Denton: Magic-Hawks Postgame Analysis
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By John Denton
November 8, 2010
ORLANDO – After he had made two gritty, game-winning drives to the hoop and after his Orlando Magic had clawed to win in nail-biting fashion, Vince Carter went over to Strength and Conditioning coaches Joe Rogowski and Bill Burgos and literally shook their hands.
After all, Carter knew that he would have never been around for Monday night’s game had it not been for all of the strength-building work that he did back in the summer with the Magic’s behind-the-scenes coaches.
Carter took a nasty spill on a wet spot in Saturday’s win in Charlotte – one where he could have seriously injured his groin, hip and knee – but he credited having a stronger base for avoiding major damage. And when he was able to play through a minor groin strain and bone bruise on the inside of his right knee, Carter was in position to save the Magic on Monday night at Amway Center.
``I try to pride myself on healing like a young guy even though I’m one of the older guys on the team,’’ Carter said after scoring 19 points to help the Magic beat the Atlanta Hawks 93-89. ``I’ve had some success with (healing quickly). Regardless, I was going to play. I was a little tender. … I had to go shake our strength coaches hands for all of the work that we’ve done on my legs and my body in general and I could take an impact like that and just come out with a strain and a bone bruise. I’m so thankful for them.’’
On a night where very little came easy for the Magic, Carter came to the rescue late in the game. With Orlando clinging to an 86-84 lead, Carter made a tough drive to the rim against Al Horford for a layup. Then, seconds later with Atlanta back within two again, Carter powered through a Horford foul and scored on a difficult left-handed layup. He flexed along the baseline as the sellout crowd of 18,846 roared with noise.
``That’s his job,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Carter’s conversions late. ``Vince just took the ball to the hole with two great drives. They were playing Josh Smith on him and they switched the pick and rolls and he took Horford to the rim. He did exactly what he should have done.’’
The Magic (5-1) beat the Hawks (6-2) for the 11th time in the past 12 games, but this one was much more competitive than any of the games last season or last spring during the playoffs. Orlando beat Atlanta by an average of 25.3 points in the second round of the playoffs last spring for the most lopsided four-game series in playoff history.
The victory also allowed the Magic to move into first place in the Southeast Division.
Orlando won despite falling into a 13-point hole early in the game, shooting only 43 percent and missing 18 of its 22 attempts from 3-point range. But the Magic were able to prevail because of Dwight Howard’s 27 points and 11 rebounds, Carter’s tough fourth-quarter drives and some gritty dives onto the floor and into the stands by Marcin Gortat and Jason Williams.
``It was great to see that we weren’t going to give up,’’ Howard said. ``The Hawks came out on fire and it seemed like they weren’t going to miss and we couldn’t buy a basket. But instead of holding our heads down and fighting with each other we took a stand and got back into the game. … Great teams take the other team’s bench punch and then they throw back. We did that (on Monday).’’
Atlanta, which came into the game first in the NBA in field goal percentage and shot better than 50 percent most of the night, got 23 points from Joe Johnson and 13 points and 13 rebounds from Josh Smith. But in the end, the Hawks simply didn’t have enough to beat the Magic when it mattered the most.
``I’d compare this to us against Detroit about three years ago when I first came into the league,’’ said Gortat, who contributed eight points and five rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. ``We’d have a string of wins like five or six in a row and then bam, we’d lose to Detroit. Atlanta has the same problem with us and we want to keep it that way.’’
Here’s a look back at what went right, what went wrong and some final observations from Orlando’s fifth win in six games this season:
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- Carter showed no signs of soreness following his scary fall in Charlotte on Saturday night. Hitting a wet spot on the floor, his left leg went out, his right knee buckled and he hit the floor with his hip.
Following a day of rehabilitating his injuries, Carter delivered repeatedly when the Magic needed him. He had a three-point play and a 3-pointer in the first quarter to snap the Magic out of a funk. He got to the rim for another tough and-one play in the second period. And down the stretch he handled the ball and made the right plays for the Magic to win the game.
