Magic in Playoff Guessing Game

It looks as if we won't be knowing who our first round matchup will be against. Were basically "stuck" in the #3 seed and now its just a guessing game to see who we will play. Washington, Philadelphia, and Toronto are all jockeying for position an the final 6th, 7th, and 8th seeds.

The Magic used to be lined up with the Wizards, then the Sixers and now its the Raptors at the #6 seed. So its anybody's guess who will end up there.

"This could go right to the end," said Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy. "So at this point, I don't think we can worry about one team." So, instead of preparing for just one team in a playoff matchup, he has his assistants preparing for 3 different teams. All that while still doing the normal preparations for the 8 remaining regular season games.

"We'll go back in a couple weeks and see if the picture is any clearer," Van Gundy said. "But it might still look the same." Van Gundy and staff have a lot to prepare for when the first round playoffs start at Amway Arena on April 20.

Good new is that the Magic have already shown they can beat any of those three teams, finishing 3-1 against the Sixers and 2-1 against the Raptors. We are 2-1 against Washington, playing the Wizards one more time on the last day of the regular season.

The Wizards definitley have the toughest remaining schedule, with 6 of their remaining 10 games against +.500 teams. The Raptors have the easiest of the remaining schedules. Only two of their final 10 games are against teams above .500. The 76ers play four of their remaining nine games against teams with winning records.

"At this point, we just need to focus on ourselves, regardless of who we see in the playoffs," Van Gundy said. "And I know what we need to do to get better."

Magic Go on to Easy Win 103-86

The Magic started well and ended well. Hot shooting and high scoring. Good 'D' on the Bucks kept their scorers at bay. Arroyo played well in the starting role; he looked very poised and comfortable leading with the rock.

In the first quarter the Magic started strong and led by a good margin (by 17 at one point). The Bucks took a timeout and they came back in the game, after we led by 10+. But, Dwight was too much as Ruffin, Voskuhl, and Gadzuric all had at least 2 fouls. By the end of the first quarter dwight had shot 10 free throws and we led by eleven - 34 to 23.

The second quarter was a showcase of more horrible defense on the Bucks side of the ball and it didn't help that they shot 39% after the first two quarters. The Magic only had 4 TOs in the first half and Dwight already had 17 points in his first 18 minutes. Also, in the first half Dwight shot 11-14 free throws, yet he averages 11 shot per game (which leads the league). The Cookie Monster showed up big with 12 points, and Carlos again distributed the rock well with 4 assists and no turnovers. We led 60-43 after the first two quarters.

The third quarter was not home to a Third Quarter Collapse in tonight's game. We continued great defense on the Bucks and Arroyo continued his superb ball handling and distributing. There were lots of easy shots for the Magic as we continued to up our lead to over 20. Arroyo even hit a buzzer-beating 3 pointer to close out the third. We led by 24 after three, 87 to 63.

The fourth brought the end of Dwight Howard's easy routine night with 25 points, 11 boards and 2 blocks. We had a J.J and Gortat sighting for about 3 minutes each. Redick had 6 points on 3-3 shooting and Marcin did just about nothing in his short stint.

The Magic ended up destroying the lowly Bucks 103-86 and securing a new franchise record 24 road victories. The Magic hit over 5 threes for the 74th straight game. Rashard has been rebounding very well the last 10 games, averaging 7 boards, which he also had tonight along with 16 points. Hedo added 12 and didn't shoot particularly well, due to his wrist injury. Arroyo had 13 points and 9 assists; Mo added 10 and 6. The Bucks shot a crazy 102 shots and made 34% for the game while the Magic only shot 79 field goals, making 44%. The Magic were also 10-28 (36%) from the three point line. Normally if a team wins the rebounding statistic, they win the game. That wasn't so tonight as the Bucks had 59 rebounds to our 44, which was because we allowed them to get 25 offensive rebounds.

Your Magic get 3 days off before facing the New Orleans Hornets at home tuesday night. Also, the annual Black Tie and Tennies Gala is being held this Saturday at the JW Marriott-Grande Lakes. This event benefits the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation and the 2007 Gala raised more than $500,000!

Tonight's Game: Magic @ Bucks

Magic (46-27) vs. Bucks (24-46)

Sun Sports
Bradley Center
8:30 PM

Probable Lineups:
Howard C Bogut
Lewis PF Villanueva
Turkoglu SF Mason
Evans SG Redd
Arroyo PG Williams

Even though the Bucks are underachieving, the Magic can't let their guard down again. These two teams faced off in December, and the Bucks blew us out of their building. Michael Redd was only 1 assist shy of a triple-double as he led the Bucks to a huge win against the then 16-6 Magic.

Now with some extra time to get some much needed rest, the Magic will try to win their 24th road game of the season tonight. Orlando (46-27) has dropped 18 of 21 games in Milwaukee since April 14, 1996, with 13 of those losses coming by double digits. The Magic have won only once in their last nine games at the Bradley Center. The Magic are a combination of three wins or Washington losses away from clinching their first division title since 1995-96. Winning tonight's game will give us the team record for most road wins in a season.

