Magic at Raptors: What Went Right

The Magic didn’t do much right as they were pounded by Toronto, 127-110. We are now going to try and find a few things that Orlando did do right.

1. Dwight Howard- Howard avenged his 8 point output of a night ago and dominated the paint against smaller Toronto defenders. Howard scored 37 points and grabbed 15 rebounds (10 offensive).

2. Inside scoring- Orlando was able to score in the paint when they took the ball inside. If they concentrated more on taking the ball to the hoop early instead of settling for outside jumpers, they likely wouldn’t have fell behind by as much.

3. Ball handling- The Magic finished with just 11 turnovers for the entire game. There’s no telling how ugly it would’ve been if they had been careless with the ball.

4. Good fourth quarter run- Most teams make runs in the NBA, and they Magic cut the Toronto lead from 20 to 10, before running out of gas. They could’ve rolled over, but at least Orlando showed some fight in the fourth quarter.

Welcome to the NBA. A team could look like world beaters one night, and a lottery team the next. Toronto was well rested, and the Magic were playing the second half of a back to back and it showed. Orlando couldn’t defend Raptors point guard Jose Calderon, Carlos Delfino, and especially Chris Bosh, and they were run out of the building. The Magic have to fly home and get ready for a Philadelphia 76ers team that has won six out of their last seven games, and will be ready for the mostly transparent defense of Orlando.

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Charlie Bernstein is the Editor-in-Chief of MagicIllustrated.com, and a regular syndicated contributor to FoxSports.com, Sirius Radio, MySpace Sports and Sportsillustrated.com. Charlie is also a columnist for the New Smyrna Observer. Feel free to contact him -HERE- with questions or comments.


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