Orlando Magic 96, Boston Celtics 89

the magic played a hell of a game.
some observations i would like to add.
every player played well for the magic except one, jameer nelson.

is it just me, but when he starts to dominate the ball the offense gets so stagnet. the 1-5 pick n roll just aint working for the magic.

when the magic went on that rampage in the third quarter, if you all have noticed, the offense didnt run through him once. they stayed away from him and it helped out the magic.

the problem with nelson, and its a huge problem, he doesnt get his teammates involved at all. he always gets more turnovers than assist, and is always looking for his shot.

i personally think the biggest problem with VC in January was trying to get acclamaited with nelson in the back court. VC is too much of a deferring personality and henceforth was too passive with nelson on the floor with him. i mean almost every game which nelson hasnt played the magic were significantly better. they were something like 14-4 and that includes that Miami game earlier on this season when the magic were supposed to win that game but lost.

His turnovers, his inability to setup his teammates, and his horrible, not horrible but disgusting and invisible defense kills the magic. every game the point guard (opposing and the magic’s point guard) just kills the magic. this game it was rondo, who by the way got shut down by jwill in the first game of the season between the celts and the magic when jameer was injured. and the last game randy foye destroyed nelson.

I feel nelson is bad for chemisrty with the first unit. last year’s team was different than this one. with vc its a different dynamic. Turk wasnt really a scorer, so having nelson dominate the ball was ok. but this year nelson has 3 scorers in the starting lineup who need their touches and quite frankly are tons better offensive players than him in lewis, vc and howard.

today’s game the offense stagnated at the end of the 2nd and 4th quarter’s, when jameer had the ball in his hands for several minutes and possessions in a row. and in so many of these possessions jameer would penetrrate in the lane causing the D to suck in, but instead of passing it to his open shooters, he either turns it over or chucks up a bad shot.

I feel that nelson hasnt proven to be better than jwill starting or playing period this year. jwill fits with the starting unit much better. as JVG was harping on all game long, he loves the way jwill plays, he gets his teammates involved, he knows when to pass which is often, when to drive and when to shoot, and hardly turns the ball over, and plays much better defense than nelson even though he is about 7 yrs older than him.

nelson hasnt earned the starting spot from jwill. and regardless, since he’s a score first mentality, he doesnt fit with the first unit. i think he would be great for the second unit, since he can score all he wants and be that energizer off the bench, instant offense.

he is a serious liability for the magic right now, and his play speaks for itself . hes pretty lucky that vince had a horrid month of january, ( and i am convinced its partly because of nelson who never passes the ball to vince) because all that media vince was getting for his bad play kind of got the media and the fans of nelson’s back, and also rashard’s a little bit there for a while i mean the guy gets max money averages 15 points and 5 rebs. Even if you arnt scoring the ball all that well, at least play better defense and rebound the ball better than that, but recently lewis has been big and has played well scoring the ball, and even though he cant defend some 4’s and gets mutilated by them he always plays good team defense. rashard at least plays within his role.

last year it was a blessing in disguise that nelson went down. alston is a much better point guard, and defender. look nelson’s horrible defense prevented the magic from tying the lakers 2-2 in the series. and this year his offense and overall play are as bad as his defense is.

Im not hating on the guy. on the contrary im pulling for him, because if he figures it out and starts involving guys, and thinks pass first, and plays better defense the magic are that much better. but unfortunately he hasnt, and therefore jwill, who is probably otis smith’s best offseason acquisition, should be starting. nobody can deny that jwill has been better. the way he gets his teammates involved, the way he always pushes the pace and looks for easy buckets, and his defense cant be a liability when you compare it to nelson’s.

Im sure SVG sees the same things, but i think he’s trying to get the so called big four in sync together, since they’ve only played like what 20-25 games together. they still are trying to gel with each other and hopefully he’ll start to get it.

i also think the wild card for the magic is pietrus. when he’s on the magic are so hard to beat.

this win proves that the magic are real contenders. i mean the way they beat the celts, who are still a team to be reckoned with despite their record, is just so revealing. they lost to the lakers, but could of won that game, if they played just a little better. they had an off vc that game, which affected their offense, since their losing his 20 points per game. but the magic are for real folks. if they can keep up that defense, they will be very tough to beat. all they need now is to get nelson back to form, not from injury but from playing awful. they need him to adjust his game and start looking for guys plain and simple. and his defense needs to improve.

The magic are fourth in points allowed, and are either first or second in field goal . whats impressive about that is that their 3pt fg % is not that good at 36. so imagine if they are just 1 % better than that, they would be by far the best in opposing fg %, but alot of that is because of howard, who by the way is looking so much better on offense lately. i feel that he’s turned a corner offensively.

What they need to do now is build on that and not be complacent. they are about 6 games back form cleveland,. if it wasnt for that 4 game losing stretch they had against losing teams like the bulls, pacers, wizards and raptors, they would have a better record. and plus those 4 games, there’s that wizards game last Friday, that pistons game in the beginning of the year where they had the whole bench trying to close out the game, that miami game where jwill missed both ft’s, and on the other end the refs didnt call that offensive cylinder interference. also the griz game where they were ahead and should of won that game, the jazz game where they were ahead by 20 and lost. the suns game where a.johnson dribbled it off pietrus foot to go out of bounds, and vc didnt play the whole second half. thats about 10 games the magic lost that they should of won. they should of at least won 7 of them. if they would of done that they would have the league’s best record. the reason why im citing this, is because their record now shouldn’t be indicative of how they really are as a team. they’ve had suspensions injuries and all of that which has slowed them down as a team. they’ve faced lots of contraversy which should make them all that better towards the end of the season and playoff time. so the magic are doing fine, and this week will be a good test to fortify their label as a contender.

have a good sunday night folks.

They don’t look lost and disinterested out there for extended periods of time. There’s obviously still some things they can work on, such as the turnovers and getting them the ball more. But there are more good things going on than bad, which is a welcome sight. Just need to get through this stretch of games before the All-Star break.

Also, I don’t know what I’m going to do if one more terrible shooting point guard turns into Craig Hodges against the Magic.