Orlando Magic News for April 9th: More Fourth Quarter Heroics From Hedo Turkoglu, Dwight Howard Makes History, and More

by erivera7 on Apr 9, 2009 4:00 PM EDT in News

Dan Savage of OrlandoMagic.com writes an excellent piece about Hedo Turkoglu, Mr. Fourth Quarter. It's quite the read, check it out.
David Steele offers his insight on the Magic's finish to the season, providing some perspective with examples from the 1994-1995 Orlando team.
Brian Schmitz points out that Dwight Howard will finish the NBA as the league leader in blocks and rebounds. Congrats to Dwight on becoming the 5th player in league history to achieve such a feat.

"I've been more consistent with that and it also has brought my rebounding average down," said Howard, who has left the painted area to block shots, missing rebound possibilities.

"I think it's helped us. You don't see a lot of people coming into the paint and I think it has made everybody —Tony [Battie] and March [Marcin Gortat] — more aggressive."
Add to the fact Orlando is ranked #1 in defensive efficiency, again (mostly because of Howard), and there's no doubt who the Defensive Player of the Year should be this season. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's .. Superman.
Orlando Magic Daily shows (with the help of 82games.com) that the most clutch player on the team (the criteria being, fourth quarter or overtime, less than five minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points) is Jameer Nelson. Not too surprising, when you consider the fact Nelson was killer in the clutch like Robert Horry this year (see January 16th v. Los Angeles Lakers).
The Puns Are Starting To Bore Me provides its rookie assessment on Courtney Lee. It's a nice write-up and when you get the chance, check out the YouTube video accompanying the post. So sick.
Yesterday, CelticsBlog made an interesting post regarding LeBron James' star treatment. If you click on the link, you'll see an excerpt taken from a Sam Smith article (via ChicagoBulls.com), in which it's shown that the King averages 1.72 fouls per game in 37.3 minutes. As one team executive said, "it's impossible" for a player like LBJ to have such a low foul total.

To put that number in perspective, Courtney Lee has the lowest total among the Orlando starters with 1.97 fouls per game. However, that's in 24.5 minutes. If you extrapolate Lee's foul numbers per 36 minutes, then the number rises to 2.9 fouls per game. Leveling out the minutes, Rashard Lewis comes away with the smallest rate (2.4 fouls per game). Interesting stuff, to say the least.

If the Magic end up playing the Cavaliers in the playoffs, keep an eye out on how the fouls are distributed.

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Comments

Are we the only team that hasn't worn the organic shirts?

Or did we wear them and I just missed it?

"You know what they say about love and war."
"Yeah, one of them involves a large amount of physical and psychological pain and the other's war."

by Marie on Apr 9, 2009 8:09 PM EDT reply actions

I don't think we have but that also doesn't mean we're the only ones that haven't worn them yet either.

I’d also like to go on record as saying I’m glad we haven’t followed the recent trend of wearing 57 different jerseys throughout the season! I mean what’s the purpose of team colors if there’s 10 of them? Actually, I think the purpose is actually quite CLEAR . . . $$$ C.R.E.A.M. $$$

Also, might I add that I can’t stand it when the away team wears white jerseys! Whaddup wit that?!

by blue-blood on Apr 10, 2009 12:20 AM EDT up reply actions