• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Dwight Howard is a better defensive center than Bill Russell. That’s right, BILL RUSSELL. And this isn’t me talking because, quite frankly, Bill Russell was before my time although I do remember when I was kid listening to my stepdad and his buddies talking about how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a great center, but, by gosh, he was no Bill Russell. In fact, I almost spewed Bud Light out of my nose the other night after the Magic-Nuggets game when Magic color analyst Matt Guokas was talking to play-by-play man David Steele during their post-game wrap-up. That’s when Guokas dropped the bombshell and actually said Howard is a better defensive center than Russell and, therefore, the greatest defensive big man in the history of the game. Is this basketball blasphemy by a homer broadcaster or is it intrepid analysis by an astute observer of the game? If it was anybody else except Guokas, I might call him a hopeless homer, but that’s just not Guokas’ style. He is not a bombastic broadcaster who is disposed to hyperbole. He is a thoughtful, knowledgeable historian of the game who gives honest opinions during Magic telecasts. Not only that, but he played against Russell, played with and against Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is old enough to remember when George Mikan played for the old Minneapolis Lakers.”
• Jason Richardson talks about defending Joe Johnson.
• Players’ habits don’t change according to head coach Stan Van Gundy.
• Jameer Nelson talks about the improvements needed for the Orlando Magic.
• The Atlanta Hawks have a chance to take a commanding 2-0 lead against the Magic.
• Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post: “To my recollection, a typical Magic post-up for Howard goes a bit like this: a wing player, usually on the left side of the floor, throws an entry pass to Howard, who’s stationed on the left block. The post-entry passer then cuts through the paint to the weak side, finds a spot beyond the arc, and stands still. The three other players stand in place. This alignment puts no pressure on the defense, which has nothing substantial to react to, no tough decisions to make. It seems like it’d be wise for Orlando to at least send a cutter or to the basket, or run a pin-down on the weak side for a shooter, while Howard operates in the post. Get the would-be help defenders moving, force them to make a choice, find the hole, exploit it. Longtime readers of this site know I tend to advocate more motion in Orlando’s offense, either by involving Howard in more pick-and-rolls or by running some off-ball action to free a wing player as outlined above, whenever the team consistently stagnates. As much as I hate to use that talking point so much, I still believe it to be true. I don’t know that Orlando will have much postseason success if it continues to run its offense this way.”
• Matt Moore of CBSSports.com notes an adjustment Orlando needs to make in Game 2 later tonight: “According to Synergy Sports , you know how many pick and roll plays the Magic ran? 31. You know how many wound up in the hands of the roll man? None. Zip, zero, zilch. That makes Dwight Howard’s night more impressive, but it also means a few things. One, if you go back and watch, the Hawks are closing two to three defenders on Howard or whoever the roll man is. Two, that adjustment means that the Magic, had they opted to, would have had an open shooter off the second pass on the pick, drive and kick. But instead, they just launched. Nelson comes off the screen, he kicks out, catch and shoot. Except that they were rushing all those shots. They had the opportunity to spin the ball when the Hawks started to try and recover, but instead just let it fly. The result? Brick city. The Magic are at their best not when they’re just launching threes, but when they’re actually creating stupendously open shots from their ball rotation. That’s how they beat the Celtics and Cavaliers in 2009, and going away from that strategy in 2010 hurt them, as it’s hurting them now. They have experienced, competent passers and shooters on the perimeter. The Magic need to slow down their decision making, not their pace, and work to create the best shot possible. Do that and their perimeter game will finally start to click.”
• Nate Drexler makes an appearance in ESPN.com’s 5-on-5 writer roundup.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie chimes in on Dwight Howard winning the Defensive Player of the Year award for the third consecutive time in his career.
• Farewell to former Magic player Jason Williams.

Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images

• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “The Boston Celtics crafted the blueprint for beating the Orlando Magic. Now the Atlanta Hawks will rely on that strategy against the Magic when the teams begin their first-round, best-of-seven playoff series tonight at Amway Center. Cribbing directly from the Celtics’ successful playbook, the Hawks will dispatch a rugged center to guard all-star Dwight Howard one-on-one, a tactic that could allow the rest of Atlanta’s players to closely defend Orlando’s dangerous perimeter shooters. [...] Howard dominated. Orlando sank treys seemingly at will. And the Magic humiliated the Hawks, sweeping them out of the second round by winning four consecutive games by an average of 25.3 points. So, once he was named Atlanta’s head coach, Drew adopted the Boston model. Drew started journeyman Jason Collins at center. He shifted all-star Al Horford from center to power forward and moved Josh Smith from power forward to small forward. Those moves paid huge dividends when the Hawks won three of four games against the Magic during the recently completed regular season. Howard made only 43.1 percent of his shots against the Hawks, his lowest shooting percentage versus any team. And the Magic hit just 22.6 percent of their 3-point tries.”
• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Howard and [Jameer] Nelson seem like an unlikely pair at first blush. Dwight is 6-foot-10, 275 pounds, an Atlanta native and a single father. At 25, he’s four years younger than Nelson. A five-time all-star, he has blossomed from as a skinny teen drafted No. 1 overall out of high school into one of the NBA’s biggest attractions. Jameer is nearly a foot shorter, hailing from hard-scrabble Chester, Pa., married and a father of three. He played four years in college, and has had to prove doubters wrong because of his height. The Magic acquired him after a draft-day trade with Denver. Nelson rewarded their faith by being named to the all-star team in 2008-09. ‘Dwight and I are very fortunate to be here together. We don’t know any other organization,’ Nelson said. ‘I got some gray hair and he’s finally got facial hair. We’re still young. I’m 29 and he’s still a baby.’ They are the last men standing from that 2004 roster. Everything has changed except No. 12 and No. 14. Through various trades and transactions, 71 players under contract with the Magic have come and gone since ’04, including a whopping 16 since the end of the 2009-10 season. Howard and Nelson aren’t only the Magic’s longest-tenured players. They are currently the seventh longest-running NBA tandem on the same team, sharing that distinction with five other sets of teammates.”
• John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com: “Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick is the active type and one who doesn’t feel right physically if he’s unable to get in a workout or break a sweat on a daily basis. He’s so committed to that routine that Redick even found a way to mix in a weight-lifting workout or two last summer when he was on his honeymoon in Europe. So being unable to do much of anything at all for a three-week period and being out of action with the Magic for more than a month because of a lower abdominal strain was downright torturous for Redick. Once he was cleared to resume rehabilitation, Redick attacked the sessions where his arms and legs were strapped to tension bands, but not being able to play basketball worked tricks on his mind.”
• Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “All season Joe Johnson has said he looked forward to the playoffs so the Hawks could “prove everybody wrong.” That’s everybody who witnessed the Hawks’ surrender to the Magic in the playoffs last spring and said the team lacks mental toughness. The group includes critics who saw essentially the same Hawks players return this season and dismissed them as true Eastern Conference contenders. It includes one-time optimists who dismissed the Hawks as they staggered over the final two months of the season. Johnson didn’t say so, but he also could have been talking about himself. He struggled against Orlando for his second consecutive fade in the postseason. Johnson came out of last year’s big NBA free-agent summer with the most expensive contract in the league at $123.7 million, a deal that was roundly criticized. Johnson made his fifth consecutive All-Star game, but had the least productive and efficient of his six seasons with the Hawks. As it turns out, Johnson gets another crack at the Magic in the playoffs, but he said he doesn’t feel a burden to carry the Hawks.

Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images

When it comes to championship contenders in the NBA, there’s five teams that are universally agreed upon — for the most part. Ranking them by their efficiency differentials, they are the Miami Heat (+8.6), Chicago Bulls (+8.1), Los Angeles Lakers (+6.6), San Antonio Spurs (+6.6), and Boston Celtics (+6.2). And since their trades, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets get pub too.

Then there’s the Orlando Magic, sandwiched in between those teams with an efficiency differential of +6.6, right between the Lakers and Spurs.

At the start of the regular season, the Magic were widely regarded as a threat to win a title. And when Orlando jumped out to a 15-4 start to the year, they were fulfilling everyone’s expectations. There were no surprises. Then the month of December came and everything fell apart for the Magic in a hurry. Orlando hit a stretch of nine games where they only won once. A lack of energy and effort from the players on a consistent basis, plus the regression of Rashard Lewis and others aided in the Magic’s fall from grace. Scoring, which was supposed to be Orlando’s strength since they finished 4th in offensive efficiency last season, faltered and suddenly the offense became an average unit. General manager Otis Smith attempted to rectify the problem by acquiring Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, and Gilbert Arenas in two separate trades on December 19. For a time, it looked like Smith’s gamble paid off, as the Magic roared to a nine-game winning streak (tying a franchise record) that could have been longer had the basketball bounced in their favor in games against the New Orleans Hornets and Thunder that each resulted in losses. Nevertheless, it appeared as if Orlando fixed their woes and the chemistry seemingly improved. The acquisitions provided the Magic with the jolt of life they needed, especially offensively. But the honeymoon soon ended, as Orlando regressed to the mean on offense, and Smith was back where he started with the roster, except it can be argued things got worse than better.

