UPDATED: Tonight's Game: Dallas Mavericks vs. Orlando Magic - Open Thread

by Evan Dunlap on Dec 17, 2007 8:38 AM EST in 2007/2008 Previews

	vs.
16-9		17-8
American Airlines Center
8:30 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Devin Harris	PG	Jameer Nelson
Jason Terry	SG	Keith Bogans
Josh Howard	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Dirk Nowitzki	PF	Rashard Lewis
Erick Dampier	C	Dwight Howard

Still no word on if Carlos Arroyo and Rashard Lewis will be available. If I had to guess, I'd say Carlos will be out, but Lewis will be ready.
- UPDATE: John Denton confirms that Lewis will be available tonight and will play in pain. The only way for his swollen neck to heal is through rest. The Magic don't have two straight days of rest until next Monday-Tuesday, so it may be awhile before Lewis is back in top form. Additionally, Denton's report says 55 minutes of the Magic's 70-minute practice this morning were devoted to defense. They'll have their work cut out for them against the Mavericks, who have the league's most efficient offense.
Today's Sentinel preview mentions the Magic have lost 9 straight games in Dallas. Confidence is not high: Keyon Dooling told the Sentinel's Tim Povtak, "The road has been good to us, but that's about the only thing positive thing I can say right now."
The preview also mentions that Maurice Evans or J.J. Redick might soon take Keith Bogans' starting role. I'd advise against that, though; Evans is colder offensively than Bogans is, and Redick's defense isn't going to set the tone at the beginning of games, which is what we need. Pass.
Meanwhile, John Denton's article, entitled "Are the Magic Contenders or Pretenders?", takes a look at the offensive and defensive stats from the past five games. They aren't pretty.
Seeing Juan Carlos Navarro have the game of his life against us Friday night only makes me wonder what Jason Terry will do to us.
Here's the boxscore from our last victory over the Mavs in the Lone Star State. I dare you to guess our starting lineup. No peeking!
Dallas' Erick Dampier, who is averaging 4.4 points and 6.1 rebounds this season, is third in All-Star balloting among Western Conference centers with over 100,000 votes. That's more than double the total votes that the Clippers' Chris Kaman has received, despite Kaman averaging career-best numbers in points (18.6) and rebounds (13.9).
Clips Nation is hosting the second installment of Blogger MVP and Rookie of the Year rankings. Dwight leads the former category and Kevin "Kid Delicious" Durant leads the latter. Kevin Garnett and Durant received my first-place votes in their respective categories.
Check out Mavs Moneyball, SB Nation's Mavericks site, for a view of tonight's game from a Dallas perspective.

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Hi

Thanks for providing the link to your blog over at Mavs Moneyball. I'll be stopping by here from now on...I'm a Magic fan as well as a Mavericks fan.

SVG wasn't happy with the defense tonight and that's understandable, but really, both teams weren't playing good D based on the scores. That final push was commendable. I hope they play better against the Rockets.

by Marie on Dec 17, 2007 11:40 PM EST reply actions