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Orlando Magic @ Portland Trailblazers Game Thread

3K views 91 replies 10 participants last post by  X-Factor 
#1 ·
Well, 4th game on the road in 5 days for the Magic. They've actually played relatively hard and well the past few games, so you assume they're going to tired tonight. Nonetheless, they're on the brink of completely falling apart and getting to the point where they're not even in striking distance of the playoffs. A win tonight is imperative, as are the next two against Charlotte. These are 3 games the Magic really have to win in my opinion, no more blowing games against teams they should beat. We have ground to make up now, we can't afford losses to teams like Portland, Atlanta, Charlotte, or Toronto (in Orlando). The Blazers are 1-9 in their last 10, which should tell you how poorly they're playing right now. Heck, even the Magic are 3-7 in their last 10.
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Yahoo's Preview of Tonight's Game

Chris Jent will try again for his first win as Orlando's coach when the struggling Magic visit the Portland Trail Blazers.
Jent was named interim coach Thursday after the team fired Johnny Davis with 18 games left in the season. Jent, who was Davis' assistant, now officially has one game of head coaching experience at the pro level.

``I was very surprised, but also very pleased,'' Jent said after Thursday's practice. ``To coach at the highest level is phenomenal.''

However, the Magic lost their seventh straight in Jent's debut Friday, falling 98-90 to Seattle. Steve Francis had 19 points for the Magic, who fell one game behind Philadelphia for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Magic ownership is hoping the coaching change will energize the team.

``Certainly it's not the way we would like things to play out,'' general manager John Weisbrod said. ``I still feel like we have our fate in our own hands, but I don't know how much longer we would have had that if we didn't get some kind of a jolt.''

Jent may not have much success against Portland, which has won 11 straight against Orlando.

The Blazers are coming off their ninth loss in 10 games, a 98-94 defeat to Dallas on Thursday. Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Damon Stoudamire each had 20 points, and Joel Przybilla and Sebastian Telfair added 16 apiece for Portland.

``We're getting better,'' Abdur-Rahim said. ``If anything, we can feel good about that, but we still lost.''

The Blazers were coming off Wednesday's 108-77 loss at Houston.

``Our team was absolute heart and soul tonight,'' said interim coach Kevin Pritchard, who is 1-7 since taking over for Maurice Cheeks. ``We're getting some guys in there, playing the right way.''

Portland played without injured Zach Randolph, Nick Van Exel and Ruben Patterson, as well as Darius Miles, who was with his ailing mother.
 
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#3 ·
Some interesting stats on Jameer Nelson:
-Has scored in double figures 13 consecutive games.
-Has scored in double figures in 20 consecutive games in which he's played 20 or more minutes (longest active streak of any rookie, 2nd longest the entire season behind Okafor's streak of 23 in a row.)

He'll be facing a point guard who was taken before him in this year's draft, Sebastian Telfair. Like Nelson, Telfair has recently been getting a lot more playing time and has been playing pretty well with the opporunity. Should be a good one tonight watching these two young point guards go at it.
 
#6 ·
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#19 ·
Captain Obvious said:
Why the hell has Stevenson chucked up 4 shots already? He's taking the role of replacing Francis literally.
Are you watching the game? I think Stevenson's played very well so far, he should have at 4 free throw attempts by now. He's been aggressive offensively but hasn't really been forcing it. A little overreacting after that dunk, but it was pretty nice.
 
#20 ·
Telfair's on fire and the officiating has been horribly in favor of the Blazers so far. That's the only reason the Magic aren't up 6 or 8 points after one, instead it's a tied game. Nelson should've been on the line after that layup he made, Kasun was hacked down low once when they didn't call it, Stevenson was fouled when they didn't call it at least twice and they called a ticky tack foul on the other end on the Pryzbilla 3-point play. Way too much going against the Magic in one quarter.
 
#21 ·
hobojoe said:
Are you watching the game? I think Stevenson's played very well so far, he should have at 4 free throw attempts by now. He's been aggressive offensively but hasn't really been forcing it. A little overreacting after that dunk, but it was pretty nice.
I posted that before the dunk. He's playing alright now but he wasn't at the beginning.
 
#23 ·
I want to see some Ha. Maybe we can blow this one out so Ha can get some garbage minutes, if he is even in uniform.

Travis Outlaw is an impressive looking physical specimen. Tall, very long, and not nearly as skinny as I thought he would be. And he has made a couple of nice plays out there.
 
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