Orlando Magic 106, Sacramento Kings 102

…and also made their first four three pointers.

The Kings finished the rest of the game shooting 24 of 68 (35.3%), and 1 of 10 on three pointers.

This was the tenth time in Jameer Nelson’s career that he has made at least 11 FGs in a game, and the first time since December of 2008.

The 29 points from the Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins was a career-high, but the Magic held Jermaine Taylor to 0 points after he scored a career-high 21 points against the Magic in Orlando.

Nice job by Gilbert Arenas for playing 17 turnover-free minutes, and shooting over .500 from the field.

Here are some of his post-game comments to the media, courtesy of the Yahoo! Sports game recap:

“We played poorly. We didn’t put much into the game, got crushed on the glass. I’m not happy, but we got a win. We’ll take it and move on. We’ve said (we’ll change) a lot. We say a lot of things.”

Jameer Nelson felt the same way. Here are his comments, courtesy also of the Yahoo! Sports game recap:

“We didn’t play well. It’s getting toward the end of the year, we can’t continue to play this way and think that it’s OK. It just doesn’t change. Nobody can do it but us.”

There’s a certain fatalism in this view, shared somewhat by Van Gundy. We are who we are… at this juncture there’s not much that can be changed.

There is little defensive intensity, except for Howard… and some short bursts in the second half. The Magic are now an offensive Team. We have to accept this deal with it…

It remains to be seen IF we have an extra gear for the post-season… and how far it might take this Magic Team up that road.

Maybe this team is still trying to figure each other out. Who should take what shots, how many shots, who closes the game, etc. They have been playing together for only 3 months. Lately I have seen defined roles starting to come. Jameer closing. J Rich provide the second option. Turk distributing. I would like Turk to shoot a little more though. But roles are starting to be defined. At least we can see it. Just need to see more consistency.

The Magic should be pleased with the fact that they won, and their lock-down defense after intermission—though one wonders why it took giving up 59 points in 24 minutes to a shorthanded NBA doormat for them to start executing on that end—and with the combination of Nelson and Turkoglu playing to its potential.

This is what separates Orlando from a team like Sacramento. I’ve watched plenty of good and basketball as a fan. I’m getting pretty good at recognizing the difference. The eFG% and TOV% is exactly why Sacramento loses. If they make their bad shots consistently, they’ll beat ya. How often has that happened? Well, they ain’t 15-47 cuz they wanna be.

The difference in Orlando and Sacramento is that Orlando hit their 3’s in Sacramento where they didn’t in the first matchup. Jermaine Taylor, IMO, is a much more difficult matchup for the Magic when he’s playing well like he was than Marcus Thornton, and when Orlando adjusted in the 2nd half this showed well. I’m sure Orlando played lock down D on Thornton when they finally realized that Thornton was the only guy on the court with a dribble and perimeter game in one package. (Udrih is the other guy on the Kings. And Garcia, but his minutes are being limited right now because of his recent injury.) When the Magic realized it, it wasn’t hard to see how, without even seeing the game or how it played out (I missed the 4th qtr), I already know they did that? Wanna know how I know? I’ve seen every upper echelon team (which the Magic are even if their effort isn’t 100% consistent) turn the screws on the Kings and they’ve just wilted. Without exception. (The Kings really only beat teams when the other team beats themselves. Rarely are they just beating teams outright.)

At any rate, the Magic got a W without their best effort and Dwight fouling out. Not every win over the course of 82 will be pretty or a masterpiece. The Magic go 3-1 on this road trip, and I’d say they are successful. 2 more W’s and they have completed such a goal. That’s why they are now 3 1/2(and with a potential loss by Miami tonight 3 games) behind Miami to win the SouthEast crown. That ain’t no small potatoes considering how far the Magic were behind the Heat coming out of the All-Star break.