Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Read more…

• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “The Miami Heat don’t intend to give Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard easy baskets when the two teams play tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena. So what else is new? Howard has averaged 20.0 points on 56.1 percent shooting in three games against the Heat this year. At first glance, those statistics seem to indicate that Howard has steamrolled Miami this season. But, in reality, the Heat have performed better against him that most teams. Howard is averaging 23.5 points per game on 59.9 percent shooting against the rest of the league this season. ‘They do a pretty good job of swarming him with a lot of people,’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said after his team’s shootaround this afternoon. ‘They’re not all out double-teaming him, but as he commits to his move, they come with virtually everybody. So he doesn’t get a lot of room. They’ve got some very athletic guys. [LeBron] James and [Dwyane] Wade both come to block from behind, and they do; they make it difficult on him. And they’ve got size. They’ve got [Erick] Dampier and they’ve got [Zydrunas] Ilgauskas and they’ve got Joel Anthony, who’s a great shot-blocker. So they’ve got size on him and a lot of people coming to help. I think they do a pretty good job of swarming him in the paint.’ ”
• Head coach Stan Van Gundy provides his take on the NBA buyout policy.
• According to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, it’s do-or-die for Dwight Howard’s MVP campaign.
• Who is the Magic’s defensive stopper? Earl Clark or Quentin Richardson?
• Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post: “Were his percentages on long jumpers down across the board, we might simply say [Jason] Richardson is mired in a shooting slump, out of which he ought to break out soon. But his accuracy on long, two-point jumpers in Orlando is nearly identical to what it was in Phoenix, yet his effectiveness on threes has diminished considerably. His percentages elsewhere are roughly in line with what he put up as a Sun, so we have to wonder about the sorts of three-pointers he’s getting.”
• John Hollinger of ESPN Insider deciphers if Orlando is still an elite team and championship contender: “Orlando, meanwhile, has Howard, a wild card because of his ability to overwhelm defenses that lack a huge, physical center. With Howard having refined his post game this season and making a real run at James for the league’s PER crown, he’s providing a much more broad-based offensive threat to build the Magic attack around. Combine that with noted Howard stopper Kendrick Perkins’ departure to the Western Conference, and Orlando has to like its odds in the playoffs.”
• If Howard leaves Orlando in 2012, where would he go?
• An update on the statistical revolution in the NBA from Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus: “Basketball analysts have had it easier for a variety of reasons. I suspect that the NBA is a little more open to change and new ideas by its very nature than baseball, the sport most rooted in tradition. APBRmetrics also benefited from coming of age right at the same time sabermetrics was breaking through. The publication of Moneyball tipped off both sports to the incentives to using statistics, since Michael Lewis’ bestseller was read by curious owners around the NBA.”

Photo by Fernando Medina

Two blockbuster trades.

Nine wins in a row.

For people that are wondering why there’s been a lot of attention surrounding the Orlando Magic lately, those are a few reasons. Every writer in the mainstream media and blogosphere has an opinion on the new-look Magic.

Like Beckley Mason, one of the rising stars in the NBA blogging universe.

Mason is the proprietor of HoopSpeak, a general basketball blog which joined the TrueHoop Network in October 2010 and is a must-read for hardcore fans. Mason and his colleague — Ethan Sherwood Strauss — aren’t afraid to touch on topics ranging from the ongoing saga involving Carmelo Anthony’s future with the Denver Nuggets, the confusing brilliance of Chris Paul, or even James Harden and his beard. As a result, it only seemed appropriate to tab Mason and gather his insight on one of the most popular storylines in the league. That other team in Florida.

Mason provides his opinion on how Orlando stacks up against the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference, the player (or players) that intrigue him the most on the Magic, and more.

For more wisdom from Mason, make sure to follow him on Twitter — @BeckleyMason

_______

It’s been 11 games since general manager Otis Smith pulled the trigger and made two blockbuster trades to shake up the roster for the Orlando Magic. In the meantime, the team has gone 9-2 — winning the last nine in a row. What are your thoughts on the moves?

