SOME GOOD STUFF

O.K., so the boys lost to the Bulls last night 85-76. So what? Four games in five nights isn't easy. They were fine until a 20-3 Bulls run sapped their energy and enthusiasm. No big deal. Everyone loses eventually. I'm feeling much better about our team lately. Winning some games helped out, but I think I'm adjusting and accepting what our reality actually is. The Orlando Magic braintrust has decided, either rightly or wrongly, that they've spent sufficient time and money on upgrading personnel, and that the present group is talented enough to make a serious playoff run. Only time and patience will tell. Brian Hill was given this group and told to WIN. I've come to realize that under these circumstances, he's doing a masterful job. I suspect that if given his "druthers", coach Hill, who is from my generation, would probably prefer coaching and watching a more open and artful game. But given the cards he was dealt, and I mean that in a good way, this style of play does assure us of being competitive in most games. Hell, were five hundred without G.Hill. Not too shabby. The future doesn't look all that bad now, given what i've come to accept. If we were going to make something happen, it probably would have happened already. So be it. Let's move on and have a good season. P.S.------ the backcourt should be Steve and G.Hill, Hedo is the perfect 6th man and Jameer should continue coming off the bench. Let Catos' contract expire or move him. Keep Dwight in the 4 spot, Let Tony continue playing the 3 until something better comes along. Start Kasun at center a.s.a.p., either we have something there or we don't. It's time to find out!

MAGIC WIN AGAIN 87-83

In our first win in Boston in a long time, the Magic bested the Celtics 87-83, and started their current road trip with their fourth straight victory. Steve Francis led our gang with 19 points in a reasonably competitive game that wasn't decided until the last seconds of the game. All in all, a road victory against a team that had beaten us seven straight times in their house, is quite impressive.

UGLY WIN BETTER THAN PRETTY LOSS

In what amounted to a schoolyard pickup basketball game we chilled the Heat 80-77 last night at T.D. To say this game wasn't pretty, would be ba gross understatement. For apprximately 47 out of 48 minutes, we led them by somewhere between 7 ti 12 points, in a game with no rythem, cohesiveness or much excitement. For most of the contest around twenty or so Heat fans in section 108r were able to dictate much of the sound effects with their pathetic yet effective "lets go Heat" chants in front of a mostly unenthused home crowd. Then, in the latter stages of the 4th quarter, the Heat made the customary "run" at us and the game got more exciting. Keep in mind that for most of the game, no matter how poorly we played, Miami played worse and did everyting they could to giftwrap the game for us. Even the vaulted mr. Wade played like mr. Roberts, or Tyron Lue take your choice. Thankfully,it all worked out for us in the end, as we held off their charge with nifty foul shooting, good defense, hustle, and a good break. Even the fans (considerably short of a sell out crowd-I don't know why) rose up and delivered some boisterous approval at the end of the game. Also, one of the Magic assistant coaches pointed out to our mascot Stuff where that group of Heat fans were sitting and he went over there and squirted them with that "goo" he carries around. Alls well that ends well, right? Of course, right! I only wish the teams would get back to playing a more open exciting style of play.

TURKEYS' HEDO DELIVERS

In a fitting pre-Holiday performance, the man nicknamed "Turk" from Turkey helped the Magic defrock the Wizards 91-83 at T.D. last night Hedo scored 23 points to lead a very balanced scoring attack. So, how does a team with Steve out, and Dwight being pretty much a non factor, partially due to foul trouble,manage to basically dominate a superior team? Simple.......everyone stepped up their effort. In a game that saw excellent ball movement and decision making, Tony,Jameer,Deshawn and Keyon all scored in double figures. Instead of caving in as the game wound down, they all stepped it up and then let the clock help to put the Wiz away. Their squad was obviously tired from a difficult game last night. A combination of this factor and some pretty good defense from Deshawn and Keyon on Gilbert Arenas, helped make Gilberts 19 points a non issue. No one had an answer for Jamison who hit for 25 points but the fact is we did everything that was necessary to prevail. Watching their effort from courtside, I was very proud of their inspired play. While I've been quick to critisise some things this season (mostly Mgmt.) I can't say enough good things about last nights effort. Maybe playing without Srevie, and for all practical purposes, Dwight, will turn out to be a blessing in disguise for this team.

