khandor’s sports blog

Easily the most impressive performance last night on the docket in the NBA was put forth by the Magic:

Magic 118, Bobcats 80
Full Play-By-Play
Box Score
Recap

If you look at that 1st Quarter demolition Orlando laid on Charlotte [an improved squad, in their own right], it’s apparent that the Magic mean business this year.

The most impressive individual lines from the perspective of this corner?

The three highlighted in bold and italicized below.

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Field Goals			Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	pts
M.Pietrus	G	24:50	5-8	1-3	2-2	0	4	4	2	4	1	4	2	13
J.Nelson	G	20:38	2-5	0-1	6-6	0	5	5	1	4	0	1	0	10
H.Turkoglu	F	24:10	2-5	1-3	4-4	1	1	2	1	6	0	1	0	9
R.Lewis	F	22:05	5-8	0-2	7-8	2	1	3	4	4	1	2	1	17
D.Howard	C	25:05	6-9	0-0	8-10	3	5	8	1	2	0	5	5	20
B.Cook		18:20	1-10	1-3	6-6	1	3	4	0	2	1	1	0	9
T.Battie		18:18	3-3	0-0	2-2	1	6	7	0	0	1	0	0	8
C.Lee		17:54	4-8	0-1	1-2	0	4	4	1	2	1	1	0	9
A.Johnson		17:14	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	7	4	0	2	0	0
A.Foyle		15:20	2-4	0-0	3-4	3	3	6	1	3	1	1	2	7
J.Redick		13:58	3-4	1-2	5-5	0	2	2	0	1	0	1	0	12
J.Richardson		12:00	0-4	0-0	2-2	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
M.Wilks		10:08	0-2	0-0	2-2	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	0	2
K.Bogans			-	-	-
M.Gortat			-	-	-
D.Jones			-	-	-
Total		240	33-70	4-15	48-53	12	37	49	18	33	7	19	10	118
			47.1%	26.7%	90.6%	Team Rebs: 5				Total TO: 19

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If Orlando can get consistent production from their three main new additions to the line-up, like this …

* Pietrus, with a solid all-around game;
* Johnson-A, with 0 shot attempts, 7 assists and 2 turnovers; and,
* Battie, with a solid all-around game;

they are going to join the Celtics and the Pistons, as a legitimate 3rd team, in the fight for the No. 1 Seed (overall) in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this season.

[Note 1: With Keith Bogans and a healthy JJ Redick ... i.e. two improving 3PT-shooters ... coming off the bench for the Magic, there will be few, if any, gaping holes remaining in Orlando's line-up.]

During Sunday’s Lakers v Nuggets Game 1, Jeff Van Gundy (NBA Analyst) made an insightful comment - one of many he makes, per game - about the value of a coach’s ‘words’ alone toward the performance of his team, vs what their habits are, on a daily basis …

“(as a coach) You cannot influence a team with your words, at halftime or in the pre-game talk … they are going to do what they do.” - JVG

… which is exactly what I thought of while evaluating the Boxscore from Toronto/Orlando Game 1 … where the the Rebounding numbers were, as follows:

Toronto 35 (Individual) + 11 (Team) = 46
Orlando 42 (Individual) + 6 (Team) = 48

meaning that the Raptors and the Magic both performed pretty much as expected when these two teams are matched-up against one another, since during the Regular Season …

Orlando (+0.31) finished 16th in ‘Rebounding Differential’; while,
Toronto (-1.54) finished 22nd.

For Toronto to effect some type of fundamental change to the ‘Rebounding Differential’ numbers in Game 2 … they will need to address their Individual Player match-ups vs the key ‘board men’ for Orlando, who are D12 (22), Turkoglu (6), Bogans (5), Lewis (4), Evans (2) & Nelson (2) … for example, by going to a player rotation that I suggested on different web sites several weeks ago …

STARTERS
1/Calderon v Nelson
2/Moon v Bogans
3/Graham v Lewis
4/Humphries v Howard/Turk
5/Bosh v Turkoglu/D12

KEY SUBS
G/Parker v Dooling/Evans
F/Kapono/Delfino v Evans/Dooling
C/Nesterovic v Foyle

which is what a ‘Top Notch’ GM & Head Coach combination, like RC Buford & Gregg Popovich, would have done with the Raptors’ player personnel … several months ago … e.g. when TJ Ford was pulling his ’sulking’ I’ll-only-play-as-a-Starter-for-this-team B.S.

Unless you can ‘think the Individual Player match-up game’ like a ‘Top Notch’ NBA head coach, it’s very difficult to truly understand what THE DIFFERENCE is between ‘the Winners’ & ‘the Losers’ in this League, in the games that have a lot of meaning … i.e. versus Plus .500 Teams.

Enjoy Game 2 this evening! … which Orlando will probably win to go up 2-0 in this 1st Round series.