Archive for April, 2010

The Orlando Magic overcame a sluggish second quarter and more foul trouble from Dwight Howard to earn another hard fought win over the Charlotte Bobcats 90-86, taking a near-insurmountable three games-to-nothing series lead. Jameer Nelson was fantastic for the Magic, leading the team with 32 points. Stephen Jackson led the Bobcats with 19 points. NBA NBA Stats NBA Stats

The Orlando Magic look to take a commanding three games-to-zero series lead when they take on the Charlotte Bobcats Saturday afternoon. Tip-off from the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina is scheduled for 2:00 pm EST and will be shown locally by Sun Sports and nationally by TNT. Starters: Orlando Magic Dwight Howard Rashard Lewis Matt Barnes Vince Carter Jameer Nelson Charlotte Bobcats Theo Ratliff Boris Diaw Gerald Wallace Stephen Jackson Raymond Felton The Line: Orlando – 2.0

The Orlando Magic will take on the Charlotte Bobcats at the Time Warner Cable Arena on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm EST. The Magic hope to avoid an emotional letdown. “The big thing is you have to go up there with the same sense of urgency and focus and toughness to get the job done in Game 3 as you had in Game 2,” Van Gundy said. “Most of the time people take 2-0 leads, Game 3 is not a good one. You start feeling like this is a game you don’t have to win and you back off a [...]

The first two games of the first round playoff series between the Orlando Magic and Charlotte Bobcats have been labeled by some as “boring” and “hard to watch.” The games have also been called “sloppy.” Others would simply call it good defense. And everyone should have seen it coming. Each team plays good interior defense. Charlotte can throw several good interior defenders at the opposition (Theo Ratliff, Tyson Chandler, Tyrus Thomas, etc…) while Orlando has the league’s best and most intimidating defensive presence. For the second consecutive season, Center Dwight Howard led the league in both blocked shots and rebounds, [...]

According to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, Rashard Lewis has a sprained left ankle. Here is what Robbins said earlier today: Rashard Lewis is nursing a sprained left ankle that he hurt in Game 2, but says he’ll be fine Saturday. With Dwight Howard in foul trouble during the first two games, Lewis has done a nice job helping to fill the void. He’s averaged 16 points on 56.5% shooting and six rebounds per game. Update: Robbins has quotes from Lewis. “I should’ve dunked it,” Lewis said. “I’m looking at him [Wallace] instead of looking at the rim to [...]

The talk of the day were the fines handed down to Matt Barnes and Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy by the NBA. You can read more about that here. On Thursday, Van Gundy stood by his comments. “I’m not saying the officials are wrong. I don’t know. Their official supervisors and the people who watch their tapes would have to tell you that. I’m just saying it’s a unique situation. I’m not saying anybody’s getting screwed or anything. “I’m just saying it’s a unique situation. When I turn on the Cleveland game, LeBron’s going to be playing. When I [...]

Both Stan Van Gundy and Matt Barnes have been fined for comments they made regarding the way Dwight Howard is officiated. Here is the official release: NEW YORK, April 22, 2010 — Orlando Magic forward Matt Barnes and head coach Stan Van Gundy have each been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game officials, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations. Barnes and Van Gundy have been fined for comments made to the media following Orlando’s 92-77 win over Charlotte on April 21 at Amway Arena. Here is what each of them said: Matt Barnes [...]

After Wednesday night’s game, Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy was asked about playing Ryan Anderson and not Brandon Bass. He explained his reasoning for playing Anderson. “Well again, if you look at Charlotte, they are number one very tough to score on anyway and they’re a team that does as good a job protecting the paint as anybody in the league. Very tough to get stuff in the paint on post-ups and drives and so the thinking is to space the floor the best you can and have a guy that when they come to the paint you can [...]

The Orlando Magic defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 92-77 and took a 2-0 series lead. The Magic are being more aggressive than the Bobcats. And the Magic’s defense, anchored by Howard’s back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards, has been even more smothering in two games of these playoffs. Charlotte is shooting a semi-respectable 45.3 percent in the series, but they have averaged just 83 points. And they have turned the ball over a whopping 37 times. “They are being more aggressive,’’ said Charlotte’s Jackson, who had 27 points. “They are being the more physical team. They are making the first [...]

The Orlando Magic blew a defensive battle open in the third quarter, then closed the game strong to defeat the Charlotte Bobcats 92-77 to take a two-games-to-none lead in the series. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy described the game as “hard fought” and “a tougher game maybe than what the final score indicated.” Dwight Howard’s minutes were limited again but he still managed to score 15 points. Vince Carter bounced back from a poor game one performance with a team-high 19 points. Stephen Jackson led the Bobcats with 27 points. NBA NBA Stats NBA