Orlando
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Dwight Howard led the Magic in rebounding two games in a row and Orlando won both back-to-back weekend games, 111-91over the Bobcats on Friday and 104-101over the Nets on Saturday. The Magic won both games despite fantastic play by the opposing point guards: Charlotte's Brevin Knight had 10 assists and New Jersey's Jason Kidd had his 60th triple-double to leap past Larry Bird's career record and into fourth place on the all-time list.
That isn't to say that the Magic's star point guard Steve Francis did anything wrong. Against the Bobcats, he had 10 points, 13 assists, and 3 boards. Against the Nets, he had 16 points, 9 assists, and 5 boards. Backcourt mate Cuttino Mobley hit the final six free throws against the Nets to ice the game.
The bench was impressive as well. Hedo Turkoglu scored 22 points in 19 minutes on Friday and 19 points in 20 minutes on Saturday. That's a combined 41 points in 39 minutes! Combining his past two games, his state line looks like this: 39 minutes, 41 points on 12-for-21 shooting, including 6-for-9 from downtown and 11-for-13 from the free throw line, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and just one turnover and two fouls. Those are MVP-like numbers.
Dwight Howard has started his own little mini-streak of double-doubles to try to get back into the competition for Rookie of the Year. He was 10-and-12 on Friday and 14-and-13 on Saturday.
NEXT GAME
The Magic (18-14, third in the Southeast) travel to Boston to kick off a four-game road trip to take on the Celtics (15-19, third in the Southeast). The game starts at 7:00pm and will be broadcast on the Sunshine Network and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
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INJURY UPDATE
Michael Bradley(hamstring),Brandon Hunter(elbow) and Andrew DeClercq(knee) are on the Magic's injured list.
Dick Scanlon ofThe Ledgerwrites: Any doubts about the wisdom of trading Tracy McGrady have been removed forever -- not by the Magic's turnaround in the NBA standings, but by McGrady's own words in the Sports Illustrated edition dated today. McGrady can be refreshingly candid and honest, which is one of the reasons for his popularity among basketball fans and the media. However, he can be steered into saying almost anything by a line of questioning. Sports Illustrated has become very adept at developing those lines of questioning, and its latest victim is McGrady's reputation. ... To his credit, McGrady now admits he handled it poorly. "Some nights I did slack off -and I knew it was a terrible thing to do -- and I still was slacking off. That was wrong. Now I would do it differently. I learned. I have to bust my butt no matter what."
Ken Hornack ofThe Daytona Beach News-Journalwrites: The Orlando Magic appeared to be getting their act together on defense going into their most recent meeting with the Boston Celtics. But after giving up less than 100 points in six consecutive games, the Magic surrendered 94 through the first three quarters in Doc Rivers' first visit to Orlando as coach of the Celtics. And as the Magic open a four-game road trip tonight at Boston, the memory of allowing 30 fast-break points and 70 points in the paint to the Celtics in late November ought to keep them from becoming complacent after victories over Seattle, Charlotte and New Jersey.
John Denton ofFlorida Todaywrites: Already this season, the Magic have defeated San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers, New York and Denver. Meanwhile, just as they seemed to be heading into the soft underbelly of their schedule last week, the Magic fell apart against Milwaukee, Chicago and Toronto. "We always seem to play really good against the best teams," said Hedo Turkoglu, the Magic's hottest shooter right now."This road trip coming up should tell us where we're at and what kind of team we are. We should see how serious of a team we are."