Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic dribbles up the court against the Atlanta Hawks in the Magic's 106-102 victory on Wednesday night

Photo by Scott Cunningham, NBAE/Getty Images

The Orlando Magic fended off an impressive Atlanta Hawks rally to defeat them on their home floor, 106-102. The loss is only the Hawks' third in 18 games in Philips Arena this season. Orlando's Dwight Howard led all players with 23 points and 19 rebounds, although Hedo Turkoglu's all-around brilliance (20 points on 6-of-12 shooting, 7 rebounds, 8 assists) was arguably more valuable in the victory. Josh Smith led the Hawks with 21 points and 9 rebounds, but missed all 4 of his free throws.

True to their word, the Magic came into this game looking to make a statement, and played nearly flawless basketball in the first half. They held a commanding 60-45 lead at intermission, limited the effectiveness of Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby, and looked well on their way to securing their 28th victory of the season. Atlanta, however, lived up to its reputation as a scrappy, talented team that will not back down from a fight. The Hawks chiseled away at Orlando's large lead, and even appeared to get in the Magic's heads a bit late in the game. The Magic, perhaps flummoxed by a suddenly raucous crowd and physical defense, rushed their shots in the fourth period, failing to run valuable time off the clock. Fortunately for them, the Hawks continued to make mental errors, none greater than Bibby's missed layup with 55 seconds to play. Bibby had a wide-open look on a fast break ignited by a Marvin Williams steal, but could not convert the gimme. A make would have brought the Hawks to within 2, 101-99; the miss gave the ball back to the Magic. (Appropriately enough, the Magic coughed the ball back up after Rashard Lewis was called for an offensive foul.)

The Magic, though, should be proud with this win. They had to have expected Atlanta, which still owns the Eastern Conference's second-best home record, to make a late run in its own building. And although their bench was roundly outplayed--Murray continued his mastery of the Magic, with 14 points in 23 minutes--they still managed to get 11 points from J.J. Redick in another strong performance from him. Additionally, their defense on Joe Johnson, the Hawks' All-Star shooting guard, was nothing short of brilliant. Johnson missed 12 of his 17 shot attempts and was relegated to playmaker, tying Bibby for a game-high 9 assists. The Magic can live with that; it's always better when someone other than Johnson takes a shot. Kudos to Courtney Lee for sticking with Johnson for most of the game, and to Stan Van Gundy, whose tactic of occasionally sending the 6'11" Howard to double-team Johnson away from the basket confounded the Hawks.

As tremendous as this win is for Orlando--it, coupled with the Boston Celtics' loss to the Houston Rockets, brings them to within a half-game of Boston for the second seed in the Eastern Conference--it's important to note that it could have fairly easily been an embarrassing defeat. The Magic led by as many as 21 points in the game, and if the Hawks had simply managed to convert more often from the foul line (they finished a miserable 14-of-25) they may have eked-out the win. It's also important for Orlando to not get too pleased with itself. The Hawks visit Orlando on Friday, and the Magic will need to be equally pumped-up for that game as they were for the one tonight. If they're really interested into proving they have the better team, they'll look to double the hurtin' on Atlanta.

2008/2009 NBA Regular Season
	@
27-8		22-11
January 7th, 2009
Philips Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jameer Nelson	PG	Mike Bibby
Courtney Lee	SG	Joe Johnson
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Marvin Williams
Rashard Lewis	PF	Josh Smith
Dwight Howard	C	Al Horford
Previous Meetings:
October 29th: Hawks 99, Magic 85

No, I can't believe the Atlanta Hawks are 22-11 either, even after they embarrassed the Orlando Magic on their own floor on opening night. As much as I want to dismiss the Hawks as a flukey team, I can't. We're nearing the halfway point of the season and Atlanta is winning two games for every one it loses. I don't want it to be true, but it is, and the Magic need to be ready.

UPDATE: How ready? Pretty ready. Matt Watson details how well Atlanta has played recently:

The Hawks may be the league's best team no one is talking about yet, but they've only lost two games in their last 12 -- the first a three-point loss to the Celtics and the second the result of a buzzer-beater by Vince Carter in overtime.

I had no idea.

Injuries may change the Hawks' gameplan a bit tonight, but not much. Starting small forward Marvin Williams is a game-time decision, meaning Maurice Evans could start in his place. UPDATE: Marvin Williams is a go, says Sekou Smith. Zaza Pachulia and Acie Law IV are out. Ronald Murray would see extensive action off the bench, with the Hawks shifting Joe Johnson to small forward in a three-guard lineup. That's the strategy they used to beat the Houston Rockets on Saturday... and to beat the Magic on opening night, for that matter.

No matter who takes the floor for Atlanta tonight, the key to stopping it is to close-out on its three-point shooters. Kevin Pelton has traced the Hawks' marked increase in offensive efficiency to their taking--and thus making--more treys this year. The Magic have the personnel to make this happen. I'd argue the Magic have about zero chance of sticking with Johnson, so they should instead focus on keeping Evans, Williams, and Mike Bibby in check.

Based on some comments he made after last night's narrow 89-80 win over Atlanta, in which Wizards two-guard Caron Butler scored 29 points, Stan Van Gundy might agree that the Magic can't guard Johnson. Here's Van Gundy, as transcribed by John Denton of Florida Today:

"If you're a two-guard, we're the team you want to play," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy muttered Tuesday night. "We're struggling to stop anybody at that position."

If the game is close in crunch-time, the Hawks will go to either Bibby or Johnson, while relying on Josh Smith and Al Horford for rebounds. Defensively, they'll probably switch Johnson on Jameer Nelson and protect Bibby from being exploited by cross-matching him with Courtney Lee. We've seen bigger guards frustrate Jameer throughout his career, most notably Richard Hamilton, so the Magic may find themselves depending on Hedo Turkoglu or Rashard Lewis for crunch-time buckets instead of Nelson. I'm sure plenty of NBA teams would love to have that problem.

One thing to consider while fearing Johnson: he hasn't been defended by Lee yet. In the first game, Keith Bogans and J.J. Redick shared the backup shooting guard minutes. Johnson torched everyone, and Murray really had his way with Redick. There's the hope that Lee will be able to at least frustrate Johnson... right?

A loss tonight wouldn't bother me too much, as long as the Magic return the favor when these teams meet again this Friday in Orlando. Tip's at 7 on FSN. Check out Peachtree Hoops' gamethread for more about the Hawks. Go Magic.

Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic shoots a layup over Andray Blatche of the Washington Wizards in Orlando's 89-80 win on Tuesday night

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The Orlando Magic played just well enough to defeat the Washington Wizards, 89-80, on Tuesday night. Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with 22 points, and Orlando withstood Caron Butler's game-high 29 points--all in the second half--for Washington. Dwight Howard controlled the boards for Orlando, finishing with 16.

This game brought to mind the Magic's last home contest, last week against Miami, in which they won ugly in a good way. Tonight, they won ugly, but in a bad way. The win over the Heat was impressive because the Magic held Dwyane Wade, the league's leading scorer, