Magic played hard tonight and the crowd was definitely into the game. In the end though, the Rockets win 108-99. Our team played hard the entire night but we didn't play great defense and we did not rebound well. There was too much dribble penetration which caused our bigs to come over on help defense - freeing up the offensive boards pretty much all night. In the first quarter, the Magic gave up 33 points to a Rocket team that only averages 91 points a game. I don't care if we score 14 or 40 in the first quarter, you can't give up 33 to the other team. The Rockets have had trouble all year scoring and we make Bob Sura look like John Stockton. Magic also left 8 points at the line, some of those coming down the stretch.
Steve Francis played a pretty good game tonight - but I don't think he did enough to get the team going. There was little ball movemeny and more times than not, there was a lot of standing and dribbling. Francis finishes with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists. Grant Hill did play tonight, despite the wrist injury. Hill finish with 21 points. Tracy McGrady had an average game - nothing to write home about (27 points, 4 assists, 6 rebounds).
