Denton: Magic-Hawks Game 1 Postgame Analysis
By John Denton
May 4, 2010
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
ORLANDO – Already off the past seven days, the Orlando Magic had what amounted to another off night on Tuesday after making short work of what has to be a stunned and broken Atlanta Hawks team.
The Magic went out Tuesday before a raucous Amway Arena crowd and took out a week’s worth of pent-up aggression on a Hawks team that never knew what hit them in Game 1 of this second-round series.
Orlando smothered the Hawks defensively, got an inspiring return to form from all-star center Dwight Howard and more solid play from point guard Jameer Nelson in a 114-71 demolition of Atlanta.
A surging Magic team that led the NBA in point differential and blowout victories this season was remarkably up on the Hawks by 46 points at one moment of the fourth quarter. The 43-point victory was the second-largest in Magic history, trailing on the 47-point beatdown of the Boston Celtics in 1995.
Nothing, not the seven days off or the supposed rust that was supposed to come with the extended break, was about to slow down the runaway Magic on this night. And this was the kind of lopsided blowout that had to resonate from throughout the NBA – from Cleveland to Boston and from Los Angeles to San Antonio.
``A game like this should show everybody what we’re here for – a championship,’’ said Magic defensive ace Matt Barnes, who held Atlanta star Joe Johnson to a dismal shooting night. ``People thought that we’d be rusty, have too much time off and this and that, but our focus is to win it all and get better every single game. We were focused and ready and people thought it would be a close game, but our goal is to win a championship and not lose focus.’’
The Magic, 5-0 in these playoffs now, hit an Atlanta team that had just come off a difficult seven-game series against Milwaukee from all angles. Inside from Howard (21 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots), from the outside (nine 3-pointers) and through the heart of the defense (20 points from slashers Vince Carter and 19 more from Nelson).
``In order to win a series like this we know that we have to go out and dominate every night and remain humble,’’ said Howard, who made eight of 10 shots and had five dunks. ``We didn’t want that Atlanta team to get any confidence going.’’
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Said Atlanta coach Mike Woodson: ``We came out ready to play, but we had nothing the rest of the way. We’ve got to regroup because this Orlando team is playing well. We had no juice tonight. We’ll go back and regroup because we didn’t play well.’’
Here’s a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from a night that belonged to the Magic after a surprisingly close first quarter:
THE GOOD
---- Is it really that surprising that the Magic were 30-plus points better than the Hawks most of the night? At one point over the past two seasons, the Magic beat Atlanta six consecutive times with most of them being in lopsided fashion.
Orlando drilled the Hawks by 34 points once last season, by 32 points this season and won three of the four meetings this season by an average of 16.2 points per game.
``We’re doing a better job now of keeping teams down when we get them down,’’ said Nelson, who had 19 points on eight of 12 shooting. ``In previous years we’d let teams back in games, but not now. We were talking about it during the game that we think we have the best bench in the NBA. In the second quarter, our guys gave us a huge boost.’’
---- The game turned in the second quarter when the Magic used a crushing 17-0 swing to separate themselves from the Hawks.
Tied at 27-all, the Magic held the Hawks without a field goal for a 5-minute, 40-second stretch to grow their lead to 44-29. During that 17-0 stretch, Atlanta missed all six of its field goal attempts and turned the ball over four times.
During that game-turning run, the Magic got six points from Howard, and five apiece and a momentum-swinging 3-pointer from J.J. Redick and Mickael Pietrus.
``I was a little surprised with that,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of the Magic’s lack of rust offensively after the long layoff. ``I was a little surprised that we played the way that we did, especially early in the game. But it was good to see.’’
---- Now, this was the Howard the Magic are used to seeing in the playoffs. Three of Howard’s five field goals in the first half were jaw-dropping dunks. One came over ace shot-blocker Josh Smith, another was in the face of Al Horford and a third came against a defenseless Zaza Pachulia.
Even more impressive was the fury that Howard unleashed on the Hawks on the defensive end of the floor. He routinely started Magic fastbreaks by swatting five shots in the first half. One block of a Smith layup was contested by the Hawks, but it resulted in an alley-oop dunk for Mickael Pietrus at the other end during a Magic 17-0 spurt.
Limited much of the first round of the playoffs because of persistent foul trouble, Howard joked after Tuesday’s game that he ended up playing about as little as he did in the Charlotte because of the lopsided score. But this clearly was a different Howard on this night.
``I didn’t allow anything to throw me off my game,’’ Howard said with conviction. ``That’s what I have to do for the rest of this series – not allow anything to keep me from playing basketball.’’
THE BAD
---- Already down 20 points at the half, the Hawks made matters much worse in the third quarter when they had a complete meltdown offensively.
Possibly fatigued from having just played a seven-game series against Milwaukee, the Hawks looked sluggish in their isolation plays, standing around and watching one shot after another clank off the rim.
The Hawks made just five of 20 shots in the third period, while the Magic connected on 12 of 17 shots to turn the game into a laugher.
We have to come up with a different game plan because what we have been doing (against the Magic) hasn’t been working,’’ Horford fumed. ``We have to figure something out and play harder. We showed one look, so we have to try something different the next game and see if it works.’’
Atlanta had a mere 44 points after three periods and trailed by as many as 41 points. The Hawks scored just 10 points in the second quarter and 11 in the third quarter to end any chance they had on this night. The 10-point second quarter and the 11-point third quarter were all-time lows allowed by the Magic in a playoff game.
---- Johnson will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and could be a heck of a consolation prize for the teams that miss out on LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
But Johnson looked like anything but an elite all-star talent on this night, refusing to attack the rim with Howard guarding the rim and settling too often for one-one jump shots. ``Iso Joe,’’ as he’s known sometimes by teammates, missed seven of his 11 shots and all four of his 3-point shots.
``We just have to stick with the plan. I though in the first quarter, the plan worked pretty good,’’ Johnson said. ``In the second quarter we just fell apart and never regrouped.’’
THE UGLY
---- Former University of Florida hero Al Horford had a rude return to the Sunshine State, getting clobbered on both ends of the floor by Howard.
A power forward forced to play center because of the Hawks lack of size, Horford little chance of slowing down the stronger, more athletic Howard inside. And on the offensive end of the floor, he had a tough time even getting off his shot, missing six of seven tries and twice getting his shot stuffed.
---- The Hawks are now 2-11 on the road in the playoffs in the last three years of the playoffs. Those two wins are the only two for the franchise in the playoffs when playing away from Atlanta since 1997.
Said Bibby: ``A team has to win four before they move on and that was just one. They embarrassed us but we have another rone on Thursday and we’ll be ready for that.’’
John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. His Magic ``Behind the Scenes’’ segment can be heard each week on ESPN 1080 AM. E-mail John at jd41898@aol.com.
