The Orlando Magic play their first home game in 12 days tonight when they host the Philadelphia 76ers, having just returned from a disappointing 2-3 road trip. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy wants his team to defend better, and wishes Hedo Turkoglu were more aggressive, which are reasonable requests. We'll see if the Magic can make those adjustments tonight, though Turkoglu will have his work cut out for him matched up against Andre Iguodala, among the league's finest perimeter defenders.
The 76ers' 17-23 record doesn't impress, but it's good enough for 7th place in the bottom-heavy Eastern Conference. They don't do a whole lot well, but at least Elton Brand has given them consistent production, and Jrue Holiday is roughly adequate as a starting point guard.
These two teams last met on December 18th, the day Orlando made two separate trades involving eight players. As a result, it had just 8 players of its own, and the 76ers handled the woefully shorthanded Magic pretty easily.
Quentin Richardson played 43 minutes that night. In the month since, he's appeared in five games for a total of 39 minutes. Chris Duhon logged 18 minutes against Philadelphia, but has three appearances for 13 minutes since. The trades also pressed Jason Williams and Malik Allen into duty, though it'd be unfair to do similar comparisons with those two players, given their current injuries.
2010/2011 NBA Season | ||
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17-23 (5-16 road) Won 2 | 26-15 (15-5 home) Lost 1 | |
January 19th, 2011 | ||
Amway Center | ||
7:00 PM | ||
Sun Sports | ||
Probable Starters | ||
Jrue Holiday | PG | Jameer Nelson |
Jodie Meeks | SG | Jason Richardson |
Andre Iguodala | SF | Hedo Turkoglu |
Elton Brand | PF | Brandon Bass |
Spencer Hawes | C | Dwight Howard |
Season Series | ||
December 18th: 76ers 97, Magic 89 | ||
2010/11 Advanced Stats | ||
91.3 (19th) | Pace | 92.0 (17th) |
105.2 (21st) | ORtg | 108.1 (11th) |
105.7 (14th) | DRtg | 102.5 (5th) |
Game Officials | ||
Scott Foster | ||
Matt Boland | ||
Brian Forte | ||