Game Thread: Magic @ Nets 4-11-09 7:30 PM

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

quote:

Originally posted by Skywise316:

Wow. TWO straight game threads with 4 pages. So anyways...

 

This game really tested the mantra of how this is about how players/categories did against the recent past, whether than just what did well and what sucked. So just keep in mind that nearly everyone and everything was teetering on Stock Hell after the Knicks game.

 

Stock Up:

 

Team Assists. (One of the few things the Magic did right. 22 assists tonight.)

 

Rafer Alston. (He was Mr. 3rd Quarter tonight.. and SVG promptly plays AJ the entire 4th quarter. But anyway, for the scant 26 minutes that he was out there, Alston played very well.

 

13 points on 6 of 13 shooting and 1 of 4 from downtown. 3 boards, 8 assists against 2 turnovers, and a steal.)

 

Tony Battie. (No offense, but if Battie is your #1 player in a given game.. you may have problems.

 

14 points on 5 of 10 shooting, 0 for 1 from Three Land, and 4 of 6 from the free throw line. 4 boards, 1 assist, a steal, and 2 turnovers.)

 

Courtney Lee. (He had a decent offensive night, and his defense was far better than it has been lately. He's one of the few guys out there that I can say that about!

 

10 points on 4 of 11 shooting and 2 of 4 from deep. 3 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a turnover.)

 

Hedo Turkoglu. (Other than getting injured, Hedo had himself quite a nyce game tonight too. Especially whenever Yi JianLian was in front of him.

 

16 points on 5 of 8 shooting, 0 for 1 from deep, and 6 of 8 from the charity stripe. 6 boards, 2 assists, a steal, a block, and no turnovers.)

 

Anthony Johnson. (No offense to him or anything, but if AJ is one of your top three players in a given game.. you may have problems. His D was "meh" against Dooling or CDR, but he brought some other offense of his own.

 

11 points on 4 of 9 shooting, 1 of 1 from Three Land, and 2 of 4 from the foul line. 2 boards, and 4 assists against 2 turnovers.)

 

Team Rebounding. (Believe it or not, Orlando outrebounded Jersey 35-34, and the Nets only had 5 offensive rebounds.)

 

Marcin Gortat. (He sure did play better against the Nets than the Knicks. 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting and he missed the free throw he took. 6 boards, an assist, and 2 turnovers.)

 

Stock In The Middle:

 

Turnovers. (12 giveaways for O-town.)

 

Three Point Shooting. (Orlando shot 7 of 18 for an okay 38.9 percent.)

 

Stock Down:

 

Stan Van Gundy. (You can't play bench guys for half the game and then complain when you lose. What, you ahven't been resting Rafer Alston enough the last 4-6 weeks or so? What about playing Pietrus defensively on VC instead of Lee, when Lee was clearly having the more disruptive defensive night? And for the kicker, why in the world would you keep Adonal Foyle out there after his free throws, especially when there's a dead ball situation not longer after? Why??

 

Not only did the players come off lazy, but the coaching came off as lazy. Lawrence Frank's team just seemed far better prepared that our guys, especially on defense. The only thing SVG did right all night was play Dwight-Gortat together, but that was probably only because Sharmin was sitting out. SVG can spout off at the mouth about how terrible the Orlando Magic are playing right now.

 

But what exactly does Stan Van Gundy plan on doing about it?)

 

Three Point Defense. (The Nets shot a blistering 11 of 20 from beyond the arc for 55 percent. That's an Epic Fail on the part of the Magic's defensive rotations.)

 

Free Throw Shooting. (The Magic only shot 16 of 29 for 55.2 percent from the charity stripe. Yep! The Nets nearly shot better from the three point line than the Magic did from the free throw line.)

 

Opponent's Field Goal Shooting. (Jersey shot 38 of 70 for 54.3 percent overall. Ouch, much?)

 

Dwight Howard. (Well his defense was a little better this time.. but the offense, well... yuck.

 

7 points on 2 of 7 shooting and 3 of 7 from the line. 8 boards, 4 blocks, 2 assists, 2 turnovers.)

 

Mickael Pietrus. (Yeah, he scored 14 points. But he needed 13 shots to get those 14 points, and played zero perimeter defense in the meantime.)

 

That's it. The Magic were outcoached, couldn't make a free throw, and got bombarded by threes. Game over.

