What a day! What a game! That was insane! I went to the game today and the whole place was sooo loud from the get go. The crowd was so into it. The 6th man really played a huge part in today's game. The Magic's PR staff really did well today by giving out blue shirts for one half of the arena, and white shirts for the other half. That move really gave the arena a more "togetherness". There were some unlucky Raptors fans there. One Raptors fan near the section I was in, had one of those annoying horn things. Everytime Dwight Howard went to the free throw line, he would press the horn. After about the first or second time people started hurling insults and threats against him. Serves the guy right. Magic fans were telling the ushers to throw him out and trying to get a bunch of fans to jump him after the game. It was all in good fun but what person in their right mind would come to a playoff game dressed in the enemy colors??
Well back to the game... Dwight is a monster, what else can I say? He was a little quiet at first, so I'm sure during timeouts and at halftime, Coach told him to get more aggressive. He did just that, ending with 25 points, 22 rebounds, and 5 blocks! What a performance! He's amazing. Just seeing him step out and hit a jump shot gave me glimpses of the future yet to come. I also saw the future through my crystal ball when I witnessed D12 hit free throw after free throw. In all he hit 9 of the 11 free throws he took, in game one. Thats 82%. Even if Dwight "upped" his free throw percentage a little bit, his points per game would jump drastically. No matter what, just by witnessing this playoff performance today, I know he has potential off the charts.
Jameer played just about the best game of his young career. I can't say that enough. I don't know how many other performances we will see, like this one.. But I do know that he did not just outplay Ford. He demolished him. He destroyed him. He showed who needs to worry about who. Nelson has the potential to play great on offense and defense like we saw tonight. He finished with 24 points, 7 assists, hit 2 three-pointers, and went 8-8 from the free throw line. Ford ended with 5 points, 6 assists.
Mo Evans was the star in the first quarter hitting 3 threes, en route to 11 points. He finished with fourteen, after distributing to the other guys after his hot start. Turk came up big with 21, 6 rebounds, 6 assists. He had the task of handling the ball frequently and did a good job as the makeshift point guard at times. Lewis hit 3 threes and had 13 points in the game. He mostly camped out at the three point line, and I would like to see him drive to the hoop more. But all that is excused because of the great defense he played against Chris Bosh. 13 of Bosh's 21 points came from the free throw line. Lewis "let" him score only 4 buckets, which equals 8 points. That's great defense on Lewis' part. Dooling played great off the bench with 10 points.
The Anthony Parker & Jason Kapono outside shooting duo killed us. We have to body up on them. The only fortunate thing to those two doubling up for 42 points is that we forced the Raptors to take outside shots. They made a good amount, but those shots will not always fall. This is all due to Dwight's outstanding job on the defensive end. Every time a Raptors player came in the lane D12 was there to block the shot or send them packing in the other direction. Even his goaltending one shot sent the message that "nothing is allowed in my house".
Game 2 is Tuesday 4/22 at Amway Arena. Tip off is at 7:30 on Sun Sports.
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