TIME TO STOP PRETENDING !

No blog entry today. Tired of basically writing the same thing over and over. What ever happened to "we must protect this house". When a team like homeless Hornets can come into your place and beat you, something is wrong. When a player like David West can torch our so called improved defense for 34 points, something is wrong. With our new offensive statergy geared to more controlled play, thus using more clock and keeping the scoring down, how come the Cavs and especially the Hornets, seem to be scoring almost at will? It's time to face up to the fact that we're not what we pretend to be. We need more firepower on offense just to keep up with the mediocore teams. Can anyone truly say they like what they're seeing? Last season at this time there was a whole lot more to be optimistic about. The team had a winning record, we were a scoring machine, our defense was the same as it is now,but so what!Optimism was running rampant. Then along went Cutino, and along came the so called defensive specialists, Mr.& mrs. Christie. Nuff said. Season over! Call me an un-true fan or whatever you want to, but I am willing to admit that I'm not especially looking forward to watching this team as presently constituted for another 70 or so games. Fast Ed.

THE BAD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

The Cavs blew by the Magic tonight at their place 102-84. I can't think of one good thing to say about our boys' performance. There wasn't any good. They seemed to be playing at 78 r.p.m. while we were moving at 33 1/3. It was a sad performance, especially in one of our extremely rare appearances on national television. This is our equivalent of Monday Night Football! It was bad.....real bad. It was so ugly that I wanted to fast forward to the Rockets-Pistons game, if only it was possible. ESPN will probably want to re-book us again, about when Shaq buys the team and installs himself as player-coach, G.M., and halftime entertainer. Some people will say if you can't say anything good, say nothing at all. I say we are probably at least 2 or 3 players away from being a consistantly competitive team in what has become a much more competitive division. That's not to say that we won't be better with Grant back, because we will. But if we have any designs on playing on a par with the more talented teams, we will need to be prepared to make some moves.

WHAT THE MAGIC NEED TO DO

If our management has any intention of getting the Magic to the "promised land" and for now lets simply call that a viable playoff slot, they need to do some of the following. Dwight needs a compatable big man to grow and mature with. It doesn't matter to me whether the Magic call him power forward or center, to properly compliment him we need to get younger and more athletic in the front court. Cato is not our future. Mario is seven feet of question mark. Hedo is suited to come off the bench, and will be doing so as soon as Grant returns. Grant will help of course, but as good as he may still be, we would be foolish to count heavily on him for the future. Tony is a solid guy coming off the bench, but that's it. Stacey should have retired a couple of years ago. Anyway, we appear to have the necessary pieces in the back court, a combo of vets ( stevie ) and younger athletes ( Deshawn, Keyon, Jameer, Travis ). The front court needs work. Dwight and the "beloved" Fran might have been interesting. Dwight and Sean May could have worked. Dwight and Granger would have been fine. Nene's injury will surely heal. How about the two of them maturing together? Maybe a Dwight and Carlos B. combo ( out for a month ) might be something to look at? D-12 and Darius would not be terrible. In any case, an upgrade up front needs to happen if we want to get to the next level.

FROM COURTSIDE 4

The Magic beat the Bobcats 85-77 last night at T.D. Waterhouse. It was a game that saw numerous momentum switches and therefore, frequent lead changes. The contest remained fairly close until we were able to assert our overall superority in the fourth quarter. D-12 led the way with 21 points and 20 rebounds, his second really outstanding effort in a row. Jameer Nelson was the sparkplug in the fourth period, pouring in 13 points. Tony Battie had a nice effort, going off for a small double-double. Stevie and Deshawn also managed double figures. All in all, a nice little victory against this expansion team which has played us well. For the Cats, Keith Bogans played well, especially in the first half. Emeka was pretty much a non factor, as he got into foul trouble early and didn't recover. I liked what I saw of Shaun May. He knows how to use his girth for getting in the proper position, and obviously would have been a wiser pick for us in the draft. So far this season we've beaten the inferior teams and lost to better teams personnel wise. This has been the case, both home and away. There have been no surprise results so far, and as a knowledgable fan, knowing the personnel on our team and the teams we've played to date, wouldn't our predictions have matched our record? It all makes sense so far.