``I don’t have problem with having the ball (late in games). I’ve done it some years now and I feel comfortable being in that position,’’ said Carter, who made eight of 12 shots. ``(Van Gundy) trusts that I’ll make the right play. I think I’ve done OK through the year. Particularly with Jameer (Nelson) not being in there, I just wanted to step it up and be that other guy for us.
``It never gets old (making the game-winning baskets),’’ Carter continued. ``I’m a sore loser and missing or making those game-winning shots, you hold your head up and live with the shot that you took. When I’m in that situation, I’m comfortable. I admit that sometimes I’ve taken a bad shot or thrown the ball away, but at the same time, I always want more of those chances.’’
- The Magic played with a sense of desperation late in the game, clearly determined to do whatever it took to pull out that victory. That meant Gortat twice diving on the floor, Redick taking a charge on Jamal Crawford and Jason Williams diving on a loose ball and shuffling it over to Rashard Lewis from the prone position.
Said Van Gundy: ``I thought we had a couple of unbelievable dives for loose balls down the stretch to come up with loose balls. Those are the kinds of things that contending teams do to fight and win a game.’’
- Things didn’t look good early on when the Magic fell behind 19-6 and Howard was on the bench with two fouls. But Orlando was able to jump-start things on both ends of the floor with energy provided by its second unit.
Gortat, Brandon Bass, J.J. Redick, Jason Williams and Quentin Richardson, the components of arguably the NBA’s best bench, got the Magic back into the game by contributing 22 points, 14 rebounds and four steals in the first half. For the game, Redick had 11 points, while Gortat and Williams each scored eight points and Bass added six points and five boards.
That group helped the Magic put together a 19-2 spurt that took them from 13 points down to four points up early in the second quarter.
``The one thought I had in my head was this was another opportunity for me to show that I can play and I can help this team,’’ Gortat said. ``I wanted to do what I could to lift this team up and help put us on the right track.’’
WHAT WENT WRONG
- Shockingly, a Magic team that set a NBA record last season with 841 3-pointers continues to struggle from beyond the arc this season.
The Magic made just four of 22 tries on Monday, dropping their 3-point shooting percentage to 32.3 percent for the season. For comparison sakes, the Magic shot 37.5 percent from 3-point range last season.
Traditionally strong 3-point shooters Rashard Lewis (29 percent), Ryan Anderson (31.6 percent), Quentin Richardson (23.1 percent) and Redick (16.7 percent) have struggled throughout the season from beyond the stripe.
``I’m especially surprised with this team’s shooting, especially since we’re a knock-down 3-point shooting team,’’ said Lewis, who had a breakout game Saturday in Charlotte, but scored just four points on Monday. ``So far this season we’re not knocking them down. Good thing that Dwight is playing MVP basketball inside. If it weren’t for that there’s no telling what our record would be right now.’’
- Atlanta reserve center Etan Thomas, who has given the Magic fits in years past, had a rough stretch in the second quarter where he seemingly couldn’t do anything right.
In a 57-second stretch of the second quarter, Thomas committed a foul on Howard, missed two wide-open layups and was whistled for a travelling violation. Thomas was acquired in the offseason to give the Hawks another interior defender against the likes of Howard. In the first half alone, the Hawks used Jason Collins (two fouls), Zaza Pachulia (two fouls) and Thomas (two fouls) on Howard.
FINAL OBSERVATIONS
- Howard vowed before the season that would do his best to curb his emotions and conversations with the officials, but he picked up his third technical foul of the season in Monday’s third quarter.
Howard made a 12-foot bank shot and was clearly hit on the elbow as he hoisted his jump shot. When there was no whistle, Howard tapped on his elbow repeatedly to show the referee that there was contact on the play.
Because players are no longer allowed to make gestures in the direction of the officials, Howard was whistled for his third technical foul of the season.
He’s had 15 technical fouls each of the past two seasons, one shy of the threshold for players being suspended. Howard had hoped to avoid such drama and displays of emotion this season. He’s actually done a much better job of curbing his complaining to the refs this season, but the new ``respect for the game’’ rules have referees handing out technical fouls at a much higher rate.
