Orlando Magic 104, Miami Heat 100

it sucks for them that we had to have such a short preseason.

Who knows if they actually cut him though. I like Liggins. At LEAST send him to the D-league with Orton, but don’t cut him. I think they both have potential. Really liked Harper as well. Larry Hughes shocked me though to be quite honest.

after a sloppy first half, the Magic got their act together and played with the kind of heart and hustle that this team needs if it wants to do some damage in the postseason.

Nelson: I thought he was going to mail it in again tonite, but he came out strong in the 2nd half..finished with a WONDERFUL 14 and 10 game. He is a big part of this team against the Heat because of our advantage at PG and C. Hopefully he will continue to be aggressive, and set up his teammates. I have no worries about his shot, it will come back, as it did tonite in the 2nd half

J Rich: had an ok game..I wish he would drive the ball more though. I loved his allyoop tho, that was old school J rich

Q Rich: played great today…not sure what his role on this team is, but I like him as our reserve SF. Can defend well and hit the open 3

Anderson: This guy NEVER shows up against Miami or Boston,especially when he starts. I don’t get what his deal is when we play those teams. I’m guessing that we will rotate him and Big Baby as our starting PF depending on the matchup

Howard: played great as usual (first preseason game aside)..don’t need to really comment on Howard, we all know hes the franchise

Big Baby: WOOWWWW…what a great game both offensively and defensively. He can pass the ball MUCH better than Bass, and brings even more energy and intesnity, and he can rally the guys up to play better. LOVE this signing now. I hope chris brossuard analyzes the game tonite so he can finally mention big baby’s name in a positive manner.

Our rookies all played great!!! Harper and Liggins both look like they can contribute this year. Also, i LOVED Von Wafer’s aggressiveness, but I’m not sure how many mins he can play as JJ played great too and is a better overall player..but i’m glad we have more assets on this team..Orton suprised with his range, but hes still too raw to play this year in my opinion.

Finally…LARRY HUGHES NEEDS TO PLAY OVER POOHON every game..he did more in this game than Poohon has in his whole Magic career…reallly suprised me

Nice game from a lot of guys, with Davis, Howard (except for his free throws), Nelson, and J-Rich standing out. Heck, even Larry Hughes played well in his 10 minutes of action.

Nelson has a terrific 17/3 assist/turnover ratio in the two preseason games. If he can keep up a similar ratio in the regular season, that will mean good news for the Magic.

The Magic outscored Miami 84-61 from the field to more than make up for the fact that they were outscored 39-20 from the FT line.

Also nice to see the rookies getting playing time and contributing.

The only major negatives were the Magic turnovers (24) and free throw shooting (20 of 36, 55.6%).

I think I can deal with blowing it up if we lose Howard. I really enjoyed watching the young guys play. Hopefully, we can show enough talent and intensity to convince Howard to stay.

Dancing on the bench at the end

YEAH!

and if so, on who?

Needs more talk about the forearm shiver Q Rich put in LeBron’s back. Glorious

I mean the last time the Magic had a high-scoring guard who used to get paid a lot, he sucked sh-t. And our other PG is probably the league’s worse.

But it’s a decent performance for a guy who has a hate website dedicate to himself… or at least a “stop shooting” website lol.

I’d still hate to see what would happen if Dwight leaves. This means a lot less space for our three point shooters, requiring a lot more from our PGs and Hedo to create plays and not rely on Dwight getting double, triple teamed

Bulletpoints‼

• You are not going to convince me that I should want Bass on my team more than Davis. Davis showed more heart and intensity in this pre-season game than Bass has shown in his entire life.
  
• Larry Hughes.
  
• Harper looked a little small and a little lost. Both are expected when talking about a rookie who has had, what? Five practices and then is getting meaningful NBA minutes. He got pushed around under the boards a bit and definitely needs to put on weight since it seems Stan sees him as a 4.
  
• Jameer chooses to play at a level lower than he is capable of 90% of the time. And then sometimes he starts actually trying and you’re like, “why not all of the time, Jameer. WHY?!?”
  
• I think JJ is a better overall player than J-Rich at this point in their careers. And a more fierce competitor. (but give me one alley-oop dunk a game like the one J-Rich had last night and all bets are off)
  
• It was worth signing Nilla Wafer just so we have a player we can call Nilla Wafer. That dunk was the icing on the cake. Congratulations Nilla, you’ve already earned your contract.
  
