Attacking The Boards: Where The Magic Keep Winning

The Orlando Magic have been rolling since they made their pair of trades to acquire Hedo Turkoglu, Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson. The Rockets and their high powered offense was able to keep Houston in it for a half but the Magic dominated the second half and came away with a bag 110-95 victory. Every Magic starter scored in double digits, led by Brandon Bass and Jason Richardson, who had 18 efficient points a piece. Despite early foul trouble, Dwight Howard ended up putting in 13 points with 11 rebounds and two blocks in just 27 minutes of play. Expect a piece on Brandon Bass to come on Sunday.

Its worth noting that Kevin Martin absolutely went off in this game to the tune of 27 points on just 15 shots, while getting to the line 11 times (converting on nine attempts). Martin has been so excellent this season and the topic of this year being a potential all-star campaign for him was recently brought up by Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe and though the West is extremely crowded at the guard position, Martin may just qualify for a spot. The always efficient scorer is having a career year in every advanced statistical category you can think of and his player efficiency rating is also at its highest ever, ranking him fourth among shooting guards (behind two fellow Western Conferencers: Kobe and Manu). If the coaches were going to vote in a shooting guard, Martin has a strong case, but the fact that Eric Gordon’s team is hosting the event may play a part in the voting process, which would be a shame. Gordon has also bee great this season, but Martin has been a bit better in my mind.

As I said, the Magic are rolling ever since they made a pair of influential roster moves. The same cannot be said for their Western Conference trade partner, the Phoenix Suns. The Suns are 1-7 since they dealt Jason Richardson and Earl Clark to the Magic. Their defense has been horrid and their offense is no longer high powered enough to simply outscore opposing teams. This team needs stops more than any other Suns team in the past five years but they just can’t seem to get them. The newly acquired Marcin Gortat has been public with his criticism of Phoenix’s defensive efforts but they simply don’t have the personel to compete with the better teams around the league, which is why the Suns are on the outside looking in at the playoff picture and are likely going to be at home in May.

At one point in this Magic/Rockets game, youngster Earl Clark and rookie Patrick Patterson went back-and-forth on three straight baskets. This amused me.

Stubbornness seems to be getting in the way of a blow-up in Phoenix, which is the best option at this point. I thought that the Richardson deal was a signal that the Suns wanted to start the rebuilding process after an underwhelming start but Suns’ owner Robert Sarver has been adamant about not trading Steve Nash. Now is not the time to get attached to players. Though Nash is really one of the few reasons left to watch the Suns, lets face it, their fans have already bought their season tickets and any games he plays for the Suns for the rest of the season will be meaningless. There are plenty of contending teams that would pay a pretty penny to get Nash in town for a push into the post-season and if they are willing to part with young prospects and picks, then so be it. Another benefit of trading Nash: we’d get to see 30-36 minutes a night from Goran Dragic as the starting point guard for Phoenix, which would be awesome.

The Knicks dismantled the Suns in Amare’s return to the Valley of the Suns. 121-96 was the final score and that was with many of the Knicks starters taking the fourth quarter off. Raymond Felton, who may have been playing with a fire lit under him (perhaps trying to prove to others that he could do what Nash did by lighting Steve up), notched his first career triple-double. He scored 23 points (with five three’s), dished out 11 assists and grabbed 10 rebounds, the final one coming in the fourth quarter, which fired up the Knicks bench. Amare had 23 himself and Shawne Williams, who continues to impress, had 15 points, seven rebounds, four three’s, three steals, two assists and two blocks.

The Bucks certainly fought, which is something you can expect them to do almost every night, even if their offense makes you think they aren’t even trying. Whether you want to attribute the poor shooting of both Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to the Bucks’ defense or the law of averages (they were due for bad games after their recent stretches), that gave Milwaukee a chance in this one. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Bucks even took a brief lead. An Earl Boykins lay-up with just over a second left on the clock sent the game into overtime but Carlos Arroyo, after turning it over with 17 seconds left in regulation which led to the Boykins’ bucket, came away with a huge transition bucket as well as a pair of free throws to ice the game.

The Bucks, who are still without point guard Brandon Jennings, got a huge night from Chris Douglas-Roberts. He dropped 30 points 12-of-19 shooting off the bench, which earned him a word with LeBron after the game. Another interesting stat: Andrew Bogut grabbed 27 rebounds. Now, this is not nearly as impressive as it would have been last season because of Kevin Love and his gaudy performances this season, but Bogut snatched 27 boards against the league’s sixth best rebounding team rather than the Knicks.

Luke Harangody racked up a double-double last night against the Toronto Raptors, which was just bizarre. Harangody, who finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, showed a great shooting touch during the NBA Summer League, even from beyond the arc, and he put his stroke on display in this one. Harangody knocked down eight of his 11 shots, one of which was a triple. Another one of his buckets came off of one of the prettiest bounce passes I’ve seen all season from Rajon Rondo, who hovered in the air before spinning the ball to Harongody for the easy finish. Yeah, it was against the Raptors, but good for Harangody.

While we’re on the subject of good college players that earned props for being energetic, smart and great teammates that most didn’t think would succeed in the pro’s, Tyler Hansbrough had a heck of a game against the Spurs last night. Little things like going after lose balls and reading plays before they reach their goal helped Hansbrough put his stamp on the game on both ends of the floor in this contest. Hansbrough finished with 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting with 12 rebounds and a pair of blocks. 12 of Hansbrough’s 19 shot attempts came between 16-23 feet, and he converted on seven of them (four of those were assisted on). Tyler has not been hitting that shot consistently on the season but he was feeling it in this game and perhaps the mid-range game becomes his offensive weapon to go along with his hustle plays and solid defense.

The Bulls lost their second straight game last night against the 76ers despite a pretty good effort from their two best players. Starting Kurt Thomas will do that to you. Carlos Boozer had 31 points on 14-of-19 shooting and 13 rebounds while Derrick Rose put in 27 points and nine assists but a lack of other contributions cost the Bulls in this one. One has to wonder why Kyle Korver, who was expected to bring a deadeye three-point threat to keep the defense from helping out in the paint when the Bulls got in there but instead, is shooting just 39%. I’m thinking that Thibs has to do a better job of making him the focal point of the offense when he comes in.

With the win, Philly got themselves into the playoff picture as they now sit in the eighth seed in the East. Jodie Meeks is a player to watch going forward. He’s found himself a home in Philly after failing to become the new Michael Redd in Milwaukee last season. Meeks was four-of-seven from deep in this game and eight-of-11 overall en route to a 24-point performance.

The Cavs threw out what was likely the worst starting line-up in the NBA so far this season (Mo Williams, Alonzo Gee, Manny Harris, Antawn Jamison and Ryan Hollins) and that made for an easy night for the Warriors. Monta Ellis went off for 32, David Lee had 22 points, Dorrell Wright had 20 and Stephen Curry, who has not been himself all year, added 15.

Pau Gasol finally got back on track against the Hornets last night, going for 21 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Kobe Bryant had 25 points of his own and a few key buckets down the stretch to put the game away. Andrew Bynum, who has looked great since returning from yet another knee injury, had 17 points, as did Lamar Odom, who also added 13 rebounds off the bench. That’s three straight and five out of their last six for the champs and they have the Knicks coming in Sunday in what should be another win.

The Nets went from beating the Bulls one night to losing to the Washington Wizards by 20 the next. And so goes the life of a bottom feeder in the NBA. Play hard against good teams, slouch against the other losers. Little do they know the formula for a surge to prominence is to beat the bad teams and occasionally beat a good team.