Magic at Nets: What Went Right

It was hardly a thing of beauty, but the visiting Orlando Magic put forth a gutsy performance to defeat the New Jersey Nets, 102-92.

The win was especially impressive for the Magic, being that they certainly didn’t bring their “A” game, didn’t connect very often from behind the arc, had a few defensive lapses, and missed 14 free throws. Orlando fell behind by five in the fourth quarter and didn’t panic. They tightened up their defense and executed better on offense. The road victory was Orlando’s 21st on the season, which leads the NBA.

What went right:

1. Crunch time Turk- Hedo Turkoglu scored 17 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, and was Orlando’s go to guy down the stretch once again. After a tough start in which he wasn’t involved much in the offense, Turk bailed out the team yet again.

2. Sharpshooting Lewis- Forward Rashard Lewis was solid and consistent on both ends throughout the entire game, and finished with 25 points on 7-10 shooting, including 3 of 4 from behind the three-point arc. Rashard grabbed 6 rebounds as well.

3. Closing defense- Orlando went on a 26-10 run to put the game on ice in the fourth period. During that stretch, the Magic held New Jersey to just 5 for 14 from the field with three turnovers.

4. Good shooting from the field- The Orlando offense seemed to struggle from the perimeter for much of the night, but the statistics show that the Magic were better than 52% from the field (34-65).

5. Takin’ care of the ball- The Magic had just 10 turnovers on the night, almost half of which by Dwight Howard (4). The Orlando point guards took care of the ball and ran the offense well, especially Keyon Dooling.

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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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