The Magic drop another game tonight, this time to the New Orleans Hornets, 98-95. Dwight Howard records his 7th straight double-double, finishing 16 points and 17 rebounds - more than half the team's rebounds. If the rest of the Magic team cannot contribute more than 14 rebounds, this team will be in trouble. Tony Battie did not have one of his better nights as both starting big men had trouble keeping David West out of the paint tonight. The Magic big men had no answer for West as he scores a career high 34 points.
If there is a positive note, Keyon Dooling and Hedo Turkoglu had decent offensive nights. Turkoglu breaks from his slump to score 22 points while Dooling also adds 22 points of his own.
DeShawn Stevenson had an off night, finishing with only 2 points in his first single-digit scoring night of the year. I do like the fact Stevenson still played aggresively on defense.
The Magic as a team finish with 31 rebounds and 17 turnovers, playing terrible defense all night long. If this team expects to win games, they will have to play defense for 48 minutes. Personally, I am not seeing the "committment" the team is advertising. With the majority of the games at home to start the season, the Magic are throwing away a golden opportunity to pickup some easy wins before the season begins to get tough
