Magic Hold On To Beat Detroit

The Detroit Pistons handed the Orlando Magic their only loss of the season Tuesday, but Friday night the Magic held off a fourth quarter surge by the Pistons to win 110-103. The Pistons have been, along with Toronto, one of the teams that consistently give Orlando problems. This is a new era, and in it, the Magic have new weapons.

Again the Pistons were able to seduce Dwight Howard into foul trouble late in the game, although Howard turned in 38 minutes for 22 points and 12 boards. Matt Barnes turned in another fantastic effort as Mickael Pietrus recovers from the flu contributing 18 points including 9 of 12 from the free-throw line. As a team, the Magic shot over 85% from the line.

Detroit on the other hand missed key free throws in the fourth on their way to a 62% free-throw shooting night. Piston offseason pick-up Charlie Villanueva led the team with 28 points, including 22 fourth quarter points.

As deep as the Magic bench is, and as great as Matt Barnes and Brandon Bass have looked on paper, letting a guy like Villanueva score 22 in a quarter is unacceptable. It’s tough to condemn them for one poor defensive effort against a guy who was almost literally on fire, but their defensive ability is going to be watched much more closely from this point forward.

If a guy like him can score on them like that, what is going to happen when they play a guy like Pau Gasol, or Dirk Nowitzki, or Kevin Garnett, or Al Horford, or any of the other numerous good scoring power forwards in the league? Outside of shooting guard, power forward might be the most offensively potent position in the league.

The good news is that they were only guarding Villanueva because Ryan Anderson left the game with an ankle sprain and Rashard Lewis is still serving his suspension. Mickael Pietrus, who was out with the flu, looked good in his second game back. Unfortunately Vince Carter is still out with an ankle sprain.

Even though the Magic were only able to start two of their normal starters, they dominated the first quarter of play outscoring Detroit 40-23. The Magic opened the game with consecutive threes from Barnes and JJ Redick before finishing the quarter with five threes. Howard had 8 first quarter points including a perfect four for four from the foul line.

Orlando kept their lead through the half going into the locker room up 58-43. Detroit struggled to make shots throughout the game with a shuffled up lineup due to the continued absence of Tayshaun Prince and Richard Hamilton.

Things fell into place for the Pistons as Villanueva got hot in the fourth. Although they started the quarter down by 14, Detroit fought to within six with three minutes to play. Just over 30 seconds later, Howard picked up his fifth personal foul. With D12 on the verge of being forced out of the game, the Pistons had a chance to complete the comeback. Villanueva missed three shots in the final 1:30 seconds while Barnes scored five in the final three minutes allowing the Magic to come away with the win, 110-103.