Orlando Magic 99, Milwaukee Bucks 82: The Morning After

Tim Povtak of NBA FanHouse wonders if the presence of a former mentor helped break Vince Carter out of his month-long shooting slump.

Maybe it was the arrival this week in Orlando of Lawrence Frank, who coached Carter for more than four years in New Jersey, that sparked his return to form.

Frank, as the invited guest of [Stan] Van Gundy, spoke briefly with Carter Tuesday morning, then watched the game from the stands. He declined after the game to talk publicly about Carter, or anything that was said between them.

Brian Schmitz and Josh Robbins have more details of Frank's visit, including Van Gundy's staunch denial ("No, no, no, no, no, no,") that he invited Frank down simply to work with and observe Carter during the slump. Van Gundy invited Frank a while ago, but he wasn't available to visit until now.

Schmitz lists a few people who got in touch with Carter to encourage him during his slump.

His high school coach, his mother, former Nets teammate Keyon Dooling, …they all offered support. [Rashard] Lewis told him on the bench during the Detroit game to keep shooting no matter how many clang off the rim and reiterated the feeling on the bus ride to the airport.

Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked Bucks center Kurt Thomas how Orlando got back into the game after falling behind, 20-8. It has a lot to do with Dwight Howard.

"Even though they were down, they did not get frustrated and stuck to the game plan," said Bucks backup center Kurt Thomas. "Even though the big fella (Howard) was in foul trouble, they really shared the ball with each other and shared the ball from three-point range very well. Then they pounded it inside and got offensive rebounds and putbacks."

John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com writes that we shouldn't overlook J.J. Redick's performance.

With confidence seemingly oozing out of his every pore, Redick continued his streak of torrid shooting.

He made four of five shots and three of four 3-pointers. Defenses respect his shot so much so now that he got fouled on yet another 3-point attempt and got to the free throw line for three attempts.

Redick scored 15 points on 104.2% True Shooting.

Alex Boeder of BrewHoop noticed something curious in last night's boxscore.

Orlando shot a better, much better, on threes (.562) than Milwaukee did at the free throw line (.474). Oh, dear.

Andrew Melnick of Howard the Dunk provides notes and quotes from Orlando's victory. Gotta love Van Gundy's appraisal of his team's free throw defense. No, really.