- The Magic especially missed point guard Jameer Nelson, who remained out after spraining his left ankle on Friday against New Jersey. Nelson shredded the Hawks in the Magic’s pick-and-roll game last spring in the playoffs, having his way with Mike Bibby and Crawford. Nelson likely won’t play on Wednesday against Utah all-star Deron Williams, but could be back by Friday to face the Toronto Raptors.
- The Hawks didn’t win on Monday, but they at least sounded encouraged about hanging with the Magic throughout the game and refusing to quit at various points throughout the game. Josh Smith said the Hawks are a different and better team under new coach Larry Drew, and he feels that his Hawks sent a message even in defeat on Monday.
``We’re definitely play a lot more unselfish basketball and that is equating to us helping each other out on the defensive end,’’ Smith said. ``We just wanted to show the Orlando Magic that we were going to come in and make a game out of it and not just hand them the game. I think everybody played real well.’’
John Denton writes for OrlandoMagic.com. E-mail John at jd41898@aol.com. Submit a question to John for his mailbag segment at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
November 8, 2010
ORLANDO – After he had made two gritty, game-winning drives to the hoop and after his Orlando Magic had clawed to win in nail-biting fashion, Vince Carter went over to Strength and Conditioning coaches Joe Rogowski and Bill Burgos and literally shook their hands.
After all, Carter knew that he would have never been around for Monday night’s game had it not been for all of the strength-building work that he did back in the summer with the Magic’s behind-the-scenes coaches.
Carter took a nasty spill on a wet spot in Saturday’s win in Charlotte – one where he could have seriously injured his groin, hip and knee – but he credited having a stronger base for avoiding major damage. And when he was able to play through a minor groin strain and bone bruise on the inside of his right knee, Carter was in position to save the Magic on Monday night at Amway Center.
``I try to pride myself on healing like a young guy even though I’m one of the older guys on the team,’’ Carter said after scoring 19 points to help the Magic beat the Atlanta Hawks 93-89. ``I’ve had some success with (healing quickly). Regardless, I was going to play. I was a little tender. … I had to go shake our strength coaches hands for all of the work that we’ve done on my legs and my body in general and I could take an impact like that and just come out with a strain and a bone bruise. I’m so thankful for them.’’
On a night where very little came easy for the Magic, Carter came to the rescue late in the game. With Orlando clinging to an 86-84 lead, Carter made a tough drive to the rim against Al Horford for a layup. Then, seconds later with Atlanta back within two again, Carter powered through a Horford foul and scored on a difficult left-handed layup. He flexed along the baseline as the sellout crowd of 18,846 roared with noise.
``That’s his job,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Carter’s conversions late. ``Vince just took the ball to the hole with two great drives. They were playing Josh Smith on him and they switched the pick and rolls and he took Horford to the rim. He did exactly what he should have done.’’
The Magic (5-1) beat the Hawks (6-2) for the 11th time in the past 12 games, but this one was much more competitive than any of the games last season or last spring during the playoffs. Orlando beat Atlanta by an average of 25.3 points in the second round of the playoffs last spring for the most lopsided four-game series in playoff history.
The victory also allowed the Magic to move into first place in the Southeast Division.
Orlando won despite falling into a 13-point hole early in the game, shooting only 43 percent and missing 18 of its 22 attempts from 3-point range. But the Magic were able to prevail because of Dwight Howard’s 27 points and 11 rebounds, Carter’s tough fourth-quarter drives and some gritty dives onto the floor and into the stands by Marcin Gortat and Jason Williams.
``It was great to see that we weren’t going to give up,’’ Howard said. ``The Hawks came out on fire and it seemed like they weren’t going to miss and we couldn’t buy a basket. But instead of holding our heads down and fighting with each other we took a stand and got back into the game. … Great teams take the other team’s bench punch and then they throw back. We did that (on Monday).’’
Atlanta, which came into the game first in the NBA in field goal percentage and shot better than 50 percent most of the night, got 23 points from Joe Johnson and 13 points and 13 rebounds from Josh Smith. But in the end, the Hawks simply didn’t have enough to beat the Magic when it mattered the most.
