AP Photo/John Raoux
BOX SCORE
On a good offensive night for Orlando, the Magic needed more defense, especially down the stretch, to fend off the Knicks in a 114-106 loss.
It was the night of the backcourt for Orlando. Nelson (29 points on 10-for-20 shooting) and Afflalo (29 points on 10-for-14 shooting) abused the New York defense, seemingly with ease, on Saturday night. Both guards shot the ball well and, more importantly, were able to attack the rim and get buckets in the paint with consistency throughout the entire game.
Unfortunately, the tandem wasn’t good enough down the stretch and Carmelo Anthony was. It’s tough not having a closer or even a star, and in another close game, the Magic came up on the short end of the stick. For Orlando, it’s their eighth consecutive loss — a season-high.
The Magic scored 36 points in the first quarter and it didn’t seem like a fluke. Sure, New York was not particularly sharp at the defensive end, but Orlando did a few things extraordinarily well. First, they got to the paint and either scored or found an open man. Second, they only turned the ball over twice. Lastly, they hit open shots and shot 62.5 percent for the quarter.
The big story in the first half, though, was Orlando’s inability to maintain a lead after such a great start. Whether that was their own fault or just a product of the Knicks waking up from hibernation, the game shifted in the second quarter and New York enjoyed a 59-55 lead at the half.
The Magic, however, got their swagger back offensively in the third quarter and put up 34 points in the period. It all started with Jameer Nelson, who continued to drive with confidence and shoot the ball well from deep. Afflalo showed a spark as well, and despite limping around after a few tough falls on his hip, was extremely effective offensively.
Orlando had an eight-point lead to start the fourth quarter, but New York began exploiting weaknesses in the Magic defense and asserting themselves offensively. On the other end, the Magic were running out of, well, magic on offense. Carmelo hit some tough shots, but the Knicks were open near the hoop way too many times down the stretch while the game was close.
Despite Orlando being within one point with under five minutes to go in the game, I racked my brain thinking of how they would emerge victorious facing Carmelo Anthony, who at the time had 35 points and was in god mode. Unfortunately for the Magic, my hunch was correct. Without a true gunner, the game slipped away in the final minutes and the Knicks were able to close things out.
MVP (Most Valuable Player)
Carmelo Anthony had 40 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Carmelo was dirty in the fourth quarter (scoring 16 points in the period) and closed out the game in style.
X-Factor
Jameer Nelson (or Andrew Nicholson’s minutes). Seriously, though. Nicholson needs to play more. Nicholson’s playing time notwithstanding, Nelson was insane, torching Jason Kidd off the dribble and lighting it up on offense in 2009 form.
That Was … a Great Game
The Knicks got going when they needed to, and despite big nights from Nelson and Afflalo, they closed the door and hammered it home late in the fourth behind Carmelo Anthony.
Jan 09
Revisiting the Ryan Anderson trade
Commentary
by Sean Highkin
at 11:40 amPhoto by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images
Rob Hennigan’s decision not to match the Hornets’ four-year, $34 million offer sheet for Ryan Anderson in July during the offseason was a polarizing one.
On the one hand, Anderson was the reigning Most Improved Player and had proven himself a more-than-reliable floor-spacing big, and a contract in the neighborhood of $8.5 million per year seemed perfectly reasonable for him.
On the flipside, even though the blockbuster trade wouldn’t happen for another month, everyone knew Dwight Howard was as good as gone, and it was hard to fault Hennigan’s decision not to re-sign expensive role players when the Magic weren’t going to contend for another few years.
Plus, the Magic were able to snare the much less expensive Gustavo Ayon in the Anderson sign-and-trade. The Mexican big man impressed in his first year with the Hornets, as both Magic Basketball’s Noam Schiller and Eddy Rivera wrote at the time. If the Magic had to lose a player as good as Anderson, they at least didn’t let him go for nothing and got a cheap prospect out of the deal.
Fast forward to two months into the season and it’s starting to look like the deal was a misstep, but hardly a franchise-killing one.
The Magic have a roster full of rookies and unproven players and several of them — including Andrew Nicholson, Nikola Vucevic, Maurice Harkless, and DeQuan Jones — have performed well above expectations. Ayon cannot be counted among that group. He’s playing fewer minutes per game on a similarly thin, lottery-bound roster to the one he was on in New Orleans last season. While his rebounding has slightly improved per 36 minutes, he’s regressed a smidge both offensively and defensively.
Anderson, meanwhile, has absolutely proven himself to be the real deal since joining the Hornets. His 20.0 Player Efficiency Rating is a hair above his career PER (18.6). He’s shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc, the highest clip of his career, and he’s doing it with a career-high 7.8 attempts per game. His rebounding has taken a slight dip from where it was last year, but he’s still been pulling down a perfectly respectable 7.6 boards per 36 minutes.
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