When I read about these moves on Twitter, my initial reaction was “this makes the Magic incrementally better but this isn’t an earth shaking move.” I think that sentiment has been proven wrong.

Evaluating the trade today, I’d argue it’s gone a long ways toward solving the Magic’s greatest deficiencies over the first half of the season, which were that they didn’t push the ball enough for easy offense and didn’t have enough play makers on the court. [Jason] Richardson is, I think, the best transition shooting guard in the league. He’s great at shooting the spot up three and seems to beat his man down court a handful of times each game. He has this nuanced skill that I never noticed before he played in Phoenix, which is the ability to catch the ball over his shoulder/head like a wide receiver on a fly pattern then finish under control. He also loves oops, and Jameer [Nelson] throws a mean oop.

Read more…

While the Orlando Magic lick their wounds from the beatdown they suffered at the hands of the Miami Heat on Friday, it’s worth revisiting one of the few bright spots from that game. Dwight Howard‘s performance against the Heat, in which he looked more dominant than ever — as he should have been — against the likes of Joel Anthony, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Jamaal Magloire, is a development that’s worth keeping tabs on before the two rivals meet again in late November.

Want to see true growth on offense for Howard? Watch.

• Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel: “Perhaps the most surprising element of the Orlando Magic’s 112-83 victory was the play of Mickael Pietrus; specifically, the fact that he didn’t play in the first half. Stan Van Gundy wanted to stick to a nine-man rotation, and that surprisingly left both Pietrus and Ryan Anderson on the outside looking in. We knew there was a chance Anderson might not play – it was either him or Brandon Bass – but Pietrus riding the pine? Not many saw that one coming, including Pietrus himself. [...] Pietrus won’t have long to hold on to it, as he’ll most certainly be called on tonight against the Miami Heat. With LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the floor most of the night, Pietrus’ abilities will be necessary to guard one of those players throughout the game.”
• Dwight Howard on tonight’s game: “We can make a statement. But we don’t want to go out there and be so hyped emotionally that you forget your purpose. We know we’re going to be playing against a team that’s gotten all the hype all year. And our biggest thing is coming out and executing the right way, limiting their possessions and making them play against us. That’s the biggest thing. I think when you go into a game that’s hyped up and very emotional, that stuff wears off as the game goes on. So, we just come out and weather the storm, because they’re going to come out hyped and ready to go. If we weather the storm early, we should win.”
• Howard missed a lot of free throws against the Washington Wizards, and had to do push-ups because of it. Willie Mays Hayes, anyone?
• Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post performs an excellent interview with Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus and asks him a variety of questions related to the Orlando Magic. Here’s a snippet from Pelton: “In some sort of hypothetical situation where I did not have to deal with the players’ reactions to their minutes, I would probably play Anderson and [Rashard] Lewis fairly equally at power forward, give Lewis 10-15 minutes a night at small forward and leave Bass on the bench. Anderson is, to me, pretty comfortably the superior player. I totally understand why Stan Van Gundy wants to use all three guys, however.”
• Michael Wallace of The Heat Index previews the rivalry between the Magic and the Miami Heat.
• Five things to watch for with the Heat.
• Rob Peterson of NBA FanHouse does a fantastic job of chronicling head coach Stan Van Gundy’s press conference decorum: “Like Phil Jackson, who sometimes speaks to reporters as if his 11 championship rings gives him carte blanche to condescend and Gregg Popovich, who on occasion treats the media as if they were dim cattle, Van Gundy suffers no fools. But compared the other two, Van Gundy is an unvarnished grinder, buoyed in the knowledge that his knowledge of the game is far greater than your knowledge of anything else. Most impressive was his use of the word “look,” which could take on many implications depending on the tone of his voice or his body language.”
