Skip to content

Pacers crush over-matched Magic, hope slipping away…

2012 May 2
tags: ,
by Brian Serra

Third quarter collapse. Even the fans that were loud and proud early began to turn on the effort put forth from their team. The effort was their in the first half as the Magic trailed just 44-38, but the starters came out flat again and were outscored by 15 in the 3rd quarter. In the game, they were outscored by 23.

97-74 loss for Orlando. Series, 2-1 Indiana.

The 3rd quarter tally so far in the series: 83-41, Pacers advantage.

All three games the Magic starters have come out completely flat to start the 1st and 3rd quarters.

  • The Pacers have outscored the Magic 46-21 in the first 6 minutes of all 3 games.
  • Orlando has had 7 on the scoreboard at that 6 minute mark in each game. Consistent!
  • The Pacers have outscored the Magic 37-24 in the first 6 minutes of the 3rd quarters.
  • Analysis: it’s hard to win when your best players are getting completely run off the court.

The defensive woes are equally or greater compounded by those on the offensive end. Hedo, Ryan Anderson and Jason Richardson COMBINED to score just 17 points tonight. That 17 point number looks even better considering that Ryan was scoreless heading into the 4th quarter (finished with 7) and Hedo didn’t score again after the 1st quarter (finished with 5.)

The leading scorer for Orlando was once again Big Baby Davis who finished with 22 points but just 4 rebounds. J.J. Redick was the 2nd leading scorer with 13. Davis and Redick also seem to be the only guys on the team playing with an extra level of energy.

Let’s play the bullet game again to take a look at some of the poor stats from the Magic:

  • 17 turnovers, just 14 assists.
  • The Magic starters accounted for just 12 rebounds. The frontcourt of Turk, Ryan and Baby combined for just 6.
  • The Magic never led in the game. They did, however, trail by as much as 29 at one point.
  • The only blocked shot in the game came from Ish Smith, the smallest player on the court who happened to play just 4 minutes of garbage time.
  • Just 50% from the free throw line as a team. Reminder – Dwight Howard wasn’t shooting any.
  • The most important stat to take away though for Orlando as a team, is that this counts as just ONE loss.
Repeat, it counts as just one loss. If the team can find a way -somehow- to pull off a win on Saturday then the series is even again and starts all over.  That tiny, little sliver of hope is still out there. We All We Got may be true, but they need to figure out to GET more from EACH OTHER.
Communication, teamwork, effort coaching, shooting, passing, rebounding, intensity and decision making all must improve drastically if this team doesn’t want to be sitting on the couch in two weeks. This team drastically needs a spark and unfortunately does not seem to have the personnel to fulfull that need.
Saturday’s only goal? Score more than Indiana. Easy solution.
“There are team wins and team losses. This was a team loss.” – Stan Van Gundy
***Join Magic Basketball Online on Twitter and Facebook!***

 

from → Uncategorized