Not much time for commentary on today's Orlando Magic news, as I'm busy putting stuff together for the Magic's forthcoming playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. You can see some of that today on Yahoo! Sports' Ball Don't Lie, where Sixers blog Liberty Ballers and I offered our takes on the series.
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Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu should be healthy in time for the playoffs, but made no guarantees. From the Associated Press:
"I think he will be ready, and I hope he will be, but I just don't know at this point," Van Gundy said. "I think they'll be out there, I do. But until it's game time and they're out there, I don't know for sure."
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Tomorrow will be Blue & White Ignite Day in Orlando. That's not figurative; Mayor Buddy Dyer is making it official. Details on that, and more playoff festivities, here.
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In his blog, Dwight Howard responds to Sports Illustrated's feature article (more about that here) about him and his easygoing nature:
I'm going to smile and have fun, but at the same time I'm still going to dunk on you.
All the other goodies after the jump.
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Neil Paine takes an in-depth look at the Magic at Basketball-Reference. You can bet that link will be part of 3QC's larger playoff preview.
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Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett will likely miss the entire postseason. My colleague erivera7 has a rundown of all the relevant links here.
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The fellas at NBA FanHouse voted Howard the league's Defensive Player of the Year, and Stan Van Gundy the Coach of the Year.
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L.A. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson told SI's Dan Patrick that, were he starting an NBA team from scratch, he'd select Howard over LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul...
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...to which Dime Magazine responds, "Say what?!"
- Congratulations are in order to the folks at The Puns Are Starting to Bore Me, who recently migrated to the Bloguin network.
- Brian Schmitz comments on what needs to happen for the Sixers to upset the Magic in the first round of the Playoffs. This bit made me chuckle:
[...] the Sixers have a puncher's chance (sorry, another bad Rocky pun) if ...
1. Superman is kidnapped by the Joker or the Penguin.
UPDATE: ER here, with a late night link for your reading pleasure.