Orlando Magic News for November 12th: Ryan Anderson's Ankle Feels Better; the Dwight Howard "Effect"
- Ankle better, Ryan Anderson says he'd like to play Friday
Brian Schmitz reveals some good news.Magic PF Ryan Anderson said he is circling Friday’s game against the New Jersey Nets as a possible return from his sprained right ankle.
Anderson said he jogged on Wednesday and said today is "a big day" as he steps up his rehab. He will work with the Magic’s strength and conditioning staff as the club is off today. [...]
"It feels a lot better, that’s for sure," Anderson said, showing off his ankle. "There’s some (pain) up high. I’m going to do some more things (today.) It’s a big day for me." - Van Gundy's wife, Kim, hospitalized
Our prayers and wishes for the Van Gundy family.Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy told the Sentinel that his wife, Kim, should be okay after being rushed to a hospital in Altamonte Springs after passing out Wednesday.
He spent four hours with his wife at the hospital before leaving for the Magic-Cavs game and didn’t hold his usual pregame media conclave. - Behind the Box Score, where 'yeah! Go Bucks! Whoo!'
Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don't Lie recaps the Orlando Magic's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers last night in front of a nationally-televised audience.Orlando still has a lot of work to do. Dwight Howard has to figure out a way to stay on the floor, I understand fouls for big men can randomly go either way (in the next contest, Shaq might have five fouls in half a game), but he's got to find a way to keep the referees off his back.
Also, Mickael Pietrus needs to wake the hell up. The season started two weeks ago. Get into it. - Howard's Slide Is Big Magic Problem
Tim Povtak of NBA FanHouse comments on how Dwight Howard's current stretch of bad games has affected the team and what needs to be done.Van Gundy, meanwhile, is getting impatient. He insisted Wednesday that his team can't compete defensively with the Celtics, Cavaliers, or even the Heat, in the Eastern Conference. He made it clear that he wasn't blaming Howard -- that the whole team was struggling -- but he wanted his center and his point guard Jameer Nelson to lead the turnaround that he expects.
"It starts with those guys, the two returning guys, the captains,'' Van Gundy said. "It's not all on them, but they are supposed to be the leaders. It has to start with them.'' - Don't worry, we'll bounce back!!!
Dwight Howard posts on his official blog today.We won’t let this spiral. We’re a team that loves winning and we understand that sometimes we’re going to lose games. We don’t let the losing affect our chemistry as a team. One thing that we have to do is stay together. There’s no need to point fingers and blame things on this part of the game or this person or whatever.
- Measuring clutch-ness takes on new definition in playoffs
UPDATE: John Schuhmann of NBA.com takes a look at the numbers and reveals which players were "ultra-clutch" - explanation below - in the last five seasons. Rashard Lewis, not surprisingly, makes an appearance on the list.Just for kicks, StatsCube ran numbers for situations with less than one minute to go and a scoring margin of three points or less. When we got a bunch of point guards at the top of the list we realized that intentional fouls at the end of games were skewing the stats. We eliminated situations where the player's team was ahead, leaving us with a tie game or a deficit of three points or less in the final minute.
Let's call those "Ultra-Clutch" situations. - For Some N.B.A. Players, There’s No Such Thing as a Slam Dunk
UPDATE 2 (from Ben): Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times interviewed Van Gundy, Howard, and Nelson for this piece about NBA players who can't dunk.Van Gundy’s roster spans the gamut of dunkers. He has Carter, a onetime leaper extraordinaire; Dwight Howard, who led the league in dunks last season with 201; and Jameer Nelson, a point guard who can vividly recall his only N.B.A. dunk in six seasons. "My second season against New Jersey in Orlando," Nelson said.
"He has dunked, I think that was on NBA Live 2005," Howard said, referring to the video game.
"In a game? I heard he dunked in college, but we don’t have any proof of that, so I don’t think he can dunk anymore. I’ve seen him get up and grab the rim, but that’s a little bit different."
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On Contrary to Dwight's statement,
His lack of rebounding, Blocks and overall intensity, even when refs are unforgiving is a reason for him to point fingers… at himself… Time to grow up.
"Put it on Film" (not on the glass)
"no need to point fingers and blame things on this part of the game"
What the heck are you talking about Dwight? I agree there is no point in singleling (sp?) a particular player…but I think blaming the team’s recent bad performances on non-existent defense is a good thing and should be called out. These are times when tweeting and blogging do players a diservice. Just shut up and play defense. Leave it up to Stan to talk.
Spreading that Calgary Flames, Montreal Expos, The U, and Orlando Magic love.
is it me or did it look like we gave up 2 min into the 2nd.
i,m sick of dwights little faces and comments to the refs when someone fouls him or he fouls someone else. he is turing into a cry baby even when he clearly fouls someone he complains.time to be a man dwight. carter would,nt take the ball to the basket at all esp after the 2nd . no d no championship huh that championship looks farther and farther as the days pass. shard will change everything for us our d should pick up the day he returns so i need not judge to much till we see our real team.
I don't think the team gave up, the players just didn't play smart.
The Magic gave up against the Thunder, it wasn’t the same case against the Cavaliers.
I write for Third Quarter Collapse and have a Twitter account. Like us? Please vote for 3QC in the Orbbies, Orlando's Rockin' Blogs, hosted by the Orlando Sentinel. We're nominated for the best Sports and Overall blog.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
I don't know why people are worrying about Dwight.
Look at the stats — Dwight’s stats are not far off his stats for the last 2 years at all if you factor in the fact that he’s playing 5 fewer minutes per game. He’s averaging 3 fewer rebounds than last year — well, that’s basically 1 fewer rebound after you adjust for the minutes. Maybe 1.5. Well within the range of flukes, especially considering the turmoil at PF.
His blocks are lower, yes, but I’m not sure that last year wasn’t the fluke in terms of blocks. (It’s also possible that he’s spent the last few months focusing so heavily on offense that blocks are no longer at the front of his mind. And his offense has been by all accounts better this year than last.) If anything Dwight’s gambled a bit too heavily for blocks in the past…
He's currently two-thirds man, one-third amazing. Which, let's face it, is still a pretty good ratio.
I'm not worried about the rebounds but Howard needs to pick it up with the blocks.
His defensive effort, as a whole, needs to kick up a notch and get back to where it was last year.
I write for Third Quarter Collapse and have a Twitter account. Like us? Please vote for 3QC in the Orbbies, Orlando's Rockin' Blogs, hosted by the Orlando Sentinel. We're nominated for the best Sports and Overall blog.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
no one hates here man criticize yes.
he makes it harder on himself when he gets mad and argues with refs.lets face it when dwights up set he loses his composure.starts fouling. dwight is the man best center in the nba hands down.but its time he starts using that energy on the court or he can keep calling refs out and get on their bad side.dwight is very good but he has the potential to be great and thats what i want to see( and i think we will).or he can keep complaining like sheed in boston.
Just criticism, more than anything else.
I write for Third Quarter Collapse and have a Twitter account. Like us? Please vote for 3QC in the Orbbies, Orlando's Rockin' Blogs, hosted by the Orlando Sentinel. We're nominated for the best Sports and Overall blog.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
like you said
It all changes when Rashard and RA return, we missed a bunch of open 3s last night. That will not happen when those two return. It will open up Dwight and the floor..
"No matter where you go, you are what you are playa"-Jay Z
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