Orlando Magic 123, New Orleans Hornets 117: The Morning After

• Vince Carter had his best performance as a Magic player --- and one of the best of his career with a 48-point effort against the New Orleans Hornets
  Brian Schmitz notes that Vince Carter had his best performance as an Orlando Magic player.

  Vince Carter said he'd be a new man in February.
  
  Carter wasn't only a new man on Monday night at Amway Arena. He reinvented his legend, scoring 48 points to lead the Orlando Magic in a 123-117 comeback victory against the New Orleans Hornets.
  
  Carter, who struggled through a forgettable January slump, hit 19-of-27 shots and six 3-pointers in his first signature performance since signing with the Magic, his boyhood team, last summer.
  
  It takes a lot to overshadow Dwight Howard. Howard had a monster game, too, with 25 points and 12 rebounds, but it was a night for Vinsanity.

• Hornets rookie Darren Collison scores 27 points and records 9 assists, but the Magic slow him in the 2nd half
  Josh Robbins states that Darren Collison, the New Orleans Hornets' rookie point guard, played a little bit like Chris Paul.

  They were coming off of a draining win Sunday afternoon in Boston, while the Hornets hadn't played since Saturday. Nelson missed a game last week because of a hyperextended left knee, and Williams is 34 years old and has had looked fatigued in some second games of back-to-backs this season.
  
  Yet Collison's big night was anything but an anomaly for him. He entered Monday averaging 15.5 points and 7.7 assists per game in his 13 games this season as a starter.
  
  On Monday, he produced yet again.
  
  But the Hornets didn't produce the final result they wanted.

• Denton: Magic-Hornets Postgame Analysis
  John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com mentions that the month of February, after his slump in January, has allowed Carter to hit the reset button and start from scratch.

  Now this is the Vince Carter that the Orlando Magic thought they were trading for all along, the Vince Carter they thought could give them an unstoppable, unflappable scorer on the wing.
  
  Carter promised when January turned to February that he would be re-inventing himself as a player and a leader. And after his latest spectacular showing – a 48-point effort masterpiece with 34 in the second half and 18 in the fourth quarter – he looks very much true to his word, if not re-born from the player who just recently turned 33 years old. [...]
  
  Carter had it rolling so much so that his teammates seemed to enjoy the performance as much as the 17,461 fans inside the arena did. Each Carter basket brought his teammates up off the bench and during one timeout Matt Barnes faked fanning him to cool him off.
  
  ``I thought it was Vinsanity out there tonight,’’ said Howard, referring to Carter’s nickname from earlier in his basketball life.
  
  Nelson said during one particular stretch of the second half he personally called Carter’s number on six consecutive possessions. Said Nelson: ``And he scored six times in a row. He’s here to score and that’s what he did.’’

More after the jump.

• Denton: Magic-Hornets Notes
  Denton writes about the history between head coach Stan Van Gundy and head coach/general manager Jeff Bower.

• The Magic beat the Hornets
  Niall Doherty of Hornets247 comments on why the Hornets were able to jump out to an early lead against the Magic in the first half of last night's game.

  As much credit as New Orleans deserves for hanging with a tough team like Orlando tonight, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the ridiculously hot shooting by the Hornets (especially in the first half), as well as the lackadaisical effort by the Magic coming off their big win in Boston yesterday. The Hornets played about as well as they could, but it still wasn't enough to beat a Magic team playing far from their best.

• Vinsane Asylum
  Dime Magazine breaks down Carter's epic performance.

• Vinsanity Returns Again in Orlando
  Tim Povtak of NBA FanHouse remarks that Vinsanity was back, at least for one evening.

  "That was Vinsanity tonight,'' said Magic center Dwight Howard. "When he's aggressive, attacking like he was tonight, it opens things up for everyone. When he's doing that, opponents have to pick their poison.'' [...]
  
  "It's been awhile since I've done something like this,'' Carter said. "The older you get, the more special these (games) are. But I'm capable of scoring. I can still play. We've just got so many weapons that it's not always what we need here.'' [...]
  
  "You're not going to see this very often from anyone,'' Van Gundy said. "In this league, you can see great plays, great players every night, but it's not very often you see a performance like this. This is one you can talk about years later.''

• Baseline to Baseline
  Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk chimes in on Orlando's win against New Orleans.

  Game of the night because in the third quarter, the 2005 NBA Live version of Vince Carter showed up and took over. Gone was settling-for-jumpers Carter, replaced by the-rim-is-scared-of-me Carter. Vince dropped 48 on 70% shooting (6 of 10 from three), most of that in the second half. He hit circus shots with defenders draped on him. This is two good games in a row for Carter -- not a full blown trend yet, but if it becomes one the Magic just got a lot more scary.

• Vince Carter Went NOVA… /sigh
  Zach Harper of Hardwood Paroxysm asserts that watching Carter go nova is a double-edged sword for those who watch him play.

• Three Thoughts after Magic's 123-117 Win over Hornets

  Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily analyzes Orlando's inconsistent bench production and attempts to figure out the root of the problem.