Orlando Magic 113, Golden State Warriors 81

Led by Jameer Nelson, the Orlando Magic defeated the Golden State Warriors, 113-81, on Monday night. Nelson set an Amway Arena record for field goals made without a miss, shooting 9-of-9 from the field for 22 points. He added 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 beautiful steal, and 1 turnover. His offensive performance mitigated Dwight Howard's pedestrian one. Howard shot just 4-of-11 from the field and 3-of-8 from the foul line for 11 points.

There isn't much to say about this one, but he we go anyway:

• Jameer Nelson received a rousing ovation from the crowd, and some friendly ribbing from his teammates, when P.A. announcer Paul Porter announced his winning the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Moments later, at the captains meeting at midcourt, one of the game officials slapped him on the behind in congratulations.

• I want to be clear on Nelson's hot shooting: it's not flukey. He's not getting lucky bounces, friendly rolls, whatever you want to call them; nor is he taking bad shots and somehow making them. All of his shots, whether they be treys or layups, come within the flow of the offense, and they seldom touch anything but the net. I'm not sure what else he has to do to earn your All-Star vote, folks.

• He earned 31 votes from me tonight, as I spent time before the game and at halftime punching ballots.

• Yes, I also voted for Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and Dwight Howard 31 times each.

• I missed what was apparently a spectacular Howard slam during pre-game warmups because I was having difficulty punching a ballot for Carmelo Anthony. Maybe this is some divine power's way of punishing me for voting for him. Or maybe I should just pay more attention.

• Orlando did a great job preventing Golden State from getting many transition points. Fast-break defense has been one of the Magic's weaknesses this season, but tonight they did a better job a) indicating which Warrior needed to get picked up and b) closing out on said player.

• It took him until late December, but Courtney Lee finally made a defensive mistake. During the Warriors' second-quarter surge, Lee gambled for a steal attempt, and missed. Badly. Jameer Nelson had to leave his man, Jamal Crawford, in the left corner to cover for Lee. Brandan Wright swung the ball to Crawford, who canned the three-pointer. Oops.

• Keith Bogans was a frigid 0-of-7 from the field. 5 of those attempts were three-pointers, and as I recall each one was wide-open and from a corner. Courtney Lee made both of his three-pointers from similar spots off similar plays. If Bogans keeps killing possessions by missing shots--they're good shots, they just aren't falling--then Stan Van Gundy is really going to have to consider giving more minutes to Lee.

• Speaking of Lee, he received 92% of the fan vote for Subway Sub of the Game.

• The sub everyone in Orlando wants to see, J.J. Redick, got off the bench for garbage time to a rousing ovation. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Magic's lead in the upper-20s, a few fans in the upper bowl earnestly started chanting, "We want J.J.!" The chant made its way around the arena, and Van Gundy relented by subbing Redick in with Orlando's lead at 31.

• Redick was booed when he passed up an open three-point attempt.

• The official who whistled Redick for stepping on out of bounds before making a three-pointer also heard it from the crowd.

• The loudest booing was reserved for Warriors forward Anthony Randolph, who had the gall to stuff J.J. on a jump-shot attempt, recover the loose ball, and go end-to-end for a monster jam. Yup, boo the rookie who's playing his heart out in a 32-point loss.

• I have video of some of the garbage-time action, by the way. Maybe I'll post it. Not a priority now, though.

• Mickael Pietrus was really eager to take it to his former team tonight. He took 12 shots in 18 minutes, making 5. He finished with 14 points. His line would have been much more efficient had he not shot 1-of-6 during the last 6 minutes of the game.

• I can't think of a better time for Pietrus to hog the ball, though. Lead in the high-20s/low-30s, game winding down, playing against his former team coached by a man with whom he feuded... sounds about right. Too bad he didn't connect on those last few shots there.

• Adonal Foyle played in only his 5th game of the season. I hope I've made it clear in posts here previously that I do indeed like Adonal... but I like him a lot more as the Magic's fourth center instead of, you know, second, as he was last year.

On a sad note, I'll add that Foyle was only active because Brian Cook left the team yesterday to see his ailing father, who had been placed on life support. Brian did not make it home in time to see his father before he passed away. Our thoughts are with Brian and his family. The Magic do not know when to expect him back.

Orlando next faces the New Orleans Hornets on Christmas Day.