• Tim Povtak of NBA FanHouse: “The Magic, beaten by Boston last spring in the conference final, has been quietly impressive this fall, even if no one else cared. They won all seven exhibition games by an average of 26 points. They won their opener against the dreadful Wizards by 29 points. Now they will play the game they’ve been waiting to play for months.”
• I wonder what that game is?
• Zach Lowe of The Point Forward takes a look at in-game strategy for Orlando and Miami: “The Heat will almost certainly have to help center Joel Anthony, who is listed as 20 pounds lighter than Howard but is probably giving up more weight than that. Orlando loves to play an inside-out game and allow its elite three-point shooting to burn opponents that double-team Howard. But if there are two defenders capable of helping on Howard without sacrificing too much team defensive integrity, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James fit that description. They are long, quick and athletic enough to create some chaos without yielding clean passing lanes and uncontested shots. As I’ve said before, I expect Miami to take a page from the U.S.’ gold-medal winning World Championship team when facing an elite back-to-the-basket big man. That is: Have your most athletic players fly around the court to create confusion and force turnovers. It worked for the United States in Turkey, but it never faced anyone like Howard or a three-point shooting army as accurate as Orlando’s. Of course, Miami could choose to stay at home and let Howard go to work on its big men. We’ll see.”
• Matt Moore of CBSSports.com with a must-read article on Howard’s attitude towards the Heat: “After talking to Howard this summer? I immediately started predicting he would average over 30 points a game against the Heat. And I’m still convinced that will happen. That’s pretty much what you get out of Howard when you bring up the Heat. As he has dealt with the talk of this team all. Summer. Long. Howard has heard no end to the talk about Miami and the new super core. It started plaguing him right after it happened, prompting him to decline questions about Miami for a time, until he realized it was pointless. In Chicago, he was friendly with Wade, the way superstar NBA players are. It’s a brotherhood, after all, and in the end these guys know that one another helps them get paid. But there were still moments where you could tell Howard’s motivation has grown and expanded after listening to the Heat hype for three solid months. Make no mistake, behind the lighthearted superhero facade is a man who is very bitter over the way three players have supplanted themselves not only above him in the preseason rankings, but butted him out of his own state. Florida is supposed to be Howard’s home, and instead all he hears about are his neighbors to the south. This has disturbed him, compounding the anger and frustration left over from a postseason where the Celtics took the bite out of the dog and left his team whimpering as they advanced to the Finals. Boston returned Orlando to where most people consider it: also-ran status. Miami has made it a sideshow. Howard doesn’t like that. Howard Smash.”
• Trey Kerby of The Basketball Jones explains why Howard has broad shoulders.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie has more on Howard’s in-game calisthenics: “Howard, clearly bemused and frustrated all at once, went to the end of the bench, and started doing push-ups. The TNT cameras, as you can see above, clearly caught him. Then the cameras panned away toward live action, but, yep, Dwight was still doing push-ups in the background. [...] But Magic coach Stan Van Gundy seems impressively unaware.”
• You know who else is tired of talking about Miami? Yes, Marcin Gortat.
• Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook breaks down the Magic’s win from last night.
• Seats are still available for the Heat’s regular season home opener!
• Bill Simmons of ESPN’s Page 2: “You know who has the most to gain with the 2010-11 Miami Heat other than LeBron and Wade? Dwight Howard. He could and should rip them apart much like Wilt ran amok in the 1960s against 6-foot-8 white guys who smoked butts at halftime. Does he have it in him? Will Howard ever be anything other than an awesome physical specimen who happens to play basketball only because it’s the sport that made the most sense for him?”

• Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post: “The [Orlando] Magic/Heat rivalry has proven fairly one-sided in Orlando’s favor since 2007, but the Heat’s appearance has more to do with their future roster than the one that’s struggled against Orlando in the recent past. Indeed, among the 18 players the Heat have under contract, only Joel Anthony, Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, Jamaal Magloire, and Dwyane Wade have suited up as members of the Heat against Orlando. But in adding LeBron James this summer, Miami has certainly vaulted itself into championship contention, and made its relationship with the Magic more interesting. James’ incredible showing in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals wasn’t enough to get his Cavaliers over the hump against the Magic, but it did establish him as an individual rival of Orlando’s. And it’s valid to compare him to [Dwight] Howard, insofar as they’re both among the best players in the league who entered it just one year apart.”
• Dan Savage and Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com review Vince Carter‘s restaurant in Daytona Beach. Two thumbs up.
• Grade the Orlando Magic’s off-season.
• Dwight Howard: “How’s ya’ll’s summer going? Mine has been crazy traveling all over the world. I just got back last week from going to India for the NBA and China to shoot a new movie with my man, Carmelo Anthony. I know there has been a lot of talk about Melo getting traded this summer, but trust me ya’ll, we were just shooting a movie together and didn’t even talk ball that much. The movie is called, “Amazing” and will be out next summer, so I hope you guys can check it out!!!”
• Howard is also raising money for the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

• John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com: “I think Miami’s moves have absolutely lit a fire under players all around the NBA, and more specifically ones in Orlando. Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, [J.J.] Redick and others have already pointed out that every summer drill and track session is done with Miami in mind. It’s absolutely on this season between the Magic and the Heat. Those four regular-season games will be emotionally charged and likely tune-ups for the Eastern Conference Finals. One more thought to consider: Orlando’s two strongest positions (center with Dwight Howard and point guard with [Jameer] Nelson) are Miami’s two weakest spots. At the end of the day, Miami will still be stuck using Joel Anthony against Howard and Mario Chalmers against Nelson. That could be just enough of an advantage for the Magic to nullify Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and James.“
• Color me skeptical about that last comment.
• A look back at Dwight Howard’s time spent in India: “It took the Summer of 2010 for the NBA to once again to make its massive presence felt on the Indian shores, and that presence came in the form name of Dwight Howard. Suddenly, ‘Superman’ became sort of the flavor of the month amongst the basketball circles in India, and for a country full of many, many flavors and masalas, he came in as a hell of a big deal. Dwight was in India from August 10-14, sandwiching his visit here between a couple of visits to East Asian countries like China and Taiwan. Although the popularity of the NBA popularity in India still has a long way to go to match those other countries, it has been growing rapidly in recent years. [...] Over the past few days, Howard has brought his message of the joys of basketball to India, visiting Bangalore and New Delhi in his tour. India is a country that sorely lacks modern sport infrastructure and facilities, but Howard said that this shouldn’t deter young players from working on improving their athletic ability.”
• Head coach Stan Van Gundy on the Miami Heat: “If I look at what the Bulls did winning 72 games and I look at the Heat roster, I am going to tell you that the Heat roster is better than any roster that Michael Jordan played with the Bulls. I don’t think that people predicting them breaking the win total and being in the 70s and the whole thing, I don’t think those are expectations that are out of line based on their roster… Dwyane Wade is certainly, in my opinion anyway, as good as he was, is better than Scottie Pippen. Chris Bosh is better than Toni Kukoc. Mike Miller is every bit as good a shooter as (John) Paxson or (Steve) Kerr or anybody they put there. Plus, he’s 6′8″. If you start going down the list, I don’t think there is any question that the roster the Heat have is as talented a roster if not more so as any roster there has ever been in the NBA.”
• Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk thinks Van Gundy is engaging in reverse psychology.
• Where will Chris Paul play in 2013? Orlando could be a possibility: “Naturally, Paul wants to play with a dominant center, and a PG-C tandem of Paul and Dwight Howard would be devastating, perhaps one of the best in league history — just look at what Paul accomplished with Tyson Chandler as his big man in New Orleans. The Hornets are doing all they can to keep Paul happy, but if he still wants out, they’ll have to listen to offers eventually unless they want a disgruntled face of the franchise. The Magic might be able to deliver the best deal out there, a package starting with All-Stars Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter, who has essentially just one year of guaranteed money left on his contract.”
• Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference takes a look at which offensive rate stats are the most consistent when players change roles on a team. Paine looks at True Shooting Percentage, assist percentage, turnover percentage, free throw rate, and offensive rebound percentage. Here’s what he found: “As far as the correlations themselves go, offensive rebounding % and assist rate seem to be almost completely independent of a player’s role — i.e., if a player has a good assist rate at 15% possession usage, you can basically expect that to be retained even at 25% possession usage, etc. Perhaps it is because those two stats measure tendency as much as ability, although there’s certainly skill being captured in each as well. True shooting % is easily the least consistent stat when a player changes roles, which seems to back up the concept of skill curves. When a player has a high TS% and a low possession %, it may be that his efficiency is inflated by taking relatively easy shots, attempts that comprise a smaller proportion of his shot selection when he is asked to increase his usage. Along the same lines, turnover rate was the 2nd-least consistent offensive rate stat when changing roles, suggesting that not only is shooting % dependent on the player’s usage, but the ability to avoid turnovers is as well. Finally, free throw rate was in the middle of the pack in terms of correlations.”
• Can intangibles be quantified? Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus searches for an answer.

Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images

Via Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:

The [Orlando] Magic will open their season — and play their first regular-season game at Amway Center — on Oct. 28, when they host the Washington Wizards at 8 p.m.

One night later in Miami, Orlando will play its first regular-season game against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the new-look Miami Heat.

The Magic will face the Heat three additional times: in Orlando on Nov. 24, in Orlando on Feb. 3 and in Miami on March 3. All four of Orlando’s games against Miami will be televised nationally.

October 29, November 24, February 3, and March 3.

Circle those dates because that’s when the Orlando Magic will face off against the Miami Heat in the regular season. Yes, there are 78 other games on the schedule that mean something — some more than others — but there’s no question that when the Magic and the Heat go toe-to-toe with each other, it’s going to be an event.

Many people are hoping that the matchups will live up to the hype.

Everyone keeps mentioning that Dwight Howard should have a field day going up against the likes of Joel Anthony, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Juwan Howard, Jamaal Magloire, and whoever else that wants to volunteer. Yes, that’s true. And Orlando’s 4-out/1-in offensive system (at first glance) appears to matchup relatively well against Miami, given that Rashard Lewis has historically had good success against Chris Bosh at the power forward position, given his ability to spread the floor. Can’t forget about Jameer Nelson in the 1/5 pick and roll with Howard, either.

But who on the Magic is going to stop LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Bosh?

That question has been addressed in the past, but it’s going to be left somewhat unanswered until the games start to count. The wait couldn’t be any longer, it seems like.

