Denton: Magic-Bucks Postgame Analysis

By John Denton
November 28, 2009

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

ORLANDO -- Road warriors each of the past two seasons when they won 27 games twice, the Orlando Magic are up to their old tricks again. And to add a little twist this season to the degree of difficult, they are winning on the road with big second-half comebacks.

And when star center Dwight Howard picks up his game as he has in the second half of the past two games, swatting shots and dunking at will, the Magic are almost unstoppable.

The Magic wiped out a 17-point deficit by getting a big offensive performance from Vince Carter and a dominant defensive effort from Howard to beat Milwaukee 100-98 and improve to 7-2 on the road.

Carter missed most of the first half when he needed four stitches to close a cut in his lip. He came back and scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half.

And Howard did the rest with the 24th 20-point, 20-rebound performance of his career. He scored 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting, grabbed 20 rebounds and swatted four shots. Howard deflected a Brandon Jennings shot with 1:22 to play and the Magic up one, and his 20th rebound of the night came at the end to salt away the closing seconds.

``He was really, really good,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Howard. ``He turned it up in the second half. We need everybody to make us a good defensive team, but he’s a guy who can put us over the top and make us great. I mean, 20 rebounds and coming to challenge every shot, he was really good.’’

The Magic, the best in the Eastern Conference at 13-4, trailed by 17 points early in the third quarter on Saturday only to rally to the win. And they were down 14 and seemingly dead in the water Thursday in Atlanta only to come alive in the second half.

Van Gundy is a true believer that you find out the most about teams when they are on the road in hostile environments and things aren’t always going right. The Magic have proven that no matter how bad they are at the start, they’re never out of games on the road.

`` We’re very patient and we didn’t panic,’’ Carter said. ``I can honestly say I’ve been on teams before where we’ve panicked and just turned the ball over. If we’re down nine or down 12, we’re trying to figure out how to get a 10-point play to get back in the game. The poise of this (Magic) team and the energy we brought in the second half, I’m just glad we were able to figure it out.’’

The Magic play their fourth game in five nights tonight in New York, but here’s a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday’s win against the Bucks:

THE GOOD

---- Howard was aggressively seeking out shots and wasn’t looking to pass the ball so much. He’s had big success against the Bucks in his career, registering 15 double-doubles in 18 career versus Milwaukee. And he was locked in throughout, attacking with hook shots with both hands.

And in the fourth quarter, Howard grabbed the game by the throat with his shot blocking. He kept a Bucks team that was scorching hot in the first half out of the lane by swatting shots.

``In the first half they were making some unbelievable shots,’’ Howard said. ``In the second half we tried to do a better job. We tried to contain (Brandon) Jennings because we know he likes to come off screens and shoot the jump shot. We did a good job of making him pass the ball and make other people make plays.’’

---- Carter keyed Orlando’s game-turning comeback in the third quarter, hitting a 3-pointer and converting two hard drives to the hoop as part of a 20-4 run to close the third period. That stretch, one in which point guard Jason Williams (12 points) made three 3-pointers, put the Magic up 73-72 heading into the fourth quarter.

Carter was hit in the mouth by an accidental elbow from Charlie Bell early in the game and he was away from the court for 18 minutes while he had his lips stitched up.

``You know going into the game that teams are going to bring their `A’ game,’’ he said. ``You’ve got their high energy and Brandon Jennings was playing unbelievable basketball, but, for us, it was just sustain and weather the storm and find a way to win especially in the second half. I think we did a great job of that.’’

---- Lightly regarded Milwaukee power forward Ersan Ilyasova kept the Bucks close even after they cooled off from the field by grabbing seven of his 16 rebounds on the offensive end of the floor. He added 20 points and two 3-pointers.

---- Rashard Lewis showed signs of breaking out of his mini-funk and had the winning basket with 44 seconds to play. He drive the ball hard past Ilyasova and kissed the ball off the glass for the go-ahead points. Lewis hit six of nine shots and two 3-pointers while scoring 14 points and grabbing nine rebounds.

THE BAD

---- The NBA is all abuzz about Milwaukee point guard Brandon Jennings, but the rookie has a thing or two to learn about shot selection.

He made just seven of 22 shots with four of the baskets coming on 3-pointers. He shot airballs twice and Howard easily deflected one of his step-back jump shots with 1:22 to play. Jennings had just four assists and his Bucks were negative-nine in scoring during his 37 minutes on the floor.

THE UGLY

---- The Magic turned the ball over 17 times, which led to 14 Milwaukee points. Orlando also surrendered 15 offensive rebounds, many of them happening when Howard stepped up to stop penetration and his man snatched the rebound.

The Magic can’t afford to continue to ease into the first halves of games. The comebacks are nice, but Van Gundy knows the Magic can only ride that kind of strategy for so long.

``It’s nice to know that you can do it and know that you can come back,’’ the coach said. ``The danger is thinking the start of the game and the first half aren’t important and that we can just ease into games. If we stay with that (mentality) it won’t be long before that will bite us in the you-know-what.’’

John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. His Orlando Magic ``Behind the Scenes’’ segment can be heard on ESPN 1080 AM on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. Submit questions to John for his ``Ask J.D.’’ mailbag feature that will appear every Friday at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.