After the Miami Heat beat the Magic by more than 30 a few nights ago questions started to arise that maybe Dwight Howard and his Magic teammates were conceding the season. Howard ended the game with just five points and the Magic shot a measly 35 percent from the field.
But Wednesday night yielded a much better result for the new look Orlando Magic as they faced the Heat for the second time in three nights. Orlando beat their in-state rival by four points to end their two game preseason schedule. Newly acquired forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis led the way with 18 points and big man Dwight Howard added 15 and nine rebounds to power Orlando to a 104-100 victory.
With at least one preseason victory under their belts the Magic now turn their attention toward the Oklahoma City Thunder for a Christmas night match-up to open the regular season.
But before Orlando can fully turn their focus toward OKC they may want to rewind the Heat tape to review why they shot so poorly from behind the arc in the first half. The Magic are primarily a perimeter team and in the first half against Miami on Wednesday night Orlando shot 11 percent from the three point line. Guard Jason Richardson hit the team’s first three of the night with just over a minute thirty left in the second quarter. Before Richardson found the bottom of the net the team was a nasty 0 for 11.
Orlando had 13 turnovers and shot 22 percent from the field all in the first half. Dwight joked in the locker room after that Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy yelled that the team looked like a “high school varsity” team from the bench during their long stretch of pathetic play. But that’s why there are two halves in a basketball game instead of one.
The Magic turned things around in the second half and slowly started to chip away at the Heat’s lead. Orlando went on a 12-4 run at one point in the third quarter and pulled to within six of Miami with about four minutes left in the game. Orlando had 24 points in the paint to Miami’s 12 late in the third quarter and continued to pound away at the Heat’s lead.
The Magic were finally able to blow the game open as Davis, guard Jameer Nelson and Richardson started to find their rhythm. The Magic got out in front of Miami by nine points at one point in the fourth quarter and never looked back.
A tale of two halves produced a game with high drama that ended in Orlando’s favor.
Afterwards Van Gundy said that he liked his team’s energy and approach but they just couldn’t make shots when needed.
“We played well offensively, if not better than we did in the third quarter, but we didn’t get the ball in the basket so you think we look terrible…” said Van Gundy. “In the second half we made shots and that makes everything look good.”
Howard echoed Stan’s sentiment about the team needing to shoot better.
“No matter what happened in the first half, we got a lot of good shots, and we just have to get into a rhythm of playing. I think once that happens, we’ll be ok,” said Howard.
While reporters didn’t directly address the elephant in the Magic locker room afterward a few did ask Heat superstar LeBron James what he thought of Dwight Howard’s trade demands.
“For me I just wish him the best. At the end of the day, I just want him to be happy whether it’s here in Orlando or elsewhere. I know it is a difficult situation that he is going through and we will see what happens.”
James can relate to Howard’s struggle to stay with the team that drafted him or move on to another team. We all remember LeBron’s “Decision” before he decided to join the Heat.
The Magic will open their regular season home schedule on Monday night against the Houston Rockets.
-JH
