#60: GSW @ ORL 3/3/10

Orlando Magic

Record: 41-20 (3rd) • Point Differential: +5.8 (3rd) • Pace: 92.7 (t-15th)

Off. Efficiency: 109.3 (9th) • eFG: 52.6 (3rd) • TO: 15.3 (12th) • OReb: 23.6 (26th) • FT/FG: 25.0 (t-6th)

Def. Efficiency: 103.1 (4th) • eFG: 47.7 (t-3rd) • TO: 14.1 (26th) • OReb: 22.7 (t-1st) • FT/FG: 20.8 (8th)

PreThoughts

As poetic as we've been waxing about the current Warriors lineup, there's just no way to forecast a competitive game here. The Magic are 23-6 at home, and only one of those six losses came at the ends of a sub-.500 team... the Wizards caught them on a Caron Butler buzzer-beater in a wacky game last month. These guys don't wreak much havoc on the offensive boards, but they do everything else very well. And since both Atlanta and Boston are within three games of catching Orlando for the second seed in the East, the Magic still have plenty to play for. The Warriors would need monster shooting nights from both Curry and Morrow to take this one, and even that might not do it. Tonight, the Magnificent Eight are simply outgunned.

Warrior To Watch: Chris Hunter. Someone will need to man up to Dwight Howard, and Ronny just doesn't have the beef to do it. Hunter does, and he's shown a willingness to smack big intimidating dudes. Look for a nice hard first-half foul to get the Warriors fired up.

Magician To Watch: Dwight Howard. He still isn't good at hitting free throws and passing out of double teams... that's an attackable combo. But the Warriors don't have enough bodies to play Hack-A-Howard, so he could have a pretty monster night.

ORL @ GSW 12/5/09: PostThoughts

1) Ugh, what a classic Oakland finish. After three quarters of rousing play, the Warriors didn't score for six of the last nine minutes of the game and simply came undone. Fatigue again probably played a factor.

2) Very impressive game from Anthony Randolph. He garnished a career-high 28 points on 22 shots with 13 rebounds, five assists and no turnovers in 35 minutes. Perhaps the best game of his career to this point. And he handled Dwight Howard (17 points on 11 shots, 8 rebounds) about as well as anyone could. Randolph still takes too many 20-foot jumpers, but he drove more this game than he had in previous games.

3) Monta Ellis continues to amaze, with 33 points but the toll of 40+ minutes every game shows in his fouls committed (5 tonight) and in his turnovers (7 tonight, and averaging 6.3 over the last seven games).

4) Nellie's Smallball for much of the game seemed to be...working? Ellis, Curry and Watson shared the floor for much of the game, and played well

5) Corey Maggette: 11 points on...one made basket. How modest.

6) Overall, nice game. Golden State forced Orlando to play to their style, and almost came away with a huge, huge win. Orlando should have won this by 30 points.

7) On a very personal note, I was in Orlando about month ago, and I have to say, it is a sweltering, oppressive place. For one, it is the most dangerous place in America to be a pedestrian. More insidiously, the smiling face of Mickey is everywhere, and the area is surprisingly expensive.

ORL @ GSW 12/5/09: PreThoughts

1) Marcus Thompson sez Randolph and Turiaf are out, so it's another Magnificent Seven game: Monta, Curry, Maggs, Hunter, Mikki, CJ and Vlad. GROSS. Tiny and gross. If Chris Hunter gets less than thirty minutes, it had better be because he fouled out. We're gonna need an extra helping of him...

2) ...because while we match up worse against the Lakers than against any other team, Orlando seems like a pretty solid candidate for number two. Dwight is going to mmmMMMURDER us, and while we've been playing better perimeter D in this post-Crawford world, I'm guessing the Magic will get at least twenty open looks from long distance tonight. The goal: lose by fifteen. (And have fun.)

3) Boy, Monta's plus-minus numbers still friggin' stink. I know, plenty of noise in those things early in the season... we had a couple big CJ/Law garbage-time runs that still skew things a good bit. But we're getting outscored by 4.2 points a game, and when Monta's on the floor -- which is 82% of the time -- we get outscored by 7.8 points a game. We are worst-team-in-the-league bad whenever our ascendant star is on the floor. This is starting to get troubling.

4) Nellie's body language will be interesting here. Is he really going to re-group and dive back in with relish after this road trip? Or is he just trying to deny the inevitable?

5) Matt! Mickael! Adonal! Hey, guys.