Miami Heat 96, Orlando Magic 70

Odds are Rashard isn’t going to shoot 0-9, Q Rich 0-5, Nelson 3-11, and VC 1-5 consistently on a nightly basis. This was just one of those games that had to happen, hope this is the last time we see this happen this season. Also, what was that tech on Dwight all about?

…according to basketball-reference.com.

On December 2nd, 2005, the Magic scored 69 points in a 91-69 loss at Memphis.

Last season, the lowest they scored in the regular season was 74 points in a 102-74 loss at OKC on November 8th, and 71 points in a 94-71 loss in Boston in Game 3 in the ECF.

12 points on 5 of 8 shooting, including 2 of 4 from three point range along with two rebounds and a block in mostly fourth quarter action when the game was already decided.

Bass had a decent first half, with 7 points and 6 rebounds.

Like Evan’s recap said, it’s too early to draw many meaningful conclusions despite the one-sided Heat win.

It’s a long season, with lots of room for improvement.

A lot of the blame needs to be on the Magic and not credited to the Heat. If it’s not, we should be looking at Orlando’s potential lottery position next season and forget about playoff hopes. Nobody plays that bad.

I will credit this to the Heat. They are good and they had something to prove being back in Miami. Just ask Washington what happens on opening night when something exciting i s happening.

As bad as they played though, I agree with Evan that there needs to be some concern. That game was so awful. But there there’s really no evidence to be concerned about this early so…

Our only concern should be, in my opinion, that we better hope something like this doesn’t happen twice against a team of Miami’s caliber. If it does, then I think at that time we all become very concerned and start wondering what change we need.

Let’s wait it out and see how Orlando plays against Boston and L.A., and Miami again, before we get caught up in ONE, very awful game.

Dwight Howard has been pretty impressive, but frustration got the better of him in the 3rd quarter as all his teammates failed him

SVG has to start playing match ups especially against the elite teams. When we play the Celtics Heat and Lakers we need to go big and start Lewis at the 3 and Anderson at the 4 and Q-Rich shouldnt play that much….You gotta match up against the other teams. Lewis spends too much energy guarding these big 4’s and he struggels on offense….

I don’t know… The Magic looked exactly like they did against Boston in the playoffs to me.

None of the Magic guards penetrate for a drive. None of them drive just to drive for the FT’s, which is cheap-ish, but also incredibly efficient. None of the passes were good because none of them came from penetrating as a threat to drive all the way. As Mr. Dunlap said, hot potato passing along the 3pt arc line until someone caught it with 3 seconds left.

The same way the Magic offense looked against Boston.. I mean, it gets to a point, where Jameer and VC have got to be starting to realize this…. “I’m better off having 10 individual turnovers if it lets me get more than just 1-2 assists for the WHOLE game. If I can get 8 assists, with 11 FTA’s from relentless drives, and 20 pts on just 40 FG% atleast, then the team would actually be executing a team offense system, instead of forcing a spread of individual players to get 2-4 TO’s, 0 assists, and 30 FG% shooting.”

I have no problem that Jameer is a score first point guard, but then, ok, where was the scoring and aggression then? And then, Im so glad VC has been super efficient thru the preseason and 1st game, but thru the playoffs and many elite team regular season matchups, he is disappointing. I think the Magic guards were better off forcing the issue than making the whole team suck instead. If they do this, I think the rest of the Magic can start to see there’s a system at work going on here, and that’s what can get the rest of the team into a groove where shots start to fall well and confidence and momentum turn up. No trades necessary if that’s what can happen.

And since the Magic looked the same to me against Miami and Boston, it feels like, if they ever can develop an offense during this season (outside of Dwight) against the teams that matter, then neither team (or LA) has any big enough mismatches to throw Orlando’s way.**Although, the Magic should really look into getting 1-2 defenders.. Q is not one, and Pietrus is too inconsistent right now. Carter plays SG to Wade’s 30 points on efficient shooting..

I was impressed with D12’s aggresivness on the offensive end and the way he stuck with his jumper after the first few didn’t fall but apart from Bass (I’m not counting Anderson’s garbage mins) the rest of the team was a no show. Rashard and VC especially. They just seemed flat. Our 3pt shooting was dismal and there were far too many turnovers. Hopefully this was just a bad game that we can learn from. In future against the Heat should SVG look at playing a zone???

it didn’t seem like we say anything new. They gave him a hard foul, he went to the floor, and that was that. Maybe this tiger can’t change it’s stripes?

Just my perception – I haven’t confirmed this by looking at stats, etc.

