Archive for March, 2011

After earning what Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy called Orlando’s “biggest win of the season” with a buzzer-beating 85-82 victory over the Denver Nuggets Friday night, the Orlando Magic will try to make it three straight victories when they play the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night. The Magic are now 44-26 while Cleveland is a league-worst 13-55. This will be the fourth meeting between the two squads. Orlando has one all three games so far. Back on November 26 in Orlando, the Magic used Dwight Howard’s 23 points and 11 rebounds to defeat the Cavaliers 111-100. About a month later [...]

Quentin Richardson played very well on the defensive end and added four points against the Denver Nuggets Friday night. Jameer Nelson had 13 points and the game-winning 3-pointer in Orlando’s 85-82 victory over the Denver Nuggets. Thanks to Eric Lopez for shooting the video. (Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).

Jameer Nelson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Orlando Magic a tough, hard fought victory over the Denver Nuggets Friday night. In a back-and-forth game that was filled with turnovers and questionable calls, the Magic came away with an 85-82 victory. Dwight Howard led the way with 16 points and 18 rebounds while Wilson Chandler led the Nuggets with 20 points. The game was back-and-forth from the start. The Nuggets wound up taking a 21-18 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Orlando’s only really productive quarter, they scored 29 points, including [...]

Nelson finished with 13 points but got the biggest three of the night here: (Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).

The Orlando Magic will face a surprisingly stiff challenge when they return from their road trip Friday night. They’ll play host to the red-hot Denver Nuggets, who are now 9-2 since sending Carmelo Anthony to New York. The Nuggets have won nine of 11 since dealing Anthony and those two losses came by a combined seven points (one by just one point in overtime). The Nuggets are 41-27 and currently the fifth seed in the west. The Magic are now 43-26 and seem all but locked in to the four seed in the east. Denver’s 111-94 victory over the Magic [...]

Stan Van Gundy told the media the Magic are “not going anywhere during playoff time” if the Magic don’t reduce their turnovers. Turnovers have been a clear problem for the Magic and Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post commented on the problem. Turnovers, and the fluidity of his team’s offense in general, have worried Van Gundy since training camp. The midseason acquisitions of Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas were meant in part to boost the Magic’s passing and playmaking, which in theory would mean reduced turnovers. On a season-long level, it’s worked, as the Magic have trimmed their turnover rate [...]

If you enjoy offense, there’s a good chance you didn’t enjoy Orlando’s 93-89 overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Despite playing rather poorly on offense (albeit against the league’s number one defense), the Magic still came away with a victory and finished 3-2 on their road trip. Dwight Howard led the Magic with 31 points, 22 rebounds and three blocks while Brandon Jennings had 23 points and eight assists to lead the Bucks. Brandon Jennings got the Bucks off to a hot start, outscoring the Magic 9-8 in the early going and helped the Bucks take a 13-10 lead. The [...]

The Orlando Magic, who have gone 2-2 on their road trip thus far, will look to close it out on a high note when they take on the Bucks in Milwaukee Wednesday night. These two teams have met twice this season. The Bucks defeated the Magic 96-85 in Milwaukee on December 4  behind 31 points and 18 rebounds from Andrew Bogut. Of course the Magic were without Dwight Howard, J.J. Redick and Jameer Nelson due to the flu while Ryan Anderson was out with an ankle injury. The Magic got revenge on the Bucks in Orlando on January 5 with [...]

The Orlando Magic got off to a good start but couldn’t keep it up, collapsing in the second half due to poor decisions , turnovers and breakdowns on the defense. The Lakers walked away with a 97-84 victory. Dwight Howard led the Magic with 22 points and 15 rebounds while Pau Gasol had 23 points for the Lakers. The Magic got off to a nice start in the first quarter behind great shooting (9-of-17 from the field, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc).  They let the Lakers get up 26 shots, mostly because of Andrew Bynum’s rebounding (11 boards in the [...]

The Orlando Magic the Los Angeles Lakers will get together for the second time this season when Monday night. The two teams met about a month back in Orlando. The Magic used an excellent defensive effort in the second half to defeat the Lakers 89-75. Dwight Howard dominated the Los Angeles bigs to the tune of 31 points and 13 rebounds and the Magic held Kobe Bryant to 17 points on 18 shots. Orlando’s win over the Phoenix Suns Sunday improved their record to 42-25, good for fourth in the east. The Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks Saturday and now [...]