After the butt whooping we received in Game 3, the Magic had to come out and really give it their all. Toronto started the first period hot, but so did the Magic. Rashard and Jameer had some struggles in the first period, but that doesn't matter. We have Dwight. He absolutely played amazing in the first quarter. After just 12 minutes of play, he already had a stat line looking something like this: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks. :O Wow! 4 blocks in the first quarter for him and he didn't stop there. Dwight finished the game with a total of 8 blocks. Wow thats what we need from Dwight. And to think he finished 8th in DPOY voting. Lame. Dwight also added 19 points, 16 rebounds but went 1-6 from the free throw line. Howard finished 1-for-6 from the free throw line and has gone 9-for-23 since a 9-for-11 showing in Game 1.
No matter what happens from here on out, this game was huge for this franchise and you have to like this teams chances. Especially going back home and able to put the Raptors to sleep once and for all. But... we can't get ahead of ourselves.
Even the Raptors know they are still in it until they are sitting at home watching us in the 2nd round. “It’s not over yet,” Ford said. “It’s the first one to four. We got ourselves in a hole and we just have to continue to stay positive.”
Like I said earlier, not just in the first quarter but also the second and third. But he still did not let that stop him. In the fourth quarter, when we see Turk, Rashard, or Dwight step up, Nelson took over. To get the big contribution from Nelson, especially after the night he was having, was a surprise. His first shot was an 18-foot jumper that made it 80-80. He followed with two 3-pointers and a 16-footer.
Point guards always dribble a fine line between making things happen and forcing them. Nelson had gotten tentative, then something kicked in. "Sometimes you start to feel it," Nelson said. "I started feeling it in the fourth quarter. I hit a couple of big shots and teammates started looking for me. When you make shots your confidence goes up."
"Jameer Nelson, he just got hot," Chris Bosh said. "He really hadn't shot like that the whole series. He made a couple of easy shots, and by that time I guess the basket looked a little bit bigger to him."
Jameer finished with 19 points and 5 assists. Rashard Lewis shook of a bad start and put up a huge stat line. He finished the game leading the Magic with 27 points, and added 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and a block.
For tonight's game, instead of continuing the downward trend in this series, we came out to play. In Game 1 we destroyed them, Game 2 could have easily gone their way, Game 3 did. We went from great to ok, then quickly to horrible. But then yesterday we changed all that. We bucked the trend you could say. Thats huge for this team and these guys. After we wrap up this series (hopefully Monday), the Magic can use this series to build upon for the future. They really fought hard and put in the effort needed to move on. Even if we don't win in the second round, still, they learned a lot and gained much experience. And thats well worth it for a young team. No matter what this season was an overwhelming success.
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