FROM COURTSIDE 3

The Magic lost to the Cavs in o.t. last night 108-100, in what this writer thinks may turn out to be their best game of the season so far.How can a loss be that good? Here is what I saw from "courtside" last night. Both teams played reasonably well in the first quarter,which ended with the Cavs up by a couple of points in what has become a typical low scoring quarter. Both teams played pretty much the same way in the second period, except our guys became sloppy and commited something like 11 turnovers. At about the five minute mark I remember thinking that it would be a very long night and we would be lucky to score 35 points by halftime. When the "dust" cleared at halftime, we were down by seventeen points and our chances of winning this game were somewhere between slim and forget about it. So what did we do differently in the second half to overcome this deficit and actually take a 3 point lead with only seconds left in the game? We started running more which opened up our "princeton" style offense and enabled us to get back into this game! An additional benefit was what appeared to be the metamorphisis of Dwight Howard. I have never seen Dwight play a better game of basketball than he did in the second half last night. It's not that he scored 21 points, it's the way he scored them! Sure,he had his usual couple of power dunks, but he also scored with short range jumpers, baby hooks, both left and right handed, and some very nifty off the glass moves to the basket. The close to sell out crowed really enjoyed and got into this team as soon as the tempo picked up. It reminded me of the way it felt to be there before we brought the Christies to town last season. In any case, even though I felt Stevies' final shot in regulation time was ill advised, and the Cavs regained the momentum in o.t.,this loss could become a watershed type situation if we learn something from it. I, like you, hate loosing, but saw enough good things happen in the second half to remain optomistic.

RANDOM RAMBLINGS

Brian Hills' grind it out offense should continue to be successful against the weaker teams, the stronger teams won't have many problems countering it. It will be interesting to see how Keyon and Grant will fit into this style when they get back. Steve is showing everyone that he wants to be a smarter player and will do whatever is asked of him. It's been pretty obvious that we are more successful when he's playing off his natural instincts. The coaching staff needs to spend as much time as necessary with Dwight working on his short to moderate range shooting, low post moves and foul shooting if they want him to be all that he can be. Hanging out by the basket and trying to dunk all the time can only get you so far in this league unless your name is Shaq. No proof yet, but I believe picking up Dooling.who may return on Sunday shoul turn out to be one of the Magics' better aquisitions. Keyon came cheaply by todays' standards and will amp up both the offense and defense. Getting Bo back was another good move. His positive attitude and non stop hustle is infectious. Everyone is anticipating Cato having a good year since he's in his final year of his contract, but we all may be wrong. Even if he puts up decent numbers this year, would the Magic want to offer him the necessary six to nine million to re -sign him next season? I can't see that happening! The future is D-12 and whoever we choose to play alongside him. We should be looking to unload this expiring contract for a younger player that can be groomed along with Dwight. I truly believe that Pat Garrity and Stacey Augmon (when and if he returns) have outlived their usefullness to this team and we should be looking to improve at these spots. Other teams fearing pat's deadly 3 point shooting and thus spreading out their defense is way overhyped. Plasticmans'moves to the basket and vaulted defensive skills are a memory, not a fact.

TWO IN A ROW

High fives for our guys all the way around. Winning last night against the Hornets 88-83, we won our second game in a row on consecutive nights, at the other guys house. Very nice job. Stevie, again playing with a little less restraint, yet within "guidelines", threw in 24 points. Dwight also seemed to be a little more comfortable, and contributed another double/double. Our new offense is designed to keep the scoring down, and the Magic in position to still be around at games end with an opportunity to win. From an entertainment prospective, watching the first forty five minutes of these forty eight minute games is boring as hell. It's certainly a whole lot better for the team and the fans when you win this type of contest. Go Magic!