``I’d compare this to us against Detroit about three years ago when I first came into the league,’’ said Gortat, who contributed eight points and five rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. ``We’d have a string of wins like five or six in a row and then bam, we’d lose to Detroit. Atlanta has the same problem with us and we want to keep it that way.’’
Here’s a look back at what went right, what went wrong and some final observations from Orlando’s fifth win in six games this season:
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Following a day of rehabilitating his injuries, Carter delivered repeatedly when the Magic needed him. He had a three-point play and a 3-pointer in the first quarter to snap the Magic out of a funk. He got to the rim for another tough and-one play in the second period. And down the stretch he handled the ball and made the right plays for the Magic to win the game.
``I don’t have problem with having the ball (late in games). I’ve done it some years now and I feel comfortable being in that position,’’ said Carter, who made eight of 12 shots. ``(Van Gundy) trusts that I’ll make the right play. I think I’ve done OK through the year. Particularly with Jameer (Nelson) not being in there, I just wanted to step it up and be that other guy for us.
``It never gets old (making the game-winning baskets),’’ Carter continued. ``I’m a sore loser and missing or making those game-winning shots, you hold your head up and live with the shot that you took. When I’m in that situation, I’m comfortable. I admit that sometimes I’ve taken a bad shot or thrown the ball away, but at the same time, I always want more of those chances.’’
Said Van Gundy: ``I thought we had a couple of unbelievable dives for loose balls down the stretch to come up with loose balls. Those are the kinds of things that contending teams do to fight and win a game.’’
Gortat, Brandon Bass, J.J. Redick, Jason Williams and Quentin Richardson, the components of arguably the NBA’s best bench, got the Magic back into the game by contributing 22 points, 14 rebounds and four steals in the first half. For the game, Redick had 11 points, while Gortat and Williams each scored eight points and Bass added six points and five boards.
That group helped the Magic put together a 19-2 spurt that took them from 13 points down to four points up early in the second quarter.
``The one thought I had in my head was this was another opportunity for me to show that I can play and I can help this team,’’ Gortat said. ``I wanted to do what I could to lift this team up and help put us on the right track.’’
The Magic made just four of 22 tries on Monday, dropping their 3-point shooting percentage to 32.3 percent for the season. For comparison sakes, the Magic shot 37.5 percent from 3-point range last season.
Traditionally strong 3-point shooters Rashard Lewis (29 percent), Ryan Anderson (31.6 percent), Quentin Richardson (23.1 percent) and Redick (16.7 percent) have struggled throughout the season from beyond the stripe.
``I’m especially surprised with this team’s shooting, especially since we’re a knock-down 3-point shooting team,’’ said Lewis, who had a breakout game Saturday in Charlotte, but scored just four points on Monday. ``So far this season we’re not knocking them down. Good thing that Dwight is playing MVP basketball inside. If it weren’t for that there’s no telling what our record would be right now.’’
In a 57-second stretch of the second quarter, Thomas committed a foul on Howard, missed two wide-open layups and was whistled for a travelling violation. Thomas was acquired in the offseason to give the Hawks another interior defender against the likes of Howard. In the first half alone, the Hawks used Jason Collins (two fouls), Zaza Pachulia (two fouls) and Thomas (two fouls) on Howard.
Howard made a 12-foot bank shot and was clearly hit on the elbow as he hoisted his jump shot. When there was no whistle, Howard tapped on his elbow repeatedly to show the referee that there was contact on the play.
Because players are no longer allowed to make gestures in the direction of the officials, Howard was whistled for his third technical foul of the season.
He’s had 15 technical fouls each of the past two seasons, one shy of the threshold for players being suspended. Howard had hoped to avoid such drama and displays of emotion this season. He’s actually done a much better job of curbing his complaining to the refs this season, but the new ``respect for the game’’ rules have referees handing out technical fouls at a much higher rate.
``We’re definitely play a lot more unselfish basketball and that is equating to us helping each other out on the defensive end,’’ Smith said. ``We just wanted to show the Orlando Magic that we were going to come in and make a game out of it and not just hand them the game. I think everybody played real well.’’
John Denton writes for OrlandoMagic.com. E-mail John at jd41898@aol.com. Submit a question to John for his mailbag segment at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