• George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel: “There were about 50 foster kids in the auditorium Wednesday afternoon. David Vaughn’s story did not resonate with all of them, but hopefully a handful of faces in the crowd heard every word, and found strength in his journey sprinkled with desperation and determination. Vaughn told them about his highs as a first-round draft pick of the Orlando Magic in 1995, the $1.8 million contract, the cars and all the other extravagant toys; his lows of depression and violence, and how he ended up as a wayward husband, homeless and destitute. ”It’s a great experience to share my story,” Vaughn said. David Vaughn’s comeback likely won’t be documented in Sports Illustrated or ESPN, but it is worth telling because it reflects a tenacity not often seen on the competitive fields of play.”
• Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk: “Nobody is going to be better than the Miami Heat at the two, three and four spots. But picture them playing Orlando. Jameer Nelson has the ball (guarded by Mario Chalmers) and Dwight Howard (covered by Joel Anthony) comes out to set the high pick. That is a hard-to-stop P&R combo for any team, and the undersized Anthony is really going to struggle to stop the strength of Howard rolling to the rim. LeBron, Wade and Bosh are going to have a hard time helping out because you can’t leave Orlando’s perimeter shooters (especially when J.J. Redick is in for Vince Carter). Can Orlando beat Miami this way? Can some combination of the O’Neals (Shaquille and Jermaine) along with Kendrick Perkins (when he returns from injury) do the same thing for Boston? Is there a model for beating the Heat?”
• Chad Ford and John Hollinger of ESPN Insider update their NBA Future Power Rankings. The Magic fall from No. 3 last year to No. 7 this year: “We liked Orlando’s roster the best in March, but now the Magic don’t even have the best roster in Florida. Plus, we’re focused down the line, past this coming season, and that hurts the outlook for four of the five Magic starters. Nonetheless, this team looks stacked for the long term with Dwight Howard at center and a constellation of minor stars surrounding him. Additionally, keep an eye on young forward Ryan Anderson, who could become a better version of Troy Murphy. Orlando’s market looms as another big factor in its favor. With a new arena, a balmy climate and a dominant big man, it’s already near the top of Chris Paul’s short list of future destinations and could pop up on other players’ lists, too. The only major concern is the serious money the team is taking on. Orlando is a small market, but the team is well into the luxury tax and probably will remain that way for a while unless ownership demands a budget slashing. For now, it hasn’t, and with that, solid personnel moves under GM Otis Smith and the exacting coaching of Stan Van Gundy, the Magic get good marks for management.”
• Dwight Howard is one of the best bargains in the league.
• Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game drops some knowledge: “To those still clinging to what they know, I’d ask this: what’s a power forward? What characteristics link Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Rashard Lewis, Lamar Odom, Reggie Evans, Tyrus Thomas, and J.J. Hickson? Not rebounding. Not scoring. Not skill set. Not height relative to their teammates. Not even the spaces they occupy on the floor. I’m at a total loss as to the criterion that would group that bunch together, which makes the assessment “Player X isn’t a real power forward” pretty much worthless. I think I know what it means, but without the ability to define the contemporary power forward, how could I really know for sure?”
• Here is the inspiration for Mahoney’s post, by the way. The topic is about traditional positions.

• Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is letting his opinions fly and — another $35,000 later — he’s learning freedom of speech isn’t free. Not in the NBA. We’ll get to another topic — what Van Gundy thinks about Michael Jordan, his Charlotte Bobcats and Jordan’s place in basketball history as the supposed all-time greatest player in a second. You’ll want to stick around for that.But late Thursday, Van Gundy and Magic small forward Matt Barnes — the team’s two most outspoken members — were fined $35,000 each for their public comments regarding the officiating after Wednesday night’s Game 2 against the Bobcats at Amway Arena. Van Gundy and Barnes were talking to the media about how star center Dwight Howard is being treated by the referees in the first-round series. Orlando leads Charlotte, 2-0.”
• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “[Marcin] Gortat, who averaged 13.4 minutes per game this season, has played about 20 minutes in each of the first two games. Howard only has managed around 28 minutes per game — about 10-12 minutes fewer than the Magic expected to play him this postseason. ‘I think it’s always good to have a back-up center. Everybody wants them, but there are not a ton of them,’ said GM Otis Smith, who matched the Mavs’ five-year, $34-million offer sheet for Gortat, a restricted free agent. ‘Marcin comes in and keeps us somewhat whole. He’s not the same guy (as Howard), doesn’t demand the same respect, but he can hold his own at the position when Dwight’s in foul trouble.’ ”
• Click here to read what Barnes and Van Gundy said to get fined by the NBA. Van Gundy, not surprisingly, stands by his comments in defense of Dwight Howard.
• John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com examines Howard’s foul troubles: “Van Gundy’s theory that Howard is the most foul-prone superstar in the league certainly seems true when analyzing numbers from the regular season. Howard was whistled for 287 fouls this season, most in the NBA. His 3.5 fouls a game were the third-most in the NBA behind Portland’s Greg Oden (4.0), Sacramento’s Jason Thompson (3.7) and Memphis’ Marc Gasol (3.7). Indiana’s Roy Hibbert (3.5), Utah’s Paul Millsap (3.5) and Carlos Boozer (3.5) were tied with Howard. Of the five players expected to be on the first-team All-NBA team this season – Cleveland’s LeBron James (1.56 fouls a game), Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant (2.08), Miami’s Dwyane Wade (2.35), Los Angeles Kobe Bryant (2.56) and Howard (3.50) – the Magic’s big man is far and away the most foul-prone.”
• Basketball Prospectus proudly reveals the first Internet Basketball Awards. Take a look.
• Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie chooses his Defensive Player of the Year: “By March, or even February, this was a foregone conclusion. Dwight Howard changes games. He changes a team’s offensive game plan before it even has the chance to hit the floor, and then once the ball goes up, Howard changes shots. He changes plays, he changes the arc on a shot taken within his vicinity, and he changes the chances a team has at a second shot should it escape his grasp and carom off the rim. No other player in the NBA changes things, defensively, as much as Dwight Howard. No guard, no other big man, no roaming wing. Nobody.”
• Henry Abbott of TrueHoop chimes in on the Jekyll and Hyde act of Vince Carter, with an excerpt from yours truly.
• Austin Burton of Dime Magazine compares Howard to Shaquille O’Neal in that they are two of the most difficult players to referee: “Last night’s Magic/Bobcats matchup was another case of the refs not knowing how to deal with Dwight. He got his first foul when Theo Ratliff was literally hugging him in full view of the refs, but no whistle blew until Dwight used an elbow to free himself. His third foul was also pretty weak, and then Dwight picked up his fourth when he blocked Gerald Wallace at the rim but the refs called him for body contact. I’ve seen plenty of similar plays where dudes like Joel Anthony would get away with that; you expect a superstar like Dwight to get away with it, too. Just like in Shaq’s prime, the refs can’t figure it out because Dwight is so strong and so physical.”
• Rob Mahoney of Hardwood Paroxysm: “This series is just ugly. That’s fine, honestly. I’m sure Orlando doesn’t mind facing a pretty tough defensive opponent in the first round, even if it makes things a bit more difficult than they could have been. That’s exactly what’s happened in Games 1 & 2: Orlando has struggled to develop an offensive rhythm, even with Dwight Howard seemingly providing a mismatch against Charlotte’s bigs. Good defense and questionable foul-calling have limited Dwight’s effectiveness in both games, and his 15 points and six turnovers are definitely manageable for the Cats. The rest of Orlando’s starters’ scoring — Jameer Nelson’s 13, Rashard Lewis’ 13, Vince Carter’s 19, Matt Barnes’ 11 — also seems fairly pedestrian, until you realize just how slow this game was. There were 80 possessions. That’s it. 80. That’s a full 10 possessions slower than the slowest team in the league (Portland), and even more impressive given the combined 33 turnovers. That’s 33 possessions ended early, one way or another, and yet the pace just hit 80. Not only is that a bit of a slog, but it’s actually kind of impressive, when you think about it.”
• Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post provides commentary on the Orlando Magic’s commitment, as an organization, to winning a championship.
• Eric Freeman of The Baseline doesn’t give the Bobcats a good chance of coming back and winning their series against the Magic.
• Bethlehem Shoals of NBA FanHouse asks a few interesting questions about Carter and Howard.
• Ric Bucher and Chris Broussard of ESPN Insider wonder which player currently in the playoffs needs a championship ring the most.
• John Hollinger of ESPN Insider explains why the matchup between Orlando and Charlotte has been one of the top stories in the playoffs, so far: “Theoretically, Charlotte-Orlando should be a competitive matchup between the league’s top two-ranked defenses, and a compelling chess match between arguably the two best coaches in the East, Larry Brown and Stan Van Gundy. It hasn’t been, however, because only one of these two teams can play offense. While the Magic have been able to shrug off bad games from their two key offensive performers — in Game 1, Dwight Howard had five points and Vince Carter shot 4-for-19, and they still won easily — every possession from the Charlotte side has been excruciating.”