• Q earned one month of me not saying anything bad about him for his shoulder block on LBJ.
  
• Ryan is as inconsistent as Hedo. Those are two of my favorite players, but, it scares me just a little having two hugely important players that you have no idea what you are going to get on any night.
  
• But seriously, Glen Davis was great tonight. I was watching him during and after the game and I was just thinking to myself, “Gawd, Dwight would love to play with that guy.” The play style, the personality, the mid-game planking. Glen Davis and Dwight Howard are one 5-year maximum pay contract extension away from being BFFs forever and ever.
  
• But even more seriously. Larry Hughes. His ball handling was sharp, his passing was crisp and led to points, his defense was excellent, he was moving well. Larry Hughes you win all of the backup PG minutes. I don’t mean to oversell one pre-season game performance. But. Larry Hughes for 6th Man of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Most likely to make Duhon retire of the Year. I love you Larry. Never change.

Now for the real stuff.

Also, how many times are we going to let this team get 20 point advantages on us before we turn on the jets? It’s getting stupid really.

The rookies looked surprisingly sharp and Big Baby had his first impacting game for the Magic. Hughes had a great game but I don’t expect too many of those. Maybe he can be like J-Will was for us a few years ago and get that second wind in his career to give us a spark at the point off the bench.

Q can be a knucklehead sometimes but I totally understand his reaction to LeBron. King James was completely disrespecting our guys and trying to bait Q-Rich which did actually work but still. Just play ball, Lebron. We know you’re an arrogant jerk. You don’t have to keep consistently proving it to us.

The thing that brought the biggest smile to my face was Jameer though. He really can be amazing sometimes. I know it’ll never last but when he’s on and engaged like that it’s really awesome to watch. Also I have to give big points to JJ who I thought played a great game and he’s really earned my complete respect over the years.

There is nothing left that others have not covered … I will add only two extra perspectives:

1 – Hughes was solid last night, and short of building too much on one game, I see plenty of potentials worth sticking with him for the long haul, even in re-building.
2 – Davis was a huge lift to the team. I am looking forward to see him – just about – double his output from BOS’ history (7 points, 4 rebounds in 21 minutes). That would be fantastic, but I would settle for a 50% uptick. The intangibles are priceless … if Dwight stays.

Only thing I’ve got to say is I like the roles Anderson and Davis are in right now. I like Ryan as the starter because when he gets going, he’s the 2nd best scorer on this team easy and even when he isn’t he brings defense and great rebounding ability, especially on the offensive end. And Glen thrives in the energy/6th Man role. He brings great things to this team and I think he plays his best in spurts then as a starting role. If SVG keeps it like this for the rest of the year, we’re going to have a great front-court and be able to run a “traditional” offense at times if need be. Can’t wait for this season to start!

I love the fact the team kept playing hard after falling behind early. Some other thought:

-I thought SVG should have drew up some different plays in the 1st qtr after the rough start. Some mid range shots might have helped. Then again, maybe he did and the team still decided to shoot more 3s.

-Larry freaking Hughes? Duhon sucks and I did not see any signs of him improving his standing as the worst Magic player of all time(5.66 PER last yr in 50 games). With a crazy season coming up, it would be best to keep Huhges as the 3rd PG.

-Harper is keeper, an ideal fit for SVG’s system. I wanted Liggins to shoot more, but he should a capable handle to bring it up court. Orton only played a few minutes, but he seems slow on defensive rotations still. Didn’t know he a jumpshot though.

-After the little dustup with QRich, did you notice LeBron shooting way more jumpshots? Teams need guys like QRich; guys who don’t give an eff. LeBron started playing exactly the way Q wanted him too, taking long jumpshots.

-Oh Jameer. When he is on, this team can really contend. He just doesn’t show up all the time. Great game though.

Fun game. Should be an interesting season.

it was how we played the game, you need talent to win championships but you also need the mindset. This is what Q-Rich said after the game about Lebron: "You put the message out there that certain things aren’t going to happen and that you’re not going to do certain things (here) the way you would do certain things everywhere else," said Richardson. "You’re not going to get a free pass because you’re the ‘King’ or whatever you’re supposed to be. You put your pants on one leg at a time just like I do." THAT IS JUST AWESOME, GO MAGIC!

All I find out is apparently Brook Lopez broke his foot last night and is going to require surgery.