Orlando
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
A weekend 111-102loss to the Wizards and a gutsy 103-102win over the Nets have the Magic pretty much where they were last week: just a little bit out of the playoffs. They trail Philadelphia by just a single game for the eighth and final playoff spot and the Magic face a tough schedule and only a half-game lead over the 10th place Nets.
The Magic will play six playoff teams in a row starting tomorrow. Dallas, Chicago twice, Detroit twice, and Cleveland once. Then they have their weakest opponent of the remaining nine games, the Milwaukee Bucks, before finishing the season against Indiana and Miami.
If the Magic do manage to make the playoffs this year, with this schedule, and this late in the season, everybody will deserve a big raise. It's certainly not impossible given the level of talent they have on hand, but given the results they have been producing recently, they appear to be exactly what they are: the ninth best team in the East. How many upsets can the ninth best team have over playoff teams? The Magic will need multiple miracles.
NEXT GAME
The Magic (35-38, third in the Southeast) travel to Texas to take on the Dallas Mavericks (49-24, second in the Southwest) tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 5th. The game starts at 8:30pm Eastern and will be broadcast on WRBW and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
Full season ticket holders: The deadline to renew is April 7. Renew now.
INJURY UPDATE
Hedo Turkoglu(wrist) is on the injured list and out for the remainder of the season.Doug Christie(ankle) is also on the injured list and out indefinitely.Andrew DeClercq (knee) is on the injured list.Jameer Nelson(ribs) is injured but there's no room on the list for him.Grant Hill(shin) is questionable for tomorrow night's game.
Brian Schmitz ofThe Orlando Sentinelwrites: Magic ownership has been putting on its best face about the arena issue, saying the politically correct things -- or, frankly, not saying much at all. This much is becoming clear: Privately, the franchise is no longer optimistic about its future in Orlando. The confidence the Magic once had about keeping the team in town has faded. At the moment -- and things can change fast -- Rich DeVos' family is starting to get that same queasy feeling it did before it lost Shaq.
The Orlando Sentinelwrites in its editorial: City voters who responded to a recent Orlando Sentinel poll on Orange County's hotel tax sent a clear message to county leaders: It's time to start investing money from the tax in community projects. Support for spending taxes paid by tourists on a new performing-arts center and renovations to the Citrus Bowl outnumbered opposition more than 2-1. And opponents of investing money from the tax on a new or renovated arena only slightly exceeded supporters. At least some of the opposition to spending hotel taxes on an arena appears to be based on the misconception that it is a venue exclusively for the Orlando Magic.In fact, the arena plays host to scores of other events each year. In 2004, there were more than 100 other sporting events, concerts and community gatherings at the TD Waterhouse Centre. The arena belongs to Orlando, not to the Magic.
The Associated Press writes inThe Concord Monitor: Refusing to quit despite all sorts of adversity, the Orlando Magic mounted several comebacks and defeated the New Jersey Nets, 103-102, last night to clinch the tiebreaker between the teams.Steve Francis had 33 points, five assists and seven rebounds for Orlando, which won the season series 3-1 with a gutsy performance befitting of a team fighting to make the playoffs. The Magic, who were missing starters Grant Hill and Jameer Nelson, had lost 11 of 14 coming in and were at risk of falling two games behind Philadelphia for eighth place in the East.