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Orlando Magic 103, Portland Trailblazers 91
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![]() POSTGAME QUOTES
Orlando Magic Forward/Center Dwight Howard:(On playing in All-Star game) “I’m very excited, I can’t sleep at night. Every night I’m thinking about the All-Star game, the dunk contest, what an opportunity though to represent my family and the Orlando Magic.” Orlando Magic Forward Darko Milicic:“It feels good, we’ve talked about our struggles before and we talked about finishing before this little break on a positive note, finishing with a win and staying above .500” (On 1 yr. anniversary w/ Magic) “It feels great, it feels great. Just playing with Dwight, it’s really great and tonight was my best game.” “As soon as I got here, I tried to focus on Orlando and focus on my future here.” (On his last 4 games) “Playing with Dwight, they have to double him every time and a lot of times, I get open shots because of him. People are going to rotate and double him and I open and I get some easy shots. I just enjoy playing with these guys, you know. For me, it’s a chance to play and it’s a different experience. I love it.” Orlando Magic Guard Carlos Arroyo:(On 1 yr. anniversary w/ Magic) “It’s been a great experience so far. I’m blessed to be here, I’m grateful to be here. I’m always thankful for the opportunity the franchise has given me. I play minutes and contribute which is what I always wanted. Hopefully this will be for many years to come. This would be something positive. Stability is the most important thing for myself and my family. I’m on a team that I’ve settled.” (On Darko’s improvement in last yr.) “A lot, you guys seen it. You’ve seen the progress and with minutes and he’s going to get experience and he’s going to contribute the way he’s supposed to contribute. He’s growing right now. A lot of people say that this is he first year in the league; he really hasn’t gotten the opportunity for play minutes and contribute right now. We all can see how good he’s getting and how much he’s progressing the last year or so. I think all he needs is confidence and minutes.” “It was very important for us to win this last game before the All-Star break. We all know how tough of a stretch we’re going to see ourselves after the All-Star weekend. It’s going to be a tough two weeks for us, on the road and playing Detroit and teams like Dallas and San Antonio, teams that are playing great right now. It’s going to be a great test for us and we need to come ready to go. We need to focus on the part on the last part of the season and realize that every game counts now. We have to play every game like it’s the play-offs now.” Portland Trailblazers Guard Brandon Roy: On the Magic’s run before halftime “They made a lot of shots, and we just ran out of a little gas. We got beat up pretty good last night in Miami and guys just didn’t bring the same effort tonight for 48 minutes.” On the inside play of Darko and Dwight “It made it difficult to defend, because they have Darko and Dwight on each side, and we tried to help, and they both did a good job of kicking it out to the shooters, and they made shots. They’re a tough team to play against, especially when you don’t bring the energy or the effort.” On if the Blazers were sluggish after their game last night “Yeah, we had a number of guys who were sluggish, and when you play a team that has had three days off, they’re ready to go and they want to end it on a good note [before the all-star break], and they took care of business early, and that’s the way it goes.” Portland Trailblazers Forward Jamaal Magloire: On Dwight Howard “It’s difficult, because he commands a lot of attention and he’s relentless, as far as getting second opportunities at the basket. I mean you can prevent him from shooting, or block his shot one time, but he’s so relentless trying to get his shot and get another opportunity at the basket, that he is effective in that way.” On the Magic’s run before halftime “I thought our focus could have been a lot better. I thought having a young team like we have, we strayed a little bit from the game plan, and they capitalized on that.” POSTGAME NOTES • Dwight Howard is 10th all time for shooting percentage over a five game stretch since the introduction of the shot-clock. For players with a minimum of 50 attempts, Howard is shooting .813 percent over the past five contests (52-64). Wilt Chamberlain holds spots 1-7 and here are the numbers for the top five. Chamberlain shot .885 percent from 11/29/66-12/6/66 (54-61), .871 percent from 2/17/67-3/1/67 (54-62), .869 percent from 11/30/66-12/7/66 (53-61), .851 from 11/25/66-12/2/66 (57-67), and .841 percent from 2/15/67-2/28/67 (53-63). Chamberlain shot .839 for sixth all time and .836 for seventh. Bob Hanson shot .820 percent for eighth overall during the 1987-88 season. Chamberlain holds the ninth spot with .819 percent and the eleventh, after Howard, with .811 percent. • The Magic improve to 27-26 with a 103-91 victory over the Trail Blazers. • The Magic are now 9-7 when scoring 100 or more points in a game. During the last seven games the Magic are averaging 100.8 ppg (706 points) and are shooting 50.0 percent (267-533) from the floor. • Darko Milicic scored a career high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor. He added eight rebounds in 34:26 of play. Milicic’s previous high was 19 points on Feb. 3 vs. NY. • Hedo Turkoglu tallied a season high 24 points (T) on 10-of-16 shooting. • Carlos Arroyo scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor while tying a season high five assists. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||