If this is the case, and it bears out over the next month or two – we should let Carter go.

(Raptorel, you may now relentlessly attack this post.) (kids gently)

A lack of a go to star to help Howard plays a big part. This biggest mistake the Magic made was not shipping Vince out of town. I found it comical how on this site just last week everybody was praising Vince’s “new game.” New game is a crock…dude was playing where he strives the most in the no pressure joke basketball game of the preseason. Carter aside, the team was simply unprepared and not ready to face any adversity last night. Two players (aside from Dwight) showed up with heart and fire to play…Brandon Bass and JJ. They were the only ones who took the “hot potato” and shot it….crashed the boards….tried to create….etc….they were doing this cause every other person on that team was a deer in the headlights. I thought the Heat, while playing a solid defense, played careless and ill advised and undisciplined….the Magic just sucked that bad. If the Magic couldn’t get fired up for this game, I don’t know what will fire them up.

The biggest cause for concern for me is how this team approaches things. I feel bad for Stan and Otis…they went out and talked the smack because in their mind, they knew their team would back it up. Unfortunately those guys just rolled over. And in the process made national headlines that they suck.

If our back court and Lewis suck again. I don’t see why there shouldn’t be any major changes made.

I don’t care that it’s only the 2nd game, because the strategy the Heat used was the exact same the Celtics used to whip us last year. Who cares about steam rolling through the regular season if whenever you play against a team that won’t double Dwight and has the defenders to cover our shooters (LA, Boston, Miami) is going to kill you.

The Heat are only to get better, the more playing time they have with each other. If they did this to us last night, what could we expect from them in the playoffs?

Oh yeah…one more thing…the Magic could of really used Hedo Turkoglu last night. Yeah…I said it.

What scares us all about the big three is their offense and we did held them to under 100 points and 40% shooting. The problem last night was offensive execution, and there is room to improve there. Dwight owned the paint and it was visibly clear that there´s nothing Miami ‘s centers can do against him, that’s the way to go. Vince, Rashard, and Q should take the big three to a corner and let Dwight and Jameer (who needs to play better) exploit their weak links.

He was so bad it became comical. And I agree, our wake up call was last season in the Boston series. This was a huge game and our effort was spineless. I am so distgusted I feel dirty inside.

1. Defense – MIA played a very good defense which is a hallmark of their coach, but they cannot play that good of a defense consistently because of their personnel make-up; Arroyo, House, Ilgauskas, Haslem, Jones, and even Wade are not known for their defensive prowess, nor is Mike Miller when he joins the team. On the opposite side, Magic played poorly on defense which includes just about anybody on the team whose name is not Dwight.
2. Offense – MIA has offensive powers but I love James and Wade to shoot 3-pointers all night long. They would not make those 3s at the clip which they made if there was a hand in their face, taking us back to bad Magic’s defense (carter in particular comes to mind defending Wade). Moreover, the fade-away/falling-off 3-pointer by Jones could not be repeated again in his professional career. On the Magic’s side, their shooting was a true outlier with Rashard and Richardson missing all their shot attempts; rushed? Maybe some, but plenty of open shots were missed.
3. Psyche – MIA was a hyped-up and confident team. Magic weathered the storm for the first half, but then after the avalanche of the start of the second half lost their heads, quickly. If there is any flaw in coach Van Gundy’s style – and it’s hard to find any – that would be the calming effect within the game flow, which you need to be calm to start with (can you imagine a calm Stan?). He was right in his assertion during the intermission that this is only the second game of the season and we are down by only six points. I don’t know what happened in that locker room, but some emphasis on defense and passing would have been appropriate, as well.

Regardless, this is only one game, and we had these kinds of games before only to learn from them and move on. In near memory of last year, we recall the game in Cleveland with an absolute domination of the CAVS, and the blowout game in MIA when Wade and company got hot in the second half. Amongst the notable deficiencies was Duhon’s clear uneasiness in shooting which has to change despite his shooting woes.

You have your ups, and your downs.

On November 8th, 2009, the Magic went into Oklahoma City and were beaten even worse by the Thunder than they were by the Heat by the score of 102-74. The Magic allowed OKC to shoot 57% while shooting just 37% themselves, including 3of 16 from three point range. OKC outrebounded the Magic 45-30. Truly an embarrassing loss.

Well, just ten days later, on November 18th in Orlando, the Magic came up with a resounding 108-94 victory over that same Thunder team who demolished them just ten days earlier.

