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Wednesday night was to be the opening night of the Orlando Magic's season; they were slated to host the Charlotte Bobcats at 7 PM. But due to the ongoing NBA lockout, the entire November schedule has been scrapped, and nobody knows for sure if and when the 2011/12 NBA season will tip off.

But that doesn't mean we can't imagine how the season might have gone. Using the Strat-O-Matic system, Bradford Doolittle of Basketball Prospectus has simulated the games the lockout wiped away. And in this simulation, Orlando's opening night ended in a 90-86 defeat. Corey Maggette scored 27, including the clinching free throws, in his Bobcats debut. Foul trouble limited Magic center Dwight Howard to 12 points and five boards in 20 minutes. With Howard sidelined, Orlando relied on Jason Richardson (20 points), Brandon Bass (16), and J.J. Redick (15) for offense. In his first game since rehabilitating his surgically repaired left knee over the summer, Gilbert Arenas came off the Magic's bench and contributed five points (1-of-6 shooting) and two assists.

At SB Nation sister site Rufus on Fire, Ben Swanson posts his whimsical game recap. Orlando prevailed, 99-79, in quintuple overtime. I'll let you click on over to learn just how.

Ted Williams famously said, "baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer." In basketball, we hold shooters to a higher standard than baseball holds its hitters. A hitter with a .300 average earns our respect; a hoopster shooting 30 percent earns jeers and comparisons to Jannero Pargo, or Gilbert Arenas of recent vintage.

Funny thing, though: the Orlando Magic have had to make do with their players posting field-goal percentages that look more like batting averages so far against the Atlanta Hawks in the 2011 NBA Playoffs. Aside from star center Dwight Howard, the team has combined to shoot 30.5 percent from the field. And aside from Jameer Nelson, Orlando has struggled to connect from three-point range, going 7-of-35 (20 percent) from beyond the arc.

Indeed, the Magic's three-point shooting stands right at the Mendoza Line. Basketball enthusiasts might have to rename it the Turkoglu Line when this series is over, as Hedo Turkoglu is 2-of-11 from deep in this series.

Howard leads the team with 71.4 percent shooting in these playoffs. Nelson ranks second, at 42.4 percent, followed by Arenas and his robust (by his standards) 37.5 percent figure. The six remaining players on the team are shooting 33.3 percent or worse.

All this sounds very bleak, and Josh Robbins is right to assert the Magic's poor offense against the Hawks is a pattern. Still, the team managed to split the first two games of this series despite shooting like the Pittsburgh Pirates hit. That they aren't down, 2-0, already has to give the team some measure of confidence heading back to Atlanta for Friday's Game Three.

The Orlando Magic take on the NBA-worst Cleveland Cavaliers this evening for a chance to earn their third straight win, but they also have a chance to end a quirky streak: they've lost each of their last five games played on a Monday. Indeed, their last victory on a Monday was January 3rd against the Golden State Warriors, the night Hedo Turkoglu picked up his only triple-double of the season.

The Magic own a 4-8 record (.333) on Mondays this season, compared to 40-18 (.690) on all other days. Twelve games is hardly a meaningful sample from which to draw data--this post is really just for fun--but it does seem strange that Orlando rarely brings its best game on the first night of the week. Among their notable Monday losses:

• December 6th vs. Atlanta Hawks: Orlando mustered only 74 points in this contest, its second-lowest total of the season, in setting the sport back five decades against a mediocre-at-best Hawks team. Dwight Howard is the only Magic starter that night still in the playing rotation, as Quentin Richardson and Chris Duhon have moved to spot duty, while Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis were traded less than two weeks later.

• January 24th vs. Detroit Pistons: The Pistons' trio of lanky scoring forwards Tayshaun Prince, Tracy McGrady, and Austin Daye ripped into the Magic for 20 points apiece in what has to rank among the most inexplicable defeats during Stan Van Gundy's tenure coaching the Magic. Detroit, which stood at 17-27 going into the game, built a 10-point halftime lead in the Magic's gym, and only a 31-point fourth quarter from the hosts made the final score look less awful. Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, the Magic's starting wings, scored 10 points on 5-of-19 shooting.

• January 31st at Memphis Grizzlies: Another poor defensive outing by Orlando in this game, as it allowed Grizzlies point guard Michael Conley to run roughshod over it. The fourth-year pro shot 9-of-14 for 26 points while adding 11 assists and 2 steals in arguably the best all-around performance of his career. Worse, the Grizzlies put the game away in the third quarter, doubling the Magic up by a 32-16 margin. The Magic connected on just 8 of their 32 three-point tries.

• March 14th at L.A. Lakers: The Magic visited the two-time defending champions and wound up placing all five of their starters in double figures, with Brandon Bass adding 9 off the bench, which are great indicators on their own. But the Lakers outgunned the Magic, 56-38, in the second half. Howard committed thrice as many turnovers (9) as the Lakers did as a team.

