Orlando Magic 117, Golden State Warriors 109

We need a perimeter defender though. I would like to see Liggins get some spot minutes guarding the all star guards in the league because J Rich and JJ can’t keep up, and I’m not so sure about Wafer either. But I do like Wafer’s game a lot, and am looking forward to seeing him get more PT with J Rich out.

With such a logjam at the SG position, I wonder if we could trade either JJ or J Rich for a good defending SG (Lee, Ariza, Stephen Jackson) or for a backup PG (Andre Miller…who would start, and we could make Nelson our 6th man)

Also, hopefully we can use our MLE to get a backup C

A sprained knee at Richardson’s age is baaaaaaaaaaad news, but this shakes up the backcourt like I was so desperately hoping for

Wondering who will get the start for the next game between Q. Rich, Redick, and Wafer

Good Win none-the-less.PER D really needs to get fixed and quickly. Penetration was way too easy.We can’t always drive them to dwight otherwise many open shots. Dwight breaking the FT record. Great for him. Also open 3’s are good. but i wish they would stop shooting 3’s with a man right in there face with 13 seconds on the shotclock. clutch shooting at the end. so on to the next game

but reading about it this morning, wow. Just wow. On a back to back too.

is a huge downgrade from Richardson or Redick. I hope JRich comes back soon.

As frustrating as this team is to watch at times, it’s good to see that we can hang in there and get wins. I hope they continue to work on build that toughness & endurance for the playoffs.

Plus with three days rest and a potentially missing Carmelo, the Magic have a good chance to make it 4-0 for the trip.

D12’s 45 point, 23 rebound, 4 steal game was the first time since Charles Barkley in 1988 that a player has scored 40+ points along with 20+ rebounds and 4+steals in a game.

The Magic’s 55 free throw attempts as a team tied for the second-most free throws they have shot in a game in franchise history.

The Magic had their best offensive quarter of the season in the fourth quarter, as they shot 11 of 14 (78.6%) from the field, 4 of 6 (66.7%) on threes, and 11 of 15 from the free throw line good for 37 points.

The Warriors shot over 50% from the field in three of the four quarters.

The Magic shot 11 of 23 on three pointers, and are now shooting 40.9% on the season from long range.

From now on can we refer to the Hack-a-Dwight as the Smite-a-Dwight?

I was able to sit directly behind the Magic bench for the 3rd straight year and here are some of my observations (though more may come to me later).

1. I certainly saw far more leadership from Dwight throughout the game. Especially as things tightened up in the 4th quarter he would pull the team together in the huddle before returning to the floor with various words of encouragement or pleas to stick together and play their game, etc. He definitely seemed to be having a good, close time with players on the floor.

2. SVG was definitely far less vocally negative with the players on the bench. He was certainly exasperated (especially in the first half) complaining about the team not doing any of the things they talked about in practice on defense. A couple of times he (rightly) got on Von Wafer for not forcing Ellis to the middle of the floor on a break.

3. In the 4th quarter, after the big block on Robinson, the Warriors threw it out of bounds from the top of the key. I couldn’t see the start of the pass well, but the ball was awarded to Golden State and SVG was all over the ref about the call. After several seconds of this Dwight hollered at Stan from the field that Davis said he touched the ball on the pass and that shut Van Gundy up. It was difficult to read much into it, but it was definitely interesting that Dwight was essentially telling SVG to give it a rest with the official.

4. Talking with people in the stands, Orton seemed quite exasperated to be in a suit and not playing. On the subject he seemed far from gruntled.

5. QRich is a crazy awesome cheerleader. The stuff he says and way he gets into it is pretty awesome to see. Some fans were heckling him and the team about Dwight leaving and he would make some comments back. The ushers said they usually tell the players to stop that sort of stuff, but since the fans started it, they let it go.

6. Glen Davis is a trip. Some fans were also heckling him and he would give it back (in a joking, defusing way – not an aggressive dickish way). During timeouts when he wasn’t in the huddle he was very likely to be just drinking something and making faces at the crowd. After the dagger 3 when the fans started rushing towards the exits he stood shaking hands and saying “Goodbye. Thanks for coming. Drive safely” to a good 30 different people. It’s hard to explain how it comes off, but it is oddly endearing and his enthusiasm is infectious.