Word of the Day: Serious
serious (adj.) - concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities
Via the Orlando Sentinel:
The Magic franchise record for consecutive victories is nine, set twice, in 1994 and in 2001.A victory against the Wizards would match the second-longest winning streak in Magic history, when the 2005-06 team won eight in a row.
"We're just trying to get better — no matter who we play at this point," center Dwight Howard said. "We just want to continue to do the things that are going to make us a lot better going into the playoffs. "Our goal is to win a championship."[...]
"There's not much joking around," point guard Jameer Nelson said. "It's a lot more serious and especially now. Everybody is focusing in on everything."
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Dwight Howard's slideshow video. A visual look at Superman's career.
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Orlando Magic News for March 12th: A Look at How the Magic Have Performed Lately; Statheads Unite
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Are the Magic as good as they have seemed since the All-Star break?
Tania Ganguli explains why the Orlando Magic have played so well lately.Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy talked about the team’s preparation reaching a new level lately. Jameer Nelson seconded that.
"We’re preparing better; we do everything better right now," Nelson said. "… Individually we’re getting better. Early in the season we really didn’t have too many guys play together too often. Vince [Carter] goes out, Rashard’s [Lewis] out, you had guys go out. We start getting playing time together, practice time, we start jelling a little better." -
Are Statheads the NBA's Secret Weapon?
David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal notes that teams with statisticians, a group which includes the Magic, are succeeding on the court. (via TrueHoop)According to interviews with every team, The Wall Street Journal found that half the league's teams this season have at least one of these statisticians who helps make in-game, draft-day and trade-deadline decisions. Many of these teams are among the NBA's best. The list accounts for all six division leaders, including the Orlando Magic and Dallas Mavericks, who have a data analyst traveling with the team. These 15 teams that have invested heavily in statistics have combined to win 59.3% of their games this season. The 15 teams without such analysts have won 40.7% of their games, and only three—the Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks—are on pace to make the postseason. Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey, one of the pioneers of statistical analysis in the NBA, says more teams will soon come over to the quant side.
More after the jump.
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T-Mobile Trivia Firedrill: Win Tickets to See the Orlando Magic and the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday
This post is sponsored by T-Mobile.
It's time to give away a few more tickets to an Orlando Magic home game, courtesy of T-Mobile. At stake tonight? Tickets to see the Magic host the San Antonio Spurs next Wednesday, March 17th. Ordinarily, we conduct our giveaways with much more notice, but due to some extenuating circumstances that won't be the case. Please pay special attention to the rules, which follow the jump. But first, today's question.
Will Dwight Howard attempt more than or less than 7.5 foul shots in the Magic's game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday, March 14th?
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Announcing the Winners of Our 13th T-Mobile Trivia Challenge
This post is sponsored by T-Mobile.
It's time now to announce the winners of our latest T-Mobile Trivia Challenge. The two winners will each receive two tickets to the Orlando Magic's game against the Charlotte Bobcats this Sunday.
Everyone who responded correctly to the trivia question had his or her name entered into a random drawing. Here's the question we asked:
Which team will grab the first rebound of the second quarter when the Magic play the Bulls tomorrow?
Orlando's J.J. Redick corralled Jannero Pargo's missed jumper on the Bulls' first possession, which must have pleased the 39 of you who picked the Magic in this contest. Our winners are shyro25 and OrlandoRays. Congratulations. We've already gotten in touch with them, but thought we'd share the good news with the community.
Keep reading OPP for your next chance to win Magic tickets.
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Orlando Magic 111, Chicago Bulls 82: The Morning After
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The Orlando Magic pound the undermanned Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night, stretching their season-high winning streak to seven games.
Vince Carter realizes that the playoffs are near.There are 16 regular-season games remaining for the Orlando Magic. Although they haven't officially clinched a postseason spot, you can see the pending playoffs written all over Vince Carter's game face. [...]
"Been a while but I've been there [to the playoffs] and I know what it takes," Carter said. "You have to take the necessary steps to get there. Right now we're playing out best possible basketball and it doesn't matter the opponent." [...]
Carter looked invigorated. Maybe it was the playoff push. Then again, maybe it was something else. "I think had too much Red Bull before the game," he laughed. -
Orlando Magic are set to scout the teams they might play in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Brian Schmitz writes that the scouting staff for the Orlando Magic is going to start to scout possible first-round opponents as the regular season winds down.The club went into Thursday night's game against the Chicago Bulls positioned as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. If they held the spot, they would begin the postseason facing the No. 7 seed, which is currently a grab-bag of possibilities.
Toronto, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Miami and the Bulls are all in the mix at No. 7. The Magic might have to see how the season plays out before knowing their opponent.
"You just don't know the way teams are bunched down there," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "We'll start watching them more and more intensively."
More after the jump.
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Orlando Magic 111, Chicago Bulls 82
With injuries to Luol Deng and Joakim Noah, the cards were already stacked against the Chicago Bulls when they faced off against the Orlando Magic in front of a nationally-televised audience. Losing Derrick Rose to a wrist injury near the end of the first quarter, when he attacked the basket and collided with Dwight Howard, just exacerbated the discrepancy of talent between two teams heading in completely opposite directions. The Magic won the game by a score of 111-82, extending their winning streak to a season-high seven games.The Bulls' six-game losing streak is slowly taking the team out of the playoff picture with 16 games to go in the regular season. Vince Carter led Orlando with an efficient 23 points (8-13 FG, 2-5 3PT). Rookies Taj Gibson, with 12 points (6-10 FG) and 9 rebounds, and James Johnson, with 13 points (5-9 FG) and 3 steals, played relatively well for Chicago.
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Post-Game Media Availability: Taking Care of Business
Another game, another win.
With a victory against the Chicago Bulls, a depleted team that lost All-Star point guard Derrick Rose to injury near the end of the first quarter, the Orlando Magic extended its winning streak to a season-high seven games. Like its game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, the Magic took care of business in the first half and coasted to a blowout win. There’s not much else to say, other than Orlando is beating teams it should beat and doing it in impressive fashion.
I was able to speak with Stan Van Gundy amongst the media, as well as Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson one-on-one, Brandon Bass, and Dwight Howard.
Here's what they had to say:
Stan Van Gundy:
Could you talk about the bench, in terms of what they were able to bring to the table?
I thought they brought good energy I thought, particularly in the second quarter … and then I thought in the third quarter, we were really stumbling and not playing very good basketball and I thought Jason [Williams] got us going again so yeah, I was happy. I’m just happy. I think our guys – all of them – are coming in the game with a solid approach, really trying to play consistently from night-to-night and so I’m happy with that.
More after the jump.
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