Should the Magic somehow manage to lose tonight--and if they're ever going to lose to a team as miserable as Cleveland, it'd be on a Monday--they'll have just two more chances to end their odd losing streak: March 28th at the New York Knicks and April 11th at the Philadelphia 76ers in the season's penultimate game.

At 6-foot-11 and 270 pounds, with incredible leaping ability, the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard is arguably the NBA's foremost physical specimen. As he plays on the interior, he's often in position to mix it up with other players, be they friend or foe. Anytime NBA-caliber athletes are confined in such a small space, they're liable to get hurt anyway. Adding Howard only raises the stakes.

Marcin Gortat, the Phoenix Suns center who played with Howard for three-plus seasons in Orlando, told SB Nation's Seth Pollack "you can end up in the hospital" if you aren't "prepared" to face Howard inside. Given his history with Howard, Gortat would know. Here's a list of five players whom Howard has inadvertently harmed just because he's so darn huge.

• Tony Battie

  Howard robbed Battie, his best friend, of his entire 2007/08 season just weeks before training camp. Battie tore the labrum in his left shoulder trying to defend Howard in the low post and underwent surgery prior to the start of the season. Battie returned for the 2008/09 campaign.

• Jameer Nelson

  In a Nov. 6, 2007 practice, Nelson collided with Howard's elbow, giving him a concussion. He played the next night gainst the Toronto Raptors and tallied 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. To combat the effects of the concussion, Nelson began wearing a mouthguard, which he continues to do to this day.

• Brian Cook

  Acquired from the L.A. Lakers in a midseason trade, Cook took the minutes that would have otherwise gone to Battie. But on April Fool's Day, Howard tried blocking a shot from Cook in practice and instead broke the middle finger on Cook's right (shooting) hand. He didn't play the rest of the season, but did appear in 21 games for the Magic in 2008/09 before they dealt him to the Houston Rockets at the trading deadline.

• Courtney Lee

  Lee made quite an impression throughout the league in his rookie campaign, in which he progressed from playing spot-minutes off the bench to starting in the NBA Finals. But an elbow from Howard cost Lee three games in the playoffs. Both players tried rebounding a Philadelphia 76ers miss in Game 5 of their first-round series. Howard got the board, but Lee got Howard's elbow and a fractured sinus. After surgery, he returned to the floor--sporting a protective facemask--ten days later.

• Derrick Rose

  The lone opponent of Howard's on this list, Rose twice collided with the behemoth in separate games against the Magic last season. On February 10th, he lasted just 2:24 before absorbing a hard foul from Howard at the basket in a game the Magic went on to win by 20. One month later, he played the first quarter only due to injuring his left wrist once again trying to score against Howard at the basket. Orlando won this contest by a 19-point margin. Rose missed the Bulls' next three games.

If you squint, you've got a wacky smallball lineup I'm sure Don Nelson would love to coach listed above. And they have hard hits from Howard in common.

Continue reading this post »

Orlando Pinstriped Post is pleased to team with EA Sports for a giveaway featuring NBA Jam for the iPhone or iTouch devices. Here's the trailer for the game:

The game is available for download at the App Store, located here.

All you need to do to be eligible to win is comment on this post. I'll select a winner at random over the weekend. Before entering for your chance to win, please familiarize yourself with the legal rules. I will contact the winner via email.

Please note that this giveaway is for iPhone and iTouch versions of the game, not the iPad.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy All-Star Weekend, and good luck with the contest.

Last night, in an otherwise forgettable mid-February game between two teams heading in opposite directions, Washington Wizards guard Kirk Hinrich provided a hilarious highlight-reel play when he crossed over Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick so sharply he sent Redick sprawling to the court on his backside, prompting Redick to feebly grab Hinrich's ankles as he drove by. The play drew gasps and laughs from the Amway Center crowd, while Redick's Magic teammates struggled to contain their laughter from the bench and on the court.

Yahoo! Sports' Ball Don't Lie blog has video of the play and the Magic's reaction; keep watching until the end of the clip, when Magic point guards Jameer Nelson and Chris Duhon re-enact the play from the sidelines during a timeout.

The play had the Ball Don't Lie crew of Kelly Dwyer, Dan Devine, and Eric Freeman searching for AND1 mixtape-caliber nicknames for the two players; my personal favorite is Freeman's "Chamomile Thunder," though Freeman himself prefers "Pressed Slacks Attack" and "Musket."

Additionally, the Orlando Sentinel's Jacob Langston snapped a great photo of Redick on his rear-end during the play, which Langston's Sentinel colleague Josh Robbins supplemented with video of Magic center Dwight Howard talking about it in the post-game locker room.

If nothing else, the hubbub around Hinrich's ankle-breaking move shows there's always a reason to flip on any NBA game, no matter how ugly the score, or caliber of teams involved, suggests it might be. Dwyer admits he "miss[ed]" the play while he "jumped from game to game" last night, for example. Luckily, we have Twitter and the basketblogosphere to help us get caught up.

In case you're curious, Orlando topped Washington, 101-76. The Magic led by 25 at the time of the play.