Tweet
INDIANA –9’ Orlando
The Magic have eight SU wins in 34 games, but seven wins all came in a 10 game span. Now they’ve returned to their lackadaisical ways. They Magic could use some good coaching right now. Finally snapping their losing streak woke up the Magic briefly, but “led” by one of the worst coaches in recent NBA history, don’t look for Orlando to come out of it against an Indiana team that has been on fire in their last five.
While the Magic have lost four straight by an average of 15.75, the Pacers are on a five game winning streak by 10.8 ppg. The Pacers are already outscoring foes at home by eight and the Magic are as bad as it gets. Teams that normally average 92.3 ppg are getting just 84.2 to the Pacers including 80.9 at home. Conversely the not-so Magic are allowing teams average 91.5 to score 98.9. With Indiana allowing about eight points less than their foes average and the Magic about eight more, the Pacers are about 16 ppg better on defense.
I would expect that Rick Carlisle one of the league’s best coaches will have his team ready tonight. On Dec. 17 the Pacers lost to the Magic at Conseco Fieldhouse, 94-90. That ended the Magic’s 19-game losing streak and started a stretch of seven wins in 10 games. However, Orlando is likely to have two different starters than it did in its last meeting at the fieldhouse. Point guard Tyronn Lue has replaced Rod Strickland, who hit the game-winning shot in the previous meeting, and rookie Keith Bogans replaced Gordan Giricek in Orlando’s loss to Miami on Saturday.
They are 28th in points allowed (98.9 ppg), leading only the Los Angeles Clippers. They are 29th in rebounding, which is a lot like defense.
The Magic are riding a four-game losing streak, which has mirrored their defensive failures. Each of the four opponents scored at least 98 points. They haven’t limited an opponent to less than 45 percent shooting from the field since they upset the Pacers on Dec. 17. The Heat are the worst-shooting team and second-lowest scoring team in the NBA, but they scored a whopping 40 points in the first quarter against the Magic’s no-look defense. In their 26 losses, opponents have averaged 101 points.
In reality though it starts with a bad offense. Though statistically not that bad, the Magic plays an up-tempo game that requires that they are among the highest scoring teams. However they are not. Orlando is 13th in the league in scoring (92.5 points a game), a significant drop from last year when it was 6th in the league (98.5) in that category
Like the Pacers tonite ....
The Magic have eight SU wins in 34 games, but seven wins all came in a 10 game span. Now they’ve returned to their lackadaisical ways. They Magic could use some good coaching right now. Finally snapping their losing streak woke up the Magic briefly, but “led” by one of the worst coaches in recent NBA history, don’t look for Orlando to come out of it against an Indiana team that has been on fire in their last five.
While the Magic have lost four straight by an average of 15.75, the Pacers are on a five game winning streak by 10.8 ppg. The Pacers are already outscoring foes at home by eight and the Magic are as bad as it gets. Teams that normally average 92.3 ppg are getting just 84.2 to the Pacers including 80.9 at home. Conversely the not-so Magic are allowing teams average 91.5 to score 98.9. With Indiana allowing about eight points less than their foes average and the Magic about eight more, the Pacers are about 16 ppg better on defense.
I would expect that Rick Carlisle one of the league’s best coaches will have his team ready tonight. On Dec. 17 the Pacers lost to the Magic at Conseco Fieldhouse, 94-90. That ended the Magic’s 19-game losing streak and started a stretch of seven wins in 10 games. However, Orlando is likely to have two different starters than it did in its last meeting at the fieldhouse. Point guard Tyronn Lue has replaced Rod Strickland, who hit the game-winning shot in the previous meeting, and rookie Keith Bogans replaced Gordan Giricek in Orlando’s loss to Miami on Saturday.
They are 28th in points allowed (98.9 ppg), leading only the Los Angeles Clippers. They are 29th in rebounding, which is a lot like defense.
The Magic are riding a four-game losing streak, which has mirrored their defensive failures. Each of the four opponents scored at least 98 points. They haven’t limited an opponent to less than 45 percent shooting from the field since they upset the Pacers on Dec. 17. The Heat are the worst-shooting team and second-lowest scoring team in the NBA, but they scored a whopping 40 points in the first quarter against the Magic’s no-look defense. In their 26 losses, opponents have averaged 101 points.
In reality though it starts with a bad offense. Though statistically not that bad, the Magic plays an up-tempo game that requires that they are among the highest scoring teams. However they are not. Orlando is 13th in the league in scoring (92.5 points a game), a significant drop from last year when it was 6th in the league (98.5) in that category
Like the Pacers tonite ....
Comment