Lately, the defense has been solid but Orlando’s offense, which turns out an Eastern Conference-best 104.6 points per game, has been lacking. The Magic have averaged just 96.5 points in losing three of four, including the 107-97 defeat to San Antonio on Tuesday.

The Magic fell to 13-6 since the All-Star break. ... Orlando is five games ahead of Cleveland for third place in the Eastern Conference with nine games left in the regular season.

Hedo Will Play Friday, Jameer Likely WIll Not

This post by Brian Schmitz says that Hedo has participated in light shooting drills in practice, and will give it a go for Friday's game against Milwaukee.

Nelson doubts he will play, as he is still recovering from concussion-like symptoms. He said he was dizzy and felt nauseous. Carlos Arroyo will get the start if Nelson can't go, which seems likely.

Also, Otis Smith is leaning towards keeping Tony Battie from returning at all this season. "It's my decision, not Tony's," Smith said.

Magic Fans Can Breathe Again - Hedo and Jameer Day-to-Day

Brian Schmitz reports that Hedo AND Jameer, both, are day-to-day with thier various injuries. Hedo was diagnosed with only a sprained wrist, which gives much relief to the Magic and their fans who can no breath a sigh of relief. This scare was from a previous report by Brian Schmitz, where he discussed how a severe injury to Hedo's wrist could knock him out of the rest of the season, and playoffs; taking the Magic's season down with him.

As BQR mentions, "Keith Bogans and Carlos Arroyo would likely start for Turkoglu and Nelson, respectively, 'if' they are unavailable Friday in Milwaukee."

Magic Lose Nelson and Turkoglu, and The Game As Well 107-97

I was at this game only to realize that all of a sudden Nelson AND Turkoglu were missing. I looked around as many fans were asking what happened. I saw Nelson walk into the locker room earlier in the 1st half but I hadn't seen where Turk dissapeared to. Then I realized they were both injured, what luck. As 3QC reports, Jameer Nelson left the game with a chin contusion and Hedo Turkoglu with a sprained wrist.

One would think that losing Turkoglu and Nelson in the first half, would mean automatic doom. No so tonight. Dooling and Arroyo stepped up off the bench and had us leading 69-61 in the 3rd quarter, but we couldn't pull it off in the end. Too much Ginobili and missing free throws killed us. Dooling and Arroyo played great as they finished with 19 and 17, respectively.

To make matters worse, we let the Spurs shoot just about 60% (actually 58%, but close enough) in the first half and they seemed to never miss. Our defense was dreadful. J.J. entered the game in the first half and the crowd went nuts. But it was all for nothing, as he went en route to a 0-5 night, ending up with 2 points. But as if thats not bad enough, he lost his defensive assignment, and single handedly gave the Spurs countless opportunities to come back.

Then Bogans got fouled on a 3 pointer, and missed all three free throws. That just about did it. After that, the momentum changed to the Spurs favor and we just looked lost.

Duncan killed us with his high-post jump shot and sweet free throw shooting. Dwight needs to be taking notes on his game because adding a nice shot and good FT shooting, like Duncan, will make him unbeatable.

Dwight did post a 20-20 game with 24 points and 21 rebounds. But Howard did miss some critical free throws and ended up 4-8 from the line, for the game.

Here is the boxscore and recap.

Spurs @ Magic

Magic (46-26) vs. Spurs (47-23)

Amway Arena

7 PM

FSN FL (Last game on FSN this season)

Probable Lineups:

Howard C Oberto

Lewis PF Duncan

Turkoglu SF Bowen

Evans SG Finley/Ginobili

Nelson PG Parker

The Magic lost badly to the Spurs early in the season, 128-110, when Tony Parker became the first of many point guards to have a big game against the Magic this season. Parker had 32 on us, over in San Antonio, so now its time to kick them back home with a loss.

Ginobili had 27 off the bench, just adding to the list of guards who have routinely killed us. Lucky for the Magic that those two are great players on a great team so we don't look as bad. Bowen tried to put the clamps on Turk, limiting him to just 9-18 shooting on the night, but Turk still had 26 points.

Dwight needs to play well against Tim Duncan, as he has been held under 20 points for five of the last six games.

This Spurs team is what everybody in the league wants to be like; able to turn it on at any time. Even though the Spurs have slipped up recently, they still are the team to beat in the NBA.

And, check out this post at Third Quarter Collapse, where Ben Q. Rock lays out "Stan's suit-and-turtleneck look [...] squaring off against Andrei Kirilenko's spouse-approved once-a-year extramarital relations". You can vote for Stan (or AK47 if you choose) here.

I'll be at the game with a bunch of family, you guys without FSN should join us... If there is even tickets left.

Check out this blog post by Brian Schmitz, of the Orlando Sentinel, where he voices his thoughts that SVG should showcase J.J.'s talents in the final ten games.