The Magic lead the Pistons at halftime by a score of 52-45. Huh?!
- Orlando Magic points in the first quarter: 20
- Keith Bogans and Keyon Dooling points in the second quarter: 19
To quote the late Vince Lombardi, What the Hell is going on out there?!
In a word: effort. Despite a cold-shooting first quarter, the Magic have stuck with the Pistons and forced them to miss some tough shots. On the offensive end, the Magic are getting the looks they want (for the most part) and converting. The Pistons' bench is one of the best in the league (at least in terms of plus/minus, but tonight, they haven't done much, with a combbined 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Jason Maxiell continues to kill us, though. He has 6 boards in 6:33 of playing time, and we'll need to keep him off the glass if we hope to protect this lead. Detroit is bound to make a run in the second half, and we have to be ready.
I'm fairly pleased. Holding a 7-point halftime lead over the hottest team in the league, in its own building, is impressive. Even better is the fact that we've built this lead with Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu shooting poorly; each is 2-of-7 from the field and each has had two of his shots blocked.
Odd note from the first half: Keyon Dooling was called for a blocking foul as Tayshaun Prince barreled into him in transition, but the call was reversed, resulting in a Magic possession. I've never seen a foul-call overruled like that before. Nice that we were the beneficiary of that whistle. Too bad it resulted in a turnover.