Orlando Pinstriped Post: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: College Football Preseason Top 25 Rankings

UPDATED: Tonight's Game: Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards - Open Thread

TEAMNAMEs main logo
vs.
Orlando Magic main logo
0-2 1-1
Verizon Center
7:00 PM
Probable starters:
Gilbert Arenas PG Jameer Nelson
DeShawn Stevenson SG Keith Bogans
Caron Butler SF Hedo Turkoglu
Antawn Jamison PF Rashard Lewis
Brendan Haywood C Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: Two teams expected to battle for the Southeast Division crown play each other coming off embarrassing losses on Thursday night.

Know your enemy: The Wizards' biggest weakness this season has been the three-point shot. Through two games, they are a woeful 6-of-36 from beyond the arc; their opponents, meanwhile, are a sizzling 20-of-50. This news bodes well for the Magic, who are 20-of-40 from three-point range so far this season.

Useless information: Magic guard Keith Bogans has yet to miss a shot this season. He is 6-of-6 from the field -- all three-pointers -- and 2-of-2 from the foul line. He is the Magic's fourth-leading scorer.

Bullet points:

  • It took me ten years, but I finally figured out what the heck the Wizards' alternate logo, depicted above, is supposed to be. It's a lower-case "DC."
  • Gilbert Arenas talked a lot of smack in the preseason, especially in an SI.com interview in which he said he was essentially a better player than LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant (via FanHouse). So far, he has not backed that up; he is a 15-of-45 from the field and 1-of-13 from three-point range.
  • Through two games, our bench has scored 37 points on 52 shot attempts.
  • After last night's loss, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy lamented his coaching and his players' lack of effort, but he took a glass-half-full approach, saying, "[I]t's OK because we're in Game 2 of 82." I agree. Might as well get the crappy play out of our system early.
  • I forgot to mention this fact in my wrapup from last night's game, so I'll include it here: the Pistons scored the first 10 points of the third quarter. After our win against Milwaukee, in which we outscored the Bucks 35-16, I wondered if it was too late to change the name of this website. Nice to know that I won't be needing to do that.
  • The Phoenix Suns upset the basketball-aesthetic Gods by wearing their orange alternate uniforms at home last night and got their hats handed to them by the Lakers, of all teams. I never thought I'd say what I'm about to say, but let's hope the Wizards wear their hideous gold alternates at home tonight. Maybe the trend will continue.
  • Be sure to check out one of my sister sites, Bullets Forever, for Wizards fans' takes on Washington's less-than-stellar season.
  • In his lone game against Washington last season, Rashard Lewis scored 26 points... on 9-of-24 shooting, including 3-of-12 from downtown. It wasn't all bad, though; he also grabbed 10 boards.

If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to post it. As always, you can leave you pregame, during-game, and post-game thoughts in this thread. Once again, to listen to the game, check out NBA Audio League Pass.

UPDATE: Bullets Forever has its preview for tonight's game up. The author, Pradamaster, believes that Washington's Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler will have good games going against Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.

UPDATE #2 (5:45 PM): This thought just occurred to me. Why not play Dwight Howard and Adonal Foyle together? According to PopcornMachine's game flow, Howard and Foyle were only on the floor together for 1:13 of playing time. Foyle was slated to enter for Keith Bogans in the third quarter of last night's game, but after the Magic pulled to within 10, Stan Van Gundy elected to keep Bogans on the floor. Had Foyle entered, the Magic's lineup would have been Nelson and Turkoglu at the guards, Lewis and Howard at the forwards, and Foyle at center. The combination of Howard and Foyle should have been able to rebound better than the lineup that was actually on the floor did. And given that Washington does not have a great rebounding presence -- with apologies to Brendan Haywood, who actually played well last night -- this frontcourt could be particularly effective. Just something to bear in mind.

0 recs  |  Comment 2 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

Well,

He had a nice block!

Rest of Game: Setting Picks, getting out rebounded because he has 3 guys around him, and getting blamed for not defending perimeter matchups on Gilbert arenas enough.

I never realised that was a lower case DC either! Neat-o!

D-Howard and A-Foyle....oh, if only....

by Zorgon on Nov 3, 2007 9:11 PM EDT reply actions  

Adonal

Not a great night for him, but not bad either.
By the way, you might want to save this picture to your computer while Yahoo is still hosting it.

by Ben Q Rock on Nov 3, 2007 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions  

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Start posting about the Magic »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Connect_with_facebook

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Small
Magic Decisions
Small
Black Alts?
Small
Carmelo
Photo0268_small
Should we go after JR Smith???
Small
Can someone comment on Trade Idea?
5520_124883688787_74504778787_2312115_2623014_n_small
JJ > VC
Small
Melo most likely out in DEN- Overreaction Trade Proposal 8/16
Small
three way trade orl/raptors/bobcats
Small
the obvious trade
Tcuoutlinewoverheadfrog268_small
Can we really win? Seriously?

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Contact Us

General Twitter feed

Ben Q. Rock, Managing Editor / Press Contact

Merch Booth

Check out our online store, featuring the popular "Polish Machine," "Heart and Hustle," and "#CrazyNuts" designs, by clicking here.

Tiny Blogroll

Rather than include our complete blogroll in this space, we've decided to link to it instead. That way, you won't have to do as much scrolling. Enjoy.

SBNation.com Recent Stories

NEW YORK CITY NY - AUGUST 12:  Kevin Durant #5 looks on during the World Basketball Festival USAB Showcase at Radio City Music Hall on August 12 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for Nike) +4 updates

FIBA World Championships 2010: Team USA Routs Iran 88-51, Clinches Top Spot In Group B

Cleveland Cavaliers' Delonte West, right, shoot over Indiana Pacers' Jeff Foster in the first half of a NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Monday, April 13, 2009.  (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) link

Celtics Sign Free Agent Delonte West

Rose +2 updates

FIBA World Championships 2010: Team USA Ekes Out 70-68 Win Over Brazil

More from SBNation.com >


Managing Editor

Squareuserpicjpeg_small Ben Q Rock