Archive for December, 2011

After an awful start that saw the Magic miss their first 12 attempts from the field and trail by as many as 23 points in the second quarter, the Magic used a near perfect third quarter to get back into the game. The Magic took the lead for good in the fourth quarter, winning 104-100. Glen Davis led the Magic with 18 points while LeBron James led all scorers with 27 points. The Magic proved they still have a lot of pride. A lot of teams would have laid down and died after falling behind by that many points but [...]

The Orlando Magic will try to bounce back Wednesday night after being throttled by the Miami Heat in their preseason opener Sunday evening. Tip-off from the Amway Center is scheduled for 7:00 pm EST. The game will be shown locally on FS Florida and nationally on NBA TV. As always, if you can’t watch the game, you can listen on the radio – in English on AM 580 WDBO and in Spanish on AM 1270 WRLZ. The officials for tonight’s game are Eddie F. Rush, Brent Barnaky and Sean Wright. The Line: Miami – 6.0 Starters: Miami Heat Joel Anthony [...]

Dan Savage of OrlandoMagic.com broke the news: Stan Van Gundy just came back down to the media and said that Hedo Turkoglu will not play tonight. @QRich will start in his place. #GoMagic (Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, ESPN Florida’s Magic Insider (http://ESPNFlorida.com) and is the co-host of the ESPNFlorida.com Insiders Show Sunday mornings at 10:00 am EST. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him onTwitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here)

The Magic aren’t worried about Dwight Howard’s situation, Howard tells Josh Robbins: “I don’t think guys are worried about it,” Howard said after the Magic fell 118-85 in their preseason opener against the Miami Heat. “Like I told the guys, at the present time, we’re all on the same team; we’re all in this together. And until that changes, we should go out and play hard every night and not focus on what’s on the outside of this locker room. “We’re going to stay strong and stay a family and we’re going to fight through any situation that we have. [...]

The trend of ripping Dwight Howard from afar just won’t stop. Many national pundits have ragged on Howard for his “lack of offense,” say he isn’t a hard-worker and claim he’s a “baby.” Nothing could be further from the truth. If you can’t tell Dwight Howard is a hard-worker by his physical appearance alone, you must be blind. Forget that Howard has contacted legendary players like Hakeem Olajuwon in an attempt to get better. Forget about the end of Magic practices when the media is allowed in and we watch Howard put up free throw after free throw long after [...]

John Ireland of ESPN 710 Los Angeles, who is also a Lakers announcer, is reporting Dwight Howard will be traded to the New Jersey Nets on Tuesday. Ireland reported the news on his radio show. Lakers Nation has the story: On 710 ESPN Radio Ireland stated that he heard a rumor from a source that Howard to the Nets would go down as early as Tuesday. This is the same source that correctly predicted LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwyane Wade in Miami last summer. Update: John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com says the deal is dead:   FYI: I was [...]

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel takes a look at Orlando’s horrible performance: There were a few moments when he returned to the bench Sunday night looking frustrated, but that occurred at times last season, too. “I just didn’t think he played real well,” Van Gundy said. A reporter followed-up by asking if Howard looked “disengaged.” “So if he has a bad game, now it’s going to be he’s ‘disengaged?’ That’s B.S. That’s after-the-fact stuff. No, he just didn’t play well. I don’t think he was disengaged at all. I thought his effort was good.” Brian Serra was not happy [...]

The Orlando Magic were thoroughly dominated in the second half of their 118-85 loss to the Miami Heat Sunday night. They were outscored 29-15 in the third quarter, allowing the Heat to push their lead to 82-61 at the start of the fourth quarter. Ryan Anderson and J.J. Redick each had 22 points for the Magic while LeBron James led a balanced Heat attack with 19. Yes, it is the preseason, but this was a terrible performance. To be fair, Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson are rarely going to post shooting percentages like they did tonight, nor will the Heat [...]

Hedo Turkoglu took a fall and landed on his hip during the second quarter of Sunday night’s game against the Miami Heat. After being down for some time, Turkoglu hit two free throws. He was then taken to the locker room. Broadcaster David Steele called it a “left hip bruise” while Brian Windhorst of ESPN called it a “contusion.” (Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, ESPN Florida’s Magic Insider (http://ESPNFlorida.com) and is the co-host of the ESPNFlorida.com Insiders Show Sunday mornings at 10:00 am EST. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him onTwitter to [...]

After the longest offseason in some time (a first round playoff loss followed by a lockout), the Orlando Magic will finally hit the hardwood for an actual game Sunday evening when they travel to Miami to take on the Heat. Tip-up from American Airlines arena is scheduled for 6:00 pm EST. The game will be shown locally on FS Florida. As always, if you can’t watch the game, you can listen on the radio – in English on AM 580 WDBO and in Spanish on AM 1270 WRLZ. The Line: Miami – 5.0 Starters: Miami Heat Joel Anthony Chris Bosh [...]