 

Your Southeast Division Champion Orlando Magic fall to 58-22 and would have to win the last two games to finish with 60 wins now. Seems like Turk will be okay.. hopefully the Magic have a full (minus Meer) compliment of players by at least the Charlotte game, because there's a need to regain some intensity and timing BEFORE the playoffs.

 

Hey. At least Detroit lost.

 

Until the very last Stock Meeting....

 

Good night and good luck.

 

I'm suprised you did a stock for this game. Nobody really wanted to be involved with this game today. The players are taking these last few games like it's 4:45 on a friday afternoon. the weekend is almost here. They're just not here mentally. As long as they show up monday (playoffs) ready to give it 100% then there really isnt a problem half assing these games.

 

SVG is caught between a rock and a hard place. He knows these games dont matter. He is half assing his coaching. The problem is he can't make half assing acceptable to the players because this attitude may follow them into the playoffs.

[Bradspace 0]

The last few games have been frustrating. I wish they had fought harder for the 2 seed. Now they have nothing to play for, and they know it. It reflects in their play on the court. You can't just shut it down, and then reboot your team's intensity and execution whenever you feel like it. Human beings just don't work that way. Teams don't work that way.

 

We better get this ship righted in the first round, or we're going to get drilled in the second.

[bravlady 0]

The season is ending much the way it started. They're playing like they've not played together before.

[MP_20 2]

quote:

Originally posted by Skywise316:

 

Sky, I disagreed with you earlier in the season but didn't know how you ran the stock. I have to disagree again at the end of the season lol. To begin, the interior defense is not listed. The Magic made Lopez and Boone look like DRob and Timmy. A combined 24pts, 19 rbs, 5blks on 11-15 shooting. imo that's what set the tone for the game. Or at least that's where the major runs seemed to start. Next, considering how bad they looked as a team, you have a lot of guys in the up. Effort was down collectively and as a team they all looked bad. But only two guys in Stock Down after that effort?? If it is relative to the past games, that's where my next objection is coming from.

 

At the risk of sounding bias based on username w/ no consideration of the argument (not you btw), I thought Pietrus was MUCH better relative to his previous performances. After coming off a few 0-fors, the first shot to go down should've been an immediate stock rise. Don't know if you watched the game, but a couple of those shots were major momentum stoppers. At one point he was actually 5-10 in the fourth. Hedo got hurt, Dwight didn't return and of course 'Shard was out. So it turned out much worse as he and Lee seemed to be forcing shots as the wheels were falling off. As far as his defense goes, I would call it zero. He got beat by Vince a couple times but stayed in front for the most part and made him work. Even blocked one of his layups. Vince was the only starter (and 1 of 2 guys) not over 50% shooting. Besides, Dooling and Carter had 19assts combined. That's a result of lazy help defense and guys being way out of position. Which explains why they got torched from the field/3pt. As Lee stated earlier perimeter defense is not one man's burden. Thanks for the rundowns as always. When I miss the games, this is where I come to get caught up.

[Skywise316 211]

quote:

Originally posted by MP_20:

I thought Pietrus was MUCH better relative to his previous performances.

 

Sorry, but I stopped reading after this. Yes he made a few shots (is 5 out of 13 really that much of an improvement?), but all I saw all night was Pietrus getting beat off the dribble.. getting beat off the dribble.. getting beat off the dribble. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

If that was Redick out there, we'd be up to 8 pages in this game thread because of all the talk there would of been about how much his defense sucks. I'm not giving MP a free pass because he's MP.

 

Anyway, everyone'll only have to put up with my SU/SDs for a few more games anyway.

[FENDI 4]

Dooling made a very telling comment about what separates good and mediocre teams.

 

 

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

quote:

Originally posted by FENDI:

Dooling made a very telling comment about what separates good and mediocre teams.

 

 

[CaliMagicFan 0]

Seriously, why is anybody watching any of this until the playoffs start? Take a little holiday.

 

The only thing that matters in this game is only 26 minutes for Dwight and Rafer, 30 for Hedo (even though he got hurt) and a rest for Shard.

[Walddo 0]

<----Add this guy to the list of people that had no idea there was a game last night, first one in a while i've just totally been oblivious to...guess I wasn't the only one...Let's just hope they wake up really fast come playoff time...