HOORAY

Winning on your opponents home court is always a good thing.The Magic crushed the Houston Rockets 76-74 at their house last night. Psycologically speaking, getting their first win should ease things and hopefully loosen our guys up. Kudos to Stevie who scored 27 points in a homecoming performance that was a little more like the Steve Francis the fans have come to expect. Jameer Nelsons' 10 points in the fourth quarter was also a highlight. On the flip side, watching these two teams play their lousy "princeton" type offences is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Both squads shot 37% from the field. of course, T-mac and G-hill would have made it a little better game to watch. For Houstons' sake I hope they're not paying Yao Ming by the inch because he rebounded like a guy about the size of Jameer Nelson. Anyway, that's their problem. The Magic chatrooms are buzzing with speculation on players like Carlos Boozer and even K.G. becoming available. As previously mentioned, D. Miles, T. Ratliff, And an injured Nene are also out there. While this stuff is fun to speculate on, it seldom has much chance of actually happening. Even so, I call on our front office to explore any and all scenerios that could make us a better team. This is and must always be their main objective.

MAGIC LOSE AGAIN

Just got done watching our guys lose to the Wiz 87-79. Considering the fact that this was a back to back and an away game to boot, I thought we did well just to be competitive for most of the game. I won't dwell on the poor shooting percentage, but do want to make my observations ( which many of you should be seeing by now ) known. Stevie is trying to play more within himself, and doing a nice job. Unfortunatly, the old Stevie who played with warrior instincts and reckless abandon was a big part of our prior success. Also, with this slowed down offense, Dwights shortcomings ( somewhat understandable at this point ) have become a lot more visable. Lets face facts. This kid will develop into a very good N.B.A. big at some point down the road, but at this point he has no back to the basket game or anything resembling an accurate jumpshot. If dunking was illegal, his offense would be non existant. Don't get me wrong, this is a great kid with a definite future, but all of the previous comparisons with K.G. and Amare are rediculous. A fairer comparison would be his progress vs. Okafor. I see Dwight as shouldering the burden placed on him by a front office that made a very bad draft day decision, and then felt no need to try to make upgrades in personnel. When you finish the prior season out of playoff contention, how do you justify standing pat? All of the teams that finished in front of us last season decided to try and upgrade their squads! The current Magic front office is fortunate that the fans here are generally a pretty docile group. Our former G.M. , even though he helped allianate Tracy and brought the abominable Christies to town, at least was a balsey guy who didn't take any crap and wasn't afraid to make a bold move when necessary. This team needs some upgrading or it's going to be a very long season. Dave and Otis, are you out there somewhere?

FROM COURTSIDE 2

The boys lost to the Griz last night 94-85. We played hard, Brian coached well, but same result, we lose. Steve is under control and playing a smarter game. DeShawn is looking pretty good and Dwight can dunk the ball. That's pretty much what we have going for us at the moment. We can make a case that the lack of 3 point shooting was the cause of our demise last night. Wednesday night it was lack of points in the paint. Tonight, if we lose to the Wizards in what amounts to a back to back away game, the excuse for loosing would be obvious.The way I see it, we are simply losing to better teams. When we get Grant, Keyon and Mario back we will be better and probably start winning some games like last nights. The better teams,and there are lots of them, will be a different story. Team management has told us that we have made more than enough personnel moves to be competitive and that it's time to let this group develop and gel. I feel that we are 2 or 3 personnel moves short of being a good team. I hope they're right!

FROM COURTSIDE

Our first game is now history. Final score Pacers 90, Magic 78. My friend Curt kept updating me with copies of the official scorers report so I could inundate you with everyones statistics, shooting percentages, etc. but it the end it really isn't necessary. It will surfice to say the Magic didn't really have any "high" scorers or rebounders. We hung around with the Pacers for most of the evening, but couldn't make a serious run at them.The Pacers were there to be had, we just weren't able to do it. Simple as that. The one statistic that does tell the story is points in the paint. Pacers 38, Magic 22 (calculated midway thru the 4th quarter). De shaun and Hedo looked pretty good. Stevie appeared to play under a little more control, and Tony Battie looked o.k. Dwight looked good on one series and bad on the next one. Our boy is still learning the ropes. Jameer provided a little spurt in the 4th quarter. Cato and Garrity showed very little. Bo was a great value p/u for our team, same great hustle as always. Anyway, in the end I still feel we are going to have to try and make a bold move or two if we want to stay competitive with the other teams.