[Game Thread]Lakers @ Magic 12/20

[Luke_FfS]

quote:

Originally posted by Luke_FfS:

Early predictions: Dwight will go in foul trouble because of floppers.

 

We'll have at least ten posts remembering how Ariza was good.

 

Kobe would make 40+.

 

But I really hope we could still win this game!!

 

I haven't read all the 20+ pages and Ariza didn't play a great game, so I don't know if I get the second prediction.

But all the rest was right on the target!!!

 

 

 

I'm very proud of this team.

And I think that we have to give more credit to K-Bo, in the second half he did a wonderful job on Bryant, and the first half wasn't so bad, but Kobe is Kobe and when he's on one of those nights, noone can defend him.

[Mat]

quote:

Originally posted by Skywise316:

Perhaps the third best team in the NBA?

 

Your Orlando Magic.

 

I'm just sayin'.

 

Stock Up:

 

Jameer Nelson. (Mama, there go that man again. 27 points on 11 of 16 shooting, 4 of 6 from Three Land. 4 boards and 5 assists. You can live with his 2 turnovers, but you can't live him shooting 1 of 4 from the charity stripe. That's just weird, he was shooting 90% from the free throw line coming into the game. His defense also wasn't very good in the first half against Derek Fisher, but it tightened up some in the second half. For Fisher it didn't seem to matter tonight, even against good D he still seemed to score every time.

 

Besides that, Jameer just took over in the second half again, great passing, great shooting, you know, the usual!)

 

Dwight Howard. (He was foul-ridden in the first half, although his fouls on Fisher and Gasol were jokes. So tonight he had 18 points, 12 boards, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and an assist. Also three turnovers. Most importantly he did his damage from the free throw line with 10 out of 15, but he hit something like 8 of 11 in the 4th quarter and the two free throws at the end that pushed the lead to three at the end and finished the game off for us.

 

He did nearly everything I just said in the second half, guys. He had like 3 points and a board at halftime. You know how many people Samuel Dalembert would cripple for that stat line in a given game?

 

Dwight was a man's man tonight.)

 

Team Rebounding. (We managed to tie the Lakers at 40 total rebounds tonight, and for the Magic against a frontcourt rotation like the Lakers have, that's a big time victory in my view. Dwight, Shard, Hedo, Battie, Nelson really gettin' it done.)

 

Rashard Lewis. (22 points on 6 of 13 shooting. He was 3 of 8 from Three, which is decent. Thanks to a lot of techs he went to the line 8 times and only missed once. 5 boards, 4 assists, a steal, and 3 turnovers. He fought hard on the inside against Gasol and Odom all night. A gutty, productive night from Rashard Lewis. "The Dagger." At this point he's a human dagger.)

 

Three Point Defense. (The Lakers only shot 7 of 21 from Three Land. Kobe and Fisher had 5 of the 7 makes. This is an example of when the Magic trapped Kobe over and over again late in the 3rd and in the 4th, other people didn't make the Magic pay from outside the arc, except for that one 3 by Radmonovic.)

 

Hedo Turkoglu. (Hedo shot 5 of 10 from the field, hit half his threes, and had an efficient 14 points, 5 boards, 7 assists, and 2 steals. I don't like him only going 2 for 4 from the free throw line (bad percentage, not enough attempts means not enough aggression) and having a team-high 4 turnovers, but he made up for the mistakes with the big driving lay up off the glass late in the game to help the Magic hold on.

 

More than anything I'm happy with the 50 percent shooting. Minimal jacking up shots tonight.)

 

Marcin Gortat. (Did he play in the second half? Anyway with the 8 and a half minutes he got, he got 2 points, 2 boards, and 3 blocks.

 

Pau Gasol didn't want any part of any of our bigs, that was for sure.)

 

Team Defense. (The Lakers only shot 41.4 percent and the highest scoring team in the league only scored 45 points in the second half.)

 

Three Point Shooting. (12 of 30 for 40 percent'll get it done. The Magic made 6 threes in the third quarter alone and were the engine of the Magic's comeback.)

 

An honorable mention to Tony Battie for basically not being Brian Cook (see: Stock Down), and giving us 5 points and 6 boards.

 

Stock In The Middle:

 

Magic Shooting Guards. (Keith Bogans, Mickael Pietrus, and Courtney Lee.

 

Bogans was a borderline Stock Down in the first half. Kobe was pwning him left and right in whichever way he wanted, and only ended the game with 3 points on 1 of 5 shooting and 2 boards. But then in the second half, Bogans played some of the best defense I've ever seen him play against Kobe, but the refs kept giving Bryant bail out call after bail out call, Bogans couldn't catch a break. So for leaving it all on the floor and giving a major level of effort and energy defensively after halftime, Bogans gets a SITM.

 

Pietrus perhaps played the best, most steady D against Kobe, bothering him with his length. But shooting 2 for 10 and only 1 for 5 from Three while only having a board and an assist took the luster off and kept him from anywhere near Stock Up territory. The rust was visible offensively but he'll work it out.

 

He provided a near poster of a lob dunk over Andrew Bynum to remember, however.

 

Courtney Lee, bless his heart, did the best he could. Kobe just made tough shot after tough shot over him, and sometimes over him AND Gortat. Lee finished with 4 points, a board, 2 turnovers, and honestly didn't play enough. Even if SVG was nervous about playing a rookie against Kobe, everyone would of been fine with Lee playing PG instead of A.J. (see: Stock Down)

 

It almost didn't matter who was in front of Kobe tonight after that tough loss to the Heat, but these three men did just enough to give the Magic a chance to win. The levee was leaking, but it never broke.)

 

Stock Down:

 

Free Throw Shooting. (Well, this nearly cost us the game. 24 of 39 for 61.5 percent. We hit the ones that mattered, but in the first three, three and a half quarter... oof. Not a sight to behold. I said if we did this badly at the charity stripe against better teams it was gonna cost us, and see? Well, we.... kinda won anyway. Eh, never mind, you get the point.)

 

Brian Cook. (Atrocious. That's the short version. Now for the long one.

 

0 for 2 for no points, a board, and 2 silly, obvious fouls. I am shocked that his plus/minus is only -5 and not worse. I guess in 5 minutes of play he could only do so much damage. He was okay at the end of the first quarter, but his play in the second quarter may of been the worst since he joined this franchise. Not exaggerating.)

 

Anhtony Johnson. (Yeah, he wasn't much better than Cookie. He had 6 points on 2 of 4 shooting, had a board, 2 assists, and 1 turnover. Fisher or whoever else he guarded abused him badly on defense, and the only thing I could say nicely about him was that he hit 2 of the 3 threes that he shot tonight.

 

If this keeps up I'm just gonna say "Stock Still Bottom: Anthony Johnson" to save myself some time until he has at least a half-decent game again. Just half-decent!)

 

Lamar Odom. (Wow. You really don't like coming off the bench, huh?)

 

So the Magic play above my expectations and beat BOTH the Spurs and Lakers. So now Rotowire thinks the Lakers are overrated, so this win doesn't... matter now..?

 

Anyway, the Orlando Magic are now 21-6. We have a 4.5 game lead on ATL in the SE division, and for 3rd in the East. The Magic are still only 1.5 games behind Cleveland for 2nd in the East and oh by the way... are only a half game behind the Lakers now for the third best record in the entire NBA. I'm just sayin'!

 

Some guy by the name of Mickael Pietrus might be interested that we're playing against Golden State next.

 

Until Monday night, where I'll be really chomping at the bit for Christmas to come the hell on already....

 

Good night and good luck.

 

Great post Sky! ui really enjoy reading you! i agree 101%