words_Nick Engvall
After sweeping the Charlotte Bobcats in the first round, the Orlando seems to have found their magic yet again this post season. Sure the Magic have been one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference over the last few years, but Dwight Howard’s foul troubles in the first round brought out the awaiting skeptics.
Tuesday night those skeptics were silenced as the Orlando Magic dismantled the Atlanta Hawks on the way to a 43 point victory. Howard was on, and seemingly unstoppable in what looked more like an Orlando highlight reel than a playoff game. Not only did Dwight rarely miss (80% from the field), he dominated the boards and the paint. Howard finished with 12 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
If the Magic’s performance last night isn’t enough to place them as the favorite in the Eastern Conference playoffs, throw in a little nagging elbow injury to LeBron James and the Magic have to be considered the biggest threat in the East at the moment. Five games in and they haven’t faltered, nobody else in the NBA Playoffs can say that.
Be sure to check out Dwight Howard’s videos at video.eastbay.com
via yahoo
That wasnt a game against the Hawks, that was practice
ATL crew is too tired from their battle against the Bucks, even with some rest I doubt they can beat the Magic
It’s great the Magic does what they should, because they been more focussed than any other team, problem is, the Bobcats, and Hawks didn’t, so it isn’t really giving you a feel on how the ECF’s will be.
The Bobcats were a pretty tough team, though. They played very hard. I wouldn’t say they weren’t focused – they just didn’t have the tools necessary to match up with Orlando.
Orlando still has a long way to go in this Hawks series. You win one game by 40…and lose the next one, its still a 1-1 series. Gotta get this W tonight!
True they didn’t have the tools overall, and they had to sacrifice too much to keep Dwight in trouble(because Dwight’s numbers might have been down, but his still outproduced all 3 of the Bobcats Centers put together), but they also lacked the focus to finish the games, in the close Games, the Magic just took the 2 bucket lead with a couple of minutes left, and kept it.
Still no worries about the Hawks though, after a surprisingly good 1st Round Joe Johnson seems to struggle yet again in the Playoffs(especially his %’s are taking a nosedive -5% off his FG’s, -10% off his 3-PT’s).
Another 30pt win over the Hawks, dare I say it…………………4-4-…………it’s coming together nicely for the Magic.