It started all over again. Second round. Different opponent. Same mission.
Packed house for the first game of the second round of the playoffs, where the Magic killed the Atlanta Hawks at home.
Cheerleaders? Check. Crazy fans? Check. Flying TG lee cow? Check. A place at the Eastern Conference Finals? Well no, but it sure should be an interesting set of games as we take a look back.
Atlanta has the league’s second-best offense and a very similar team to the Magic in that they both rely heavily on athletic wings. The regular season though proved to be full of Magic as they won the first three meetings finishing at 3-1.
In the eight games the Hawks and Magic have played in the last two years, Atlanta shot less than 40% and scored more than 87 points just twice.
Let’s not forget the ease in which Orlando took care of the first sweep of the playoffs against the Charlotte Bobcats, while Atlanta struggled to make ends meet against the Milwaukee Bucks, dragging their feet and winning at game 7.
Ok, after this quick update we shoot for first quarter…
The buzzer goes off and tip off gives Atlanta the first possession of the game and has the crowd going wild as the magic goes on defense. Bibby on the rebound scores the first two points of the game for the Hawks while Carter takes care of the first two for the Magic.
The dream team is playing but there are so many turnovers I’m getting dizzy. Thank god Nelson decided to shoot the first thee-pointer of the game. Back and forth, rebound after rebound and miss after miss the Magic find themselves barely leading 25-23. Shall we spell defense?
Quick recap of the numbers for first quarter show:
*Magic shot 40% of field goals against Hawks 42%
*Rebounders came at 70% against Hawks 50%
*Howard and Johnson tied as the highest rebounders while Carter was the high scorer with 8 total points in this quarter.
No more Mr. Nice guy…
Second quarter starts off great. A slam dunk by Dwight Howard with JJ Reddick’s assist gets the crowd pumped up and ready for a repeat of the first round sweep.
Best moment by far has to be with 7:11 to go a block by Howard and a steal to serve it up to Jason Williams who lobbed a pass from mid-court to Mickael Pietrus waiting at the paint to slam-dunk the ball so hard the whole arena shook. Now that’s what I call magic. Time out? Yeah I think so. Fourth by the hawks. The Magic dominated the second quarter with 17 straight points.
End 53-33 Magic.
The halftime reports says
*Magic hit 12 of 25 shots
* 5 of 11 rebounds
*Howard was the high scorer with 9 points while Pietrus had the highest number of assists.
The third quarter is when things take a loopy turn… it starts with Jameer Nelson serving it up and helping superman soar with another dunk to add to the collection.
Three jump shots, two lay ups and three assists later, the Magic are so far ahead in this game the burrito launch at 2:43 was probably the most exciting thing that happened since the Magic decided they needed a broom.
Scratch that, Chris Tucker is in the house, that’s exciting. ATL how about a move to Orlando? Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?
85-44…more than 40 points lead and in my head I wonder what the fourth quarter would look like…
Fourth quarter brought not only the house down but had the Hawks whole bench shaking their heads and hiding behind towels. 97-57 at 6 minutes…102-61 at 2 minutes…109-64 at one minute…by the time the buzzer sounded half of the arena had disappeared trying to avoid traffic.
Final score? A whopping 43 point lead for the Magic 114-71.
One quote was used to describe this massacre. Ironically it came from Atlanta itself. “It’s embarrassing,” Hawks point guard Mike Bibby said. “They embarrassed us.”
I couldn’t have said better myself.
I could do a full recap of the game but that would be rubbing salt on a big opening night wound. So let’s stick with the essentials.
*Howard avoided foul trouble the whole game while contributing 21 points to the win and five blocks.
*Carter also helped out with 20 points trailed by Nelson with 19.
*There were 23 assists, 13 turnovers and 6 steals
* The magic shot 70% of field goals and 39 % of their three-pointers.
* The Hawks scored only 10 points in the second quarter and 11 in the third and had the biggest lead be three points in the first quarter.
*Josh Smith scored 14 points and Zaza Pachulia scored 12.
The 43-point win was the Magic’s second-largest margin of victory in a playoff game at all times and tied for the second-largest margin of victory in NBA history in Game 1 of a best-of-7 series.
Hawks coach Mike Woodson had few words to say. “Well it was an ugly game for us,” Woodson said. “I wish I knew what happened.”
Fernanda Barros reporting for West Orlando News Online.
Great Story, even though it was a massive blow out you were able to make reading the article entertaining.
Great article! I loved the line “but that would be rubbing salt on a big opening night wound”
Great article…really captured the excitement of the win and how great it is to be an Orlando Magic fan