True, the Magic didn’t have Rashard Lewis for the first game while he played in the second game, but it just goes to show what they learned after that dreadful game in OKC and how much better the whole team played the second time around just ten days later.

I believe they are capable of doing the same thing against the Heat next time they play later this month, and that they can learn from all the things they did wrong Friday night.

Poor Stan got nothing on some Magic fans around here.

That was the same “frozen by the intensity of the opposition” Magic team we saw in the East finals. They just don’t have any idea how to handle an opponent who won’t let them play the way they want to, and they fall apart.

The Magic have 81 games and a playoff series to figure it out.

And I think the “zomg play Brandon Bass” and “zomg put Lewis at SF” folks should have the evidence now that the problem the Magic have against good defenses has absolutely nothing to do with personnel.

Personally, I think folks are making too little of the fact that Vince was lost for the balance of the game. It was 38-35 Miami at that point following a few lead changes.

I swear to god Orlando has the worst fans in the NBA . When they win everthing is lovely (see the comments on the beat down of the Wizards) , but when they lose you guys act like the season is only 2 games long. Did you all forget that the season is 82 games long , it counts as one loss , and the Magic were playing a back to back , and it was the first Miami home game ? I read all the comments in the Miami Herald after the C’s beat the heat and none of their fans started screaming trade the entire team. Our fans should be called the Masters of Panic. Instead of looking at the negative try and take the positive out of the loss. This will make our team better in the long run. When we were blowing teams out in the pre-season we showed all kind of love and support , we need to keep up that same level of support. And on a side note we ain’t getting Carmelo and CP3 so get over it and support the team we have. all the ones bashing the team should go to a Miami web-site cause we don’t need fair weather fans.

…so what I’m going to say has pretty much already been said. I’m just doing this because I need to rant. As it stands now, we will not be able to get past Miami or Boston in a playoff series. That’s a fact. Vince, Jameer and Rashard are super soft, have no fire and absolutely cave in when the going gets tough. Jameer is not a leader and can’t pass. Rashard could care less about anything that happens and you all must know that by now. He plays at a smooth and constant 70% at all times. Vince has been playing a video game his whole career and when things start to go badly he just turns the console off. We can not win with these guys. We HAVE to try to work on a trade. Carmelo would help, CP3 would help too but as stated in an earlier comment it doesn’t even have to be one of those elites. I would be willing to take younger, less established players that you know have the heart to compete. We have a very solid, deep team but It’s just not going to be enough this year. We must get rid of at least one, preferably two of our heartless softies. I wish it could be Rashard but I guess his contract is unmovable. Jameer and/or Carter MUST GO. I hope Otis won’t be stubborn and will get a little trigger happy. Make it happen Mr. Smith.

I want to trade Evan to get Ben back here.

It’s not just one game. It’s the same thing we saw last year and at times the year before. The 3 softies that I like to bash (Jameer, Rashard, Lewis) will wilt under pressure. This is old news. So stop the “Just one game” reference. Secondly, Stop defending Nelson’s leadership!!! When do you ever see him speak on the court? Never. In the huddle? Never. How often do you see him directing traffic like most PG’s. Never!!! Same with his passing issues. Despite being surrounded by all these shooters and a dominate big man he can’t ever average more then 5.5 assists a game!!! Is it not clear by now? How often does he throw nice lobs to Dwight? Never. His court vision is a joke and he’s no leader. Please try to tell me different and dig up some examples. Snap out of your haze. He’s no PG. He’s a great backup or a pint sized SG. We need a pass first PG to feed our beast. And of course, we also need to send Vince packing. Run tell dat.

Let’s not forget that the most efficient “shot” of all in basketball is the free throw, not the 3-pointer. I understand the strategy of maximizing three point attempts, but we need to get to the line as well.

More 1/5 and 2/5 pick and roll. Our guards can 1) drive to draw the foul (or shoot a lay up), 2) kick out to shooters when the defense reacts, or 3) hit Howard in motion going to the basket.

Glad Dwight is getting to the line, but JJ, Vince, and Jameer are all assets at the line where Dwight is a liability. We need those three guys to draw fouls if we want to beat elite teams. JJ looks the best at this, to my eyes, and he’s the slowest of the three.

We have the personnel to do it. Let’s give it a few more games before we burn the place down.

