Magic win tonight, 94-74 over the Dallas Mavericks. I thought the Magic played an excellent game tonight. The defense was good, especially against the big-name players. Dwight Howard had another impressive showing tonight with 15 points and 11 rebounds. More telling about how good this kid is, he held Dirk Nowitzki to just 20 points. D-How did a good job defending Dirk on the perimeter. The majority of Dirk's points came when Howard was on the bench from foul trouble.
Steve Francis nearly missed a triple-double. The Franchise racked up 16 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. The last assist attempt was a missed alley-oop to Howard in the closing minutes.
Grant Hill looked really good tonight. Hill kept the team calm as the Mavericks started to make a small run in the fourth. Minus the turnovers, Hill stats show good numbers on the night, 17 points and 9 rebounds. Hedo Turkoglu had a solid performance off the bench with 19 points.
The good and the bad. Magic held the Mavs to 29% shooting, while shooting 41%. Magic pulled down 56 rebounds. Did we ever get 56 rebounds in a game last year? Four players in double figures in points, 2 players in double digit rebounds. Yes, that's right - two, count em, two players had double-doubles tonight. 23 assists for the Magic, compared to 10 for the Mavs. 12 steals and 7 blocked shots. Ah yes, interior defense and we're sharing the rock. The only negative things, 20 turnovers and 7% 3-point shooting. We have good three point shooters on this team, we need to get them going. At any point in the third or fourth, the Magic could have blown the game up with 1 or 2 threes. The crowd was into everyone that was launched. I am not too worried, I know Garrity will get his rhythm back soon and his shot will be automatic.
One last note, Jameer Nelson played a solid game and knocked down a couple timely shots.
