MAGIC: Quotes: 04/20/08 vs. Toronto

Final: Orlando Magic 114 - Toronto Raptors 100

April 20, 2008 - Amway Arena

	1	2	3	4	F
RAPTORS	23	24	28	25	100
MAGIC	43	17	25	29	114

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LIVE POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCES
Moments after the conclusion of the game, click here to access a live video stream of the postgame press conference, featuring Orlando's Stan Van Gundy and Toronto's Sam Mitchell, in addition to several players from each team.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Orlando Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy:
On overall game�
�It seems like it�s about 5 o�clock. Joel (Glass) and I were talking coming over, and you forget when you haven�t coached one in awhile how long the playoff games are. When you�re sort of struggling to hang on to a lead it seems even longer. Long night. I thought we did a lot of good things. Obviously a tremendous start to the game but I thought we defended pretty solidly throughout the night, other than putting them on the free throw line and we lost their shooters a couple of times for threes. Overall I think we defended pretty well. We�ve got to find a way that Chris Bosh isn�t on the free throw line every time he dribbles the ball. We�ve got to clean that up. And do a little bit better job on their shooters. I thought both (Anthony) Parker and (Jason) Kapono had huge nights. But other than that, pretty good. I thought Dwight (Howard) was incredible. We did not do a very good job of getting him the ball at all and he still had 25 (points), 22 (rebounds) and 5 blocks, and he did it on his own. He just went and got the ball on the glass, he was blocking shots, just a tremendous game. And I thought Rashard (Lewis) was really, really good on Bosh. I thought he battled very hard. I thought Jameer (Nelson) was outstanding. Outstanding.�

On Raptors being 24 points behind�
�I thought they did a great job coming back. It does happen. My only concern with our guys; we don�t have a lot of guys who have been through these battles. Besides making every shot, that energized us, and we had great energy and great enthusiasm and spirit early in the game. And when it got tough, I thought we let that go a little bit. I thought we hung our heads a bit. And we�ve got to understand, just like Sam (Mitchell) said with the lead, that�s the eve and flow of an NBA game, especially a playoff game. As I said to our guys at halftime, if it�s mid-February and somebody�s playing the fourth game in five nights or something and you get ahead of them they may let it go. You�ve got an easy win. That�s not going to happen in the playoffs, nobody�s going to let it go, so you�ve got to keep playing. You�ve got to understand their going to make some shots. You�ve got to understand their going to make a run. They got it all the way back to five, and then from there I thought we closed the game well. That�s something we�ve been good at for most of the year. We�ve got a lot of experience, let�s put it that way, of people making runs back at us. We are experienced in that, but we�ve done a good job finishing after that. So I was happy.�

Orlando Magic GuardKeith Bogans:
�We came out with a lot of energy, made shots, came out the way we wanted to.�

�It felt good, in the first half, we didn�t miss a shot. Just came out, moved the ball, had great ball movement. And the shots fell.�

�They had to load up on Dwight and he did a good job of passing out of double-teams. And we did a good job on the perimeter, swinging it around to the open guy. Just making shots.�

�Teams are going to make runs in the play-offs and we just got to keep playing.�

(On Rashard Lewis) �Oh yeah, he was great on Bosh tonight. Bosh had a big night the last time we played up there and tonight, Rashard did a good job. Everybody was in �help� position. It was hard for him to get going.�

Orlando Magic ForwardHedo Turkoglu:
�They�re a good team, too. They had their run and then came back. The thing about us is, and what we did all year long, was to keep our composure, and no matter what happened, we didn�t let it go and let things didn�t bother us. We just played through it and played 48 minutes. We knew that they were going to make their run and they did come to within five points. But we�re a good team and we can create for ourselves in any situation and pulled the game.�

Orlando Magic GuardKeyon Dooling:
�It was incredible, couldn�t ask for a better start. It was incredible. But we�ve had starts like that; the one that comes to mind is the New Orleans game. We had some slippage in the game and they came back and won the game. So in a play-off series, teams aren�t going to quit. You�re never out of the game and we�ve got to find a way to minimize those lapses we have.�

�I think we were focused, they were focused. But all we did was take care of home court. That�s special, take care of home court.�

�I mean, Jameer just came out and he pretty much set the tone. Especially on the defensive end and that kind of rubbed off on everybody else. Jameer definitely set the tone.�

�In the locker room, we know how important Jameer is. He�s the floor general; he�s done a great job of facilitating three great scorers. You�ve got to satisfy Dwight, Hedo and Rashard. And in the midst of things, individual things haven�t come up. So he�s done a great job of changing his game up and facilitating for us.�

Toronto Raptors Head Coach Sam Mitchell:
On the loss:
�If you look at our playoff history, I think arguably you can say that Andrea (Bargnani) was one of our better players last year in the playoffs and you�re trying to get your more experienced players on the court with more minutes. It�s something that we thought in Game one we could try. Looking at all the games we�ve played so far, Andrea has done a pretty good job defensively when he had to guard (Hedo) Turkoglu and Rashard (Lewis) and one thing we felt like with Chris (Bosh) and Andrea in those spots that it would take away those two posting our guys up. In other games, Rashard and Turkoglu posted us up quite a bit and we knew at times that we would have to double Dwight (Howard) and so what you�re trying to do is not put yourself in a situation where you have to double all night.�

On fighting back from a 24 point deficit:
�The NBA is a funny thing. There are nights when we�ve been up 20 and you�re sitting there as a coach thinking, �When are we going to stop making shots?� So we knew through experience of playing 82 games and we�ve been together for a while, we understood the game was not going to be over in the first quarter. A lot of times in the NBA teams get up 20 and if you can cut it to 10 by half or in the third quarter cut it to single digits you still have an excellent opportunity to win the game. And we know that. That happens on a night-in, night-out basis. We felt like we would get back in the game and we did and we got some stops. Dwight Howard got some key offensive rebounds, and if we could�ve come up with those rebounds, and it�s a five point game with the way we started to click offensively, it could have been a different story. He�s a great player. It�s tough for our bigs with the things we ask them to do. But I thought he just made some plays in the third and fourth quarter that just broke our backs with those offensive rebounds.�

On how to counter Dwight Howard:
�That�s going to be tough. The rebounding part is just going to be tough. As long as they�re not offensive rebounds, then he�s going to get the defensive rebounds that he gets because he�s talented enough and big enough and strong and quick enough to do it. The thing we have to try to do a better job of is keeping him off the glass. It�s easy for me to sit here and say it but I don�t have to do it. Our guys understand what we have to do and we�ve got to do a much better job of keeping him off the offensive glass. But it�s tough.�

Toronto Raptors GuardJason Kapono:
�They put us back on our heels to start the game. They started out extremely hot to start the game. It is really hard because you want to take away the paint with Dwight Howard there. You want to clog the paint and close up the shooters, but obviously when they make 6 or 7 threes in a row you are now worried about the guys shooting threes. So as a result, Dwight Howard and the passing lanes are now open. We have to do a better job of taking it away.�

�We felt if we hung in there they would start to miss. It is hard to keep shooting the way hey did. I have never seen a team shoot that well for an extended period of time. We knew we had to take that first blow and try and fight back. We got it down to five and it was an uphill battle. It is hard to play like that.�

Toronto Raptors ForwardChris Bosh:
�They did a good job tonight (defensively). Rashard forced me to go out a little further from the basket by fronting and playing on top of me already. I think in Game 2 we have to do a better job of putting him in a high-low situation. We only capitalized two or three times. He fronted me the whole game. He was up in my face. I should have done a better job expecting that. He did a good job. I will be ready for it in Game 2.�

�We just wanted to stay in the game. They were making shots and shooting the ball unbelievably. We have to do a better job with our one-on-one defense. They put us in a lot of driving and kick situations. We weren�t letting them get into the paint, but they kept making shots. I think if we do a better job of squaring our guys up, playing one-on-one defense like we don�t have any help, and just being aggressive with them then I think we can get off to a better start next time.�

�He (Howard) is a lot smarter. In the past years he would get a little hot-headed I guess if guys were fouling him. He is as strong as he can be. He would throw guys out of the way and get offensive fouls and turnovers. Now he is more composed. He can always rebound. He is in every play. He has developed that jump hook pretty well. He is learning how to use his body better and find his teammates.�

Toronto Raptors GuardT.J. Ford:
�I mean they came out extremely hot in the first quarter and it put us in the hole the rest of the game. What can you say? They were driving and kicking and making shots.�

�Who expected them to shoot like that? They played well and it is a 7 game series. They won the first one and the series is not over. We will come back on Tuesday and we will re-group. We will make it a better game.�

�I just didn�t have my stroke tonight. They were either long or short. I will watch tape and make adjustments. I will come out Tuesday ready to go.�

�He (Howard) is a big guy. He had four or five blocks tonight. I got to my spots on the court and it did not go down tonight.�

POSTGAME NOTES

� The Orlando Magic defeated the Toronto Raptors 114-100 in the first game of round one of the 2007-08 NBA Playoffs.
� The Magic�s nine 3-pointers in the first quarter ties the NBA Playoff record for most threes made in a quarter. The previous mark of nine threes came in the Boston Celtics vs. the Philadelphia 76ers game on May 3, 2002. The nine 3-pointers also sets a Magic team playoff record. The previous playoff record for most threes made by the Magic in a quarter was six, which happened three times, most recently in the second quarter at Miami on May 4, 1997.
� Maurice Evans� three 3-pointers made in the first quarter ties the Magic�s playoff record for most threes made during a quarter by an individual in a playoff game. This feat has been accomplished several times, most recently by Darrell Armstrong vs. Milwaukee in the first quarter on May 1, 2001.
� The Magic�s 43 points the first quarter sets a Magic playoff record for most points scored in a quarter. The previous playoff record was 36 points set five times, most recently on May 1, 2001 in the first quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks.
� Of Dwight Howard�s five blocks for the game, his three blocks in the first quarter tied the playoff record for most blocks in a quarter. This feat has happened several times, most recently by Howard on April 21, 2007 on the road against the Detroit Pistons in the first quarter.
� The Magic�s 11 3-pointers in the first half ties the NBA playoff record for most threes made in a half, a feat which has happened five previous times. The most recent came in the Golden State Warriors vs. Utah Jazz game on May 11, 2007. It also sets a Magic playoff record for most threes in a half. The old record of eight threes was set several times, most recently in the second half of the Miami game on May 4, 2007.
� Howard finished the night with 25 points and 22 rebounds to notch the fourth 20/20 game in Magic playoff history. Shaquille O�Neal notched two 20/20 games during the playoffs (May 3, 1995 @ Boston, 20, 21; May 16, 1995 vs. Chicago 23,28) and Horace Grant tallied one for his playoff career (May 13, 1996 at Atlanta, 29, 20). The last player in the NBA to notch a 20/20 game during the playoffs was Amare Stoudemire on April 29, 2007 at LA. (27, 21)
� All five starters for the Magic finished in double figures as Howard led all scorers with 25 points. Jameer Nelson dished in 24 points and seven assists, while Hedo Turkoglu chipped in 21 points to round out the 20+ point performances. Maurice Evans, Rashard Lewis and Keyon Dooling turned in 14, 13 and 10 points respectively.
� Anthony Parker led the Raptors for the day as he tallied 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
� Of Chris Bosh�s 21 points for the day, 13 came from the free-throw line where he stayed a perfect 13-of-13.
� Jason Kapono and Rasho Nesterovic both turned in 18 and 16 points, respectively.