For all the scoring that Turkoglu, Richardson, and Arenas were to provide, Smith sacrificed defense, depth, and size to get it. As the Magic began to come down from earth offensively, it soon became clear that they got weaker. Even though Orlando remains third in defensive efficiency, thanks in large part to Dwight Howard and Van Gundy, when the big fella is on the bench, the interior defense has been compromised without the presence of Marcin Gortat. Depth, the Magic’s calling card last year, is nearly gone now that only J.J. Redick and Ryan Anderson can be relied upon to contribute consistently. Free agent signees, Quentin Richardson and Chris Duhon, have done little to help the cause. As for Orlando’s size, with Lewis and Gortat absent, they have gone from big to little. In the league, size is needed to win championships and the Magic had it with Howard and Lewis manning the frontcourt with Gortat, Bass, and Anderson coming off the bench. But the trades reshuffled things, and have put a lot of pressure on players like Howard to stay on the floor and avoid foul trouble. Earl Clark is an intriguing prospect, but he’s not a player that Van Gundy can rely upon and trust at the moment. Sure, it’s true that Mickael Pietrus, Lewis, and Carter are not playing right now due to various injuries but there’s no denying that Orlando isn’t the same team.

It’s been an interesting season for the Magic.

The question is, following the aftermath of everything that’s occurred, whether or not they’re a team that can be taken seriously in the playoffs?

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Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

With the regular season winding down and the postseason just a mere six days away, I figured I’d do what other writers have been doing lately — reveal my awards ballot. I know that I’m not a member of the Pro Basketball Writers Association, which means I do not have a say in who wins which award but I still wanted to engage in this exercise.

Most Valuable Player

With LeBron James teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, coupled with ‘The Decision’ becoming a PR disaster, it’s no surprise that the race for the MVP award was wide-open this season. Voter fatigue was already going to be an issue for James in his quest for a third consecutive MVP, given that not even Michael Jordan accomplished the feat in his career. As such, it was going to take a historical year from James to overcome the many obstacles in his way for him to win the MVP but it didn’t happen. James’ numbers took a small hit across the board, with Wade’s presence being a corollary reason. That allowed a player like Dwight Howard to be his near equal statistically. When looking at their resumes and complete bodies of work, it’s hard not to choose between James or Howard for MVP — there’s no wrong answer between the two them.

Howard gets the nod because of many factors.

The improvements that everyone was waiting for from Howard were fulfilled, as he was able to maintain his efficiency on offense even with a career-high usage rate of 27.2 percent. The sign of a great scorer in the NBA is his ability to be efficient while shouldering a heavy load offensively, and Howard was able to do that this season. And it can’t be understated the type of impact Howard has when he’s not scoring, given that his presence in the low post allows the shooters for the Orlando Magic to enjoy plenty of open looks from the perimeter that wouldn’t come otherwise. Also known as the Shaquille O’Neal effect with Damon Jones as a prime example.

Likewise, Howard is vital to the Magic’s vaunted pick and roll attack that’s anchored by Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu, with the threat of him being the roll man making it extremely difficult for opposing defenses to aggressively contain the pick and rolls. With a refined post game and a reliable mid-range jumper from 10-15 feet that he’s making at a rate (40.2 percent) better than the league average (39.4 percent), coupled with an underrated ability to pass out of double-teams effectively, Howard has all the tools offensively. It’s only at the free-throw line where Howard continues to struggle.

Critics are quick to point out Howard’s lack of involvement in crunch-time situations but that’s partly due to his teammates not getting him the basketball enough, plus head coach Stan Van Gundy not calling plays for him at times. Sometimes it’s as simple as Orlando needing a three-point shot in the closing seconds of a game. Even then, Howard’s ability to rebound and defend gets overlooked way too many times in discussions of players performing in the clutch.

