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Magic @ Knicks; 11/29, 6PM, MSG
Topic Started: Nov 29 2009, 10:45 AM (503 Views)
Kwik10z
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Redick-ulous
Who: Orlando Magic @ New York Knicks
When: November 29th, 2009 6PM
Where: Madison Square Garden, NY
What: Orlando Magic 18th Regular Season Game

First game of a back-to-back (away/home) against the NYK

Probable Staring Lineups:

Magic (13-4)

Howard
Lewis
Pietrus
Carter
Williams

Knicks (3-13)

Lee
Chandler
Gallinari
Hughes
Duhon

Game Preview

Quote:
 
The Orlando Magic have needed impressive second-half comebacks to win their past two games, but they might not have to worry about falling into a similar hole against the New York Knicks.

The Magic look to build on the Eastern Conference's best record and notch their sixth straight road win Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks will try to snap a six-game slide at home.

Orlando (13-4) let a fourth-quarter lead slip away in a 99-98 home loss to Miami on Wednesday, and looked like it might be headed for back-to-back losses when it fell behind Atlanta by 12 at halftime Thursday.

The Magic stormed back, however, outscoring the Hawks 54-25 in the second half en route to a 93-76 win, and used a similar blueprint Saturday in Milwaukee.

Down 68-53 with 6:59 left in the third quarter, Orlando closed the period on a 20-4 run. The Magic went on to win 100-98 behind 25 points apiece from Dwight Howard and Vince Carter, who had 19 in the second half after receiving four stitches for a cut lip he suffered earlier in the game.

"That's big time, you could tell he had the fire in his eye in the fourth quarter when we really needed him,'' forward Rashard Lewis said of Carter. "He stepped up big, made big shots and brought it home for us."

Howard finished with 25 points and 20 rebounds - his second 20-20 game of the season - with 15 points in the second half after scoring 16 in the final 24 minutes in Atlanta.

"It was a war down there and luckily we just wanted it more than they did," Howard said.

Part of the Magic's success can be attributed to simply getting Howard more involved offensively. They're 9-0 when he takes 11 or more shots and 4-4 when he shoots it 10 times or fewer.

Howard has 25 career 20-20 games, three of which have come against New York (3-13). Howard averaged 26.5 points, 17.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks as the Magic won both trips to MSG last season.

This will be the first time the Knicks have seen Vince Carter in an Orlando uniform, and the eight-time All-Star has routinely enjoyed playing in New York. He's averaged 27.3 points and 6.5 assists while shooting 55.9 percent in his last three visits to MSG, notching one of his five career triple-doubles there with New Jersey on April 16, 2007.

The Knicks have dropped six straight at home by an average of 8.6 points, most recently falling 107-105 in overtime last Sunday against Boston. They last lost seven straight at MSG from March 3-24, 2008.

A three-game road trip didn't help put New York back in the win column this week. The Knicks lost all three, falling 128-125 in Denver on Friday despite Al Harrington delivering 41 points off the bench.

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony scored a career-high 50.

"I felt like we played hard and took a step forward," Harrington told the NBA's official Web site. "If we play like this against most teams we can win our fair share of games."

Harrington, the NBA's leading bench scorer at 20.3 points per game, averaged 17.8 points against Orlando last season.

The Magic found it more troubling to guard Nate Robinson. The 5-foot-9 guard - who jumped over Howard to win the Slam Dunk contest in February - averaged 22.0 points against Orlando in 2008-09, and he's scored 17.5 points in his last four games as he works his way back from a sprained right ankle.
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Kwik10z
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Redick-ulous
We just need our guys to play as a team for EVERY posession. No napping or taking a posession or two off to rest. Play strong as a unit for 48 minutes (gametime) and then rest for 48 hours (real time)....seems like a fair trade to me.

SVG needs to get our guys in the right state of mind to be a dominate team. With our depth, there is no excuse for us to need a quarter to "get going". We should be ready to go, if not starters, then our backups, right out of the tunnel.

Lets go Capt. Dwight, get your men ready for battle!!! Every season, Dwight is preaching that "his" goal is to win a ship.....but that takes tremendous amounts of effort and work on the teams part......so from here on out......i wanna see hustle and HEART on every single posession (on the court and from the guys on the bench) to get our team going.

If a member of the team is dragging or getting lazy, one of the other guys needs to step up and smack some motivation into him...no lie or methaphor there....give him a nice Eddy Curry to the head.
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Punisher
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Pure domination
Kwik10z
Nov. 29, 2009 01:54 PM
We just need our guys to play as a team for EVERY posession. No napping or taking a posession or two off to rest. Play strong as a unit for 48 minutes (gametime) and then rest for 48 hours (real time)....seems like a fair trade to me.

SVG needs to get our guys in the right state of mind to be a dominate team. With our depth, there is no excuse for us to need a quarter to "get going". We should be ready to go, if not starters, then our backups, right out of the tunnel.

Lets go Capt. Dwight, get your men ready for battle!!! Every season, Dwight is preaching that "his" goal is to win a ship.....but that takes tremendous amounts of effort and work on the teams part......so from here on out......i wanna see hustle and HEART on every single posession (on the court and from the guys on the bench) to get our team going.

If a member of the team is dragging or getting lazy, one of the other guys needs to step up and smack some motivation into him...no lie or methaphor there....give him a nice Eddy Curry to the head.

My thoughts exactly. Go Magic!
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MagicMadness
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Looking good so far. Shouldn't have too much trouble with such a bad team, but hopefully our guys aren't thinking that. ;)
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Punisher
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Pure domination
Pietrus with the shot beater. Magic up by 9 at the end of 3 quarters played.
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MagicMadness
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Magic win, move to 14-4 overall!

Another big second half to put away an opponent on the road.
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Punisher
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Pure domination
Great game overall. Dwight like he finally out of the offense funk he was.

Nate Robinson was on fire on the 4th quarter but the Magic has too much fire for them to handle.

We're are 8-2 on the road which is impressive to say the least.
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magiclive
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#1 Magic Fan
I'll take the win, but this team has to start making free throws more consistently. Carter misses 4 in a row? I know it sounds like a minor issue, but this team is very unreliable when it comes to free throw shooting. You honestly can't trust anyone at the line.
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NYCMagicFan
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Old School
Staff Members
Magic couldnt miss down the stretch in the 4th!!
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efenell
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DA - Magic Legend
we are straight ROLLING!!!
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dxwwf3
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Legend
Nice win. NY didn't shoot quite as well as the Bucks did, but not too many teams can. But nevertheless NY played pretty well and we still toyed with them.

Imagine what this team will do when it hits its stride? Right now I feel like we're playing at best 75% of our ability.
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SG489
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The Comeback Kid
Soon the NBA is going to notice who's on top for so long and who's in the elite falling behind thus far. Obviously credit to Stan van Gundy for changing the motivational factor by being less critical on this team and been very much positive to the progress of the team. Dwight Howard was right. This team needed a positive critique from Stan that whatever the result, he (Stan) would point out the flaws without risking the chemistry on the locker room. Great month!
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MagicMadness
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SG489
Nov. 30, 2009 01:42 AM
Soon the NBA is going to notice who's on top for so long and who's in the elite falling behind thus far. Obviously credit to Stan van Gundy for changing the motivational factor by being less critical on this team and been very much positive to the progress of the team. Dwight Howard was right. This team needed a positive critique from Stan that whatever the result, he (Stan) would point out the flaws without risking the chemistry on the locker room. Great month!

Totally agree. The meeting between Howard and SVG on the team's behalf really seems to have helped improve our overall play.
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