson led the Bulls, who have now lost six in a row, with 13 points.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).
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