And when it comes down to it, there’s not another player in the league that can impact a game defensively like Howard. Despite general manager Otis Smith acquiring acquiring Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, and Gilbert Arenas, thus becoming far weaker on defense in theory, the Magic are ranked 3rd in defensive efficiency — better than teams like the Miami Heat — thanks in large part to Howard’s ability to coerce opposing players into shooting jumpshots while limiting their chances at the free-throw line and devouring rebounds. Van Gundy’s schemes are a factor too, but Howard puts it into practice on countless possessions, which is the primary reason that Orlando defends post players better than any other team. Or that Howard is able to slow down a pick and roll, recover to the paint, and provide weak-side defense in one felt swoop. Was it mentioned that the Magic do the best job of limiting field goal attempts at the rim because of Howard’s intimidating presence in the lane? Indeed, Howard is an omnipresent defensive force.

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Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Now that the national championship game has been played, is it okay to admit that this year’s NCAA Tournament, including the championship, wasn’t really all that great?

Whenever I throw accusations around about “March Madness,” all my friends who call themselves “purists”—and who are convinced that the NCAA Tournament is perfect—chastise me and quickly explain how this latest tournament has been the best tournament ever.

I’m going to take a few moments to address the most common arguments for “why this year’s tournament proves March Madness is the best!”

Not a single number-one-seed is in the Final Four
This is by far the biggest “selling point” for anyone defending this year’s tournament, and is by far the most ridiculous. How does eliminating the best teams in the tournament make it better?  Similarly, how is it possibly more enjoyable to watch VCU play against Butler than it would be to watch Duke play Ohio State?

For me, a good tournament ends with the most elite and skilled players going head-to-head, not mediocre mid-major squads looking sheepish and trying their hardest to appear as if they somehow belong at the big dance. Yes, Butler and VCU proved that on any given day, a good team can get beat. So what? If I want to figure out who the best NBA team is, I don’t force the Lakers to play a one-game neutral-site playoff against the Nuggets to figure out who’s better. I play them off in a series, and the battle reveals the winner, and the “best team.”

Upsets are always fun to watch, but when it comes down to it, a big part of what was missing in the Final Four, and more specifically in the championship game, was the presence of an elite team. Ugly basketball isn’t fun to watch.

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• Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel: “I planned to write a long-form, detailed look at why Dwight Howard is a more deserving Most Valuable Player than Derrick Rose this morning. In a nutshell, I felt Howard’s presence on both offense and defense was being overshadowed by Rose’s more entertaining story — the young point guard carrying a team of veterans to the conference’s best record is more riveting than the dependable, rock-solid big man making up for his team’s defensive deficiencies to finish fourth in the East. But after what’s happened on the blogs and Twitter today, that argument is played out. While the mainstream media is whole-heartedly behind Rose — as Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy correctly said yesterday — some of the Internet’s most-respected writers have put their support behind the Magic’s superstar center.”
• Maybe next year for Dwight Howard and the MVP award?
• Players for the Orlando Magic will grow beards from now until the season is over.
• Brandon Bass and Gilbert Arenas stood out for their defense last night against the New York Knicks.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie: “This won’t be a terrible miss, handing the MVP to Rose and passing over Dwight Howard. Rose’s all-around play and leadership abilities make him a worthy MVP candidate, and Howard is not without fault. Defending MVP LeBron James misses that party mainly because of his failures this season in terms of leadership and clutch play. With a bit of creativity and less passive/aggressive posturing, James could have led his Miami Heat to the best record in the NBA. Instead, he fell back on bad habits and dribbled that MVP award away.”
• More on the Magic growing playoff beards.
• It’ll be interesting to see Howard with a beard.
• Howard is running away with the most dunks in the NBA.
• Adam Figman of SLAM ONLINE: “On the other side of the country, the Knicks confirmed the fact that, thus far, Denver has gotten the winning side of that little deal the two teams made a few weeks back. New York continued its now-two-week stammer, falling to the Magic at home after Orlando shut them down with a strong fourth quarter. As would be expected, Dwight Howard (33 points, 11 boards, 3 blocks) beasted, and every other Magic starter scored in double figures as well. Carmelo Anthony played modestly and led the Knicks with 24, but it was Amar’e Stoudemire who didn’t come through at all, scoring only 13 on 6-20 shooting from the field.”
• Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk: “The guy who will come in second in the MVP balloting this season is Dwight Howard, but statistics and Stan Van Gundy say he is more deserving. (To be up front, if I had a vote this would be my guy.) He is averaging 23.1 points and 14.2 rebounds a game shooting 60 percent (Rose is 44 percent), but he is also the primary reason the Magic are an elite defensive team. He is integral to everything the Magic do. Where are the Magic without Howard?”
• More on the beards.
• Howard dominated the Knicks in yesterday’s game.

• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “Stan Van Gundy and his players knew next to nothing about Baruch College, the school in Manhattan where their team practiced Tuesday afternoon. But Baruch College students knew all about the Orlando Magic. Word that the Magic were inside the school’s main gym swept across the compact campus of about 15,500 students. The news spread via cell-phone text  messages and word of mouth, and a crowd of kids waited in the hallway outside the gym to catch any glimpse of the players. ‘Yo,’ one student yelled. ‘Dwight Howard is here!’ Those students peered into the gym through small, rectangular windows on the metal doors. Many of those students held their cell phones up to those windows and took photos or recorded portions of the practice.”
• Noah Sharfman of OrlandoMagic.com: “Attention NBA head coaches: do you want the secret of how to slow down the Orlando Magic’s high-powered offense? Listen closely because the answer may be surprising. To shut the Magic down offensively, you must slow down and limit Jameer Nelson. Nelson’s on-court production is often a tell-tale sign for the Magic as it relates to the team’s success. On a recent telecast between the Magic and Phoenix Suns, analyst Jeff Van Gundy said the key to the Magic’s success is in the hands of its point guards, specifically Nelson. Simply put, when Nelson is playing well, the Magic win. This season, Nelson is having a very productive offensive year, averaging 13 points and over six assists a game, the highest assist mark of his seven-year NBA career. Nelson has already scored in double figures more times this season than he did all of last season, while also leading the team in assists in more games than he did in 2009-10. This season, when Nelson dishes out seven or more assists in a game, the Magic are 20-8. In addition to sparking the Magic’s offense with his scoring and passing, Nelson has delivered late in games for the Magic. Nelson’s most memorable moment this season came at the end of the Magic’s recent matchup against the Denver Nuggets. With 5.7 seconds remaining in a tie game, Nelson collected an inbounds pass near midcourt, took three dribbles and pulled up for a shot well beyond the arc. Hitting nothing but net, Nelson drained the game-winning 3-pointer over Denver’s Ty Lawson as time expired, securing an 85-82 victory for the Magic.”
• Dwight Howard is optimistic about the Orlando Magic’s playoff chances.
• For head coach Stan Van Gundy, a win is a win.
• Even though the Magic won last night, they clearly were disinterested in the fourth quarter.
• Britt Robson of Sports Illustrated with a poignant observation: “The Magic rank third in defensive efficiency, the same as last season, and are actually yielding 1.4 fewer points per 100 possessions than they did in 2009-10. They are five wins behind last year’s pace because their offensive efficiency has plummeted from fourth to 12th. Don’t blame MVP candidate Dwight Howard, who is averaging 23 points on 60 percent shooting, although his usual struggles at the free-throw line and paucity of assists haven’t helped. The reality is that GM Otis Smith‘s blockbuster deals in December have pretty much been a wash. Jason Richardson hasn’t been that much better or worse than Vince Carter, and Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas have been mild and major disappointments, respectively. But the real cost was losing ace backup center Marcin Gortat. As well as Brandon Bass has played, he can’t patrol the paint with the same authority as Gortat.”
• Note to Van Gundy: learn to text Gilbert Arenas on BBM.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie with some words of wisdom concerning Howard: “All the “where would they be without him?” crap you hear about Derrick Rose? It’s meant for Dwight Howard. Because without this man’s dominant 28-point, 14-rebound, four-block, four-steal night, Orlando loses by 25 to the freakin’ Cavaliers. Derrick Rose may lead my favorite team to a championship this year, but I’m not daft enough to overlook Howard’s MVP season.”

• Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel: “Gilbert Arenas’ left knee is technically healthy, but the effects of his prior injuries are still affecting him every day. Occasionally the arthritis in his knee makes it feel tight, which limits his quickness and jumping ability. And recently he’s been bothered by tightness in his left calf, a condition related to muscles that were weakened while suffering from his previous knee troubles. The most frustrating part, he says, is the unpredictability of the injuries. On Friday, for instance, he participated in shootaround and felt OK until the knee tightened up in the early afternoon. When he warmed up before the Orlando Magic’s game against the Nuggets, he knew he couldn’t play, not even if it was a playoff game. The same thing happened on March 1 against the New York Knicks. Arenas, who seems baffled by his knee troubles, has come up with a number of hypotheses for his injuries, including the weather. Now, he has a new one — too much sitting down.”
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “Priority No. 1 for the Orlando Magic tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers? Cut down on all those turnovers. The Magic have averaged 16.8 turnovers per game this month alone, resulting directly in 18.1 points for their opponents. (See chart below.) That has to change for Orlando to have a long playoff run.”
• J.J. Redick‘s injury has caused a trickle-down effect for the Orlando Magic.
• Expect the Magic to involve Dwight Howard on offense in new ways.
• The iPad has become a hit with nearly all the players for Orlando: “Guard Gilbert Arenas plays the game Angry Birds on his iPad. Arenas, a huge fan of the TV show 24, watches episodes of Jack Bauer’s exploits. [...] After wins on the road, center Dwight Howard occasionally has positioned an iPad in his locker and played hip-hop music. The tablet connects the Magic to each other in other ways, too. Power forward Ryan Anderson, [Chris] Duhon, shooting guard J.J. Redick and Director of Player Development Adonal Foyle have downloaded an app to their individual iPads called Words With Friends. Words With Friends is a knockoff of the board game Scrabble, and it arguably has become the second-most popular competitive outlet among Magic players — trailing, perhaps, only the sport of basketball itself.”
• Gilbert Arenas is questionable for tonight’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post profiles the Magic’s “Monday malaise.”
• Marc Stein of ESPN.com: “The good folks at Elias, who keep track of everything, inform us that Jameer’s triple at the horn to beat Denver was the season’s 15th buzzer-beater and the third from 3 (Tyreke and Durant had the others).”
• Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk says Orlando is treading water right now.
• Zach Lowe of The Point Forward: “In the Ryan Anderson vs. Brandon Bass debate that roils among Orlando fans, I find myself always on the Anderson side, even if the debate is a bit of a false one because both figure to get minutes. Anderson is typecast as a three-point shooter, but he has long been a good offensive rebounder skilled at slithering along the baseline to get inside position and generally fighting hard and smart to get the Magic an extra possession or two. He’s also become better at posting up smaller guys when a pick-and-roll draws a switch. He doesn’t have Bass’ athleticism, but to my eyes, he’s a better positional defender, less likely to jump at a pump fake or turn his head at a bad time.”

AP Photo/Reinhold Matay

BOX SCORE

Coming off a five-game road trip, the Orlando Magic were able to defeat the Denver Nuggets by the score of 85-82. Jameer Nelson was the hero for the Magic, as he was able to make a game-winning three-pointer with time expiring. The stage was set when Orlando had a two-point lead with 23.9 seconds left. The Nuggets had possession and a chance to either tie or win the game in regulation. Ty Lawson ran a 1/5 pick and roll with Nene Hilario. Unfortunately for Lawson, he threw a poor bounce pass to Nene as he cut to the basket and turned the basketball over. Hedo Turkoglu grabbed the ball and was subsequently fouled. Turkoglu, however, missed both free-throws, which would have given the Magic a chance to force the Nuggets to tie the game with a three-pointer or ice it altogether. Instead, Turkoglu left the door open and Denver was able to capitalize on the ensuing possession, as Danilo Gallinari was able to attack the basket. Ironically enough, Gallinari drew a foul on Turkoglu and was able to make both free-throws. With the game tied and 5.7 seconds left, Orlando opted to give Nelson the ball at the top of the key and he was able to deliver with a game-winning three-point shot that looked good the moment it left it hands. The Magic were led by a balanced attack, as five players were able to score in double-figures. Dwight Howard finished with 16 points, 18 rebounds, four steals, and five blocks. Turkoglu flirted with a triple-double, chipping in with 15 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. Nelson, Jason Richardson, and Brandon Bass each had 13 points. The Nuggets entered the game with the best offense in the NBA, a ranking they’ve been able to maintain even after trading their two best player on offense — Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. It seemed certain that Denver was going to test Orlando’s defense and cause problems.

Instead, it was none of the sort.

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