Whats good gentlemen.. I wanted to throw out a few points.. (1) There was only one team in the east built to take the magic offense out of their game. The celtics. They have garnett which allows them to play dwight one-on -one with perkins and garnett can stay home on rashard and basically cut rashards scoring down to nothing with his length against rashard. Our style of play isnt/wasnt an advantage against this one team,as it is an advantage against every other team in the league because no one has a center good enough to defend dwight and a power forward long enough and experienced enough with good defensive lateral movement to defend rashard. But with the heat getting bosh to come down,they can now try and use the celtic mold of defending our offense. They can use bosh who is basically a garnett clone to stay home on rashard and joel anthony who is an athletic seven footer to try and slow dwight. Now obviously dwight killed anthony early,but the heat will take that allday. If dwight is taking all the shots within our offensive possessions from the block,that does two things detrimental to our offensive success. It doesnt promote ball movement or team involvement,and it doesnt allow dwight to become an offensive rebounder at all. Basically limiting him to defensive rebounds alone on the night. Looking at the stats,the heat basically said “hey dwight you can have a 100”.. “we’ll just stay at home on all your shooters”!!! These two teams are designed to beat the magic and take us out of our offensive approach. Our offensive approach with our current starting line-up is never going to beat these two teams consistently enough to win the east as they are presently built. (2) SVG has to come up with a better offensive strategy against these two beasts of the east. Against everybody else we can play small ball,but against these two we have to play bigger. He as the coach has to put his players in situations where they can excell and in that sense i think he has failed rashard and VC. If the offense was run through VC with the occassional dwight post up,dwight would have the ability to dominate the boards on both ends of the floor. VC would have the ability to get his shooting rhythem,get to the line more and put pressure on the defense by breaking it down with penetration which will open up shooters. Rashard as a fulltime PF is killing us,starting him there is fine but at some point in the game he should be moving to the small-forward/three to be able to have a match-up that he can dominate offensively. Match-up advantages are how you win games. And make no mistake about it,this collection of players is good enough to win a championship. If we continue to play small ball through dwight for four quarters,our losses in this year playoffs will be on SVG in my opinion no matter how the players play. Technically VC and rashard are our most effective scorers,they should take the bulk of the shots from advantagious positions for them on the floor in match-ups they can dominate. We wont win much with dwight going for 35pts and 4rebs. We need him around 20pts 10rebs and dominating the boards at both ends.

Whats good gentlemen.. I wanted to throw out a few points.. (1) There was only one team in the east built to take the magic offense out of their game. The celtics. They have garnett which allows them to play dwight one-on -one with perkins and garnett can stay home on rashard and basically cut rashards scoring down to nothing with his length against rashard. Our style of play isnt/wasnt an advantage against this one team,as it is an advantage against every other team in the league because no one has a center good enough to defend dwight and a power forward long enough and experienced enough with good defensive lateral movement to defend rashard. But with the heat getting bosh to come down,they can now try and use the celtic mold of defending our offense. They can use bosh who is basically a garnett clone to stay home on rashard and joel anthony who is an athletic seven footer to try and slow dwight. Now obviously dwight killed anthony early,but the heat will take that allday. If dwight is taking all the shots within our offensive possessions from the block,that does two things detrimental to our offensive success. It doesnt promote ball movement or team involvement,and it doesnt allow dwight to become an offensive rebounder at all. Basically limiting him to defensive rebounds alone on the night. Looking at the stats,the heat basically said "hey dwight you can have a 100".. "we’ll just stay at home on all your shooters"!!! These two teams are designed to beat the magic and take us out of our offensive approach. Our offensive approach with our current starting line-up is never going to beat these two teams consistently enough to win the east as they are presently built. (2) SVG has to come up with a better offensive strategy against these two beasts of the east. Against everybody else we can play small ball,but against these two we have to play bigger. He as the coach has to put his players in situations where they can excell and in that sense i think he has failed rashard and VC. If the offense was run through VC with the occassional dwight post up,dwight would have the ability to dominate the boards on both ends of the floor. VC would have the ability to get his shooting rhythem,get to the line more and put pressure on the defense by breaking it down with penetration which will open up shooters. Rashard as a fulltime PF is killing us,starting him there is fine but at some point in the game he should be moving to the small-forward/three to be able to have a match-up that he can dominate offensively. Match-up advantages are how you win games. And make no mistake about it,this collection of players is good enough to win a championship. If we continue to play small ball through dwight for four quarters,our losses in this year playoffs will be on SVG in my opinion no matter how the players play. Technically VC and rashard are our most effective scorers,they should take the bulk of the shots from advantagious positions for them on the floor in match-ups they can dominate. We wont win much with dwight going for 35pts and 4rebs. We need him around 20pts 10rebs and dominating the boards at both ends.

No prob. how do u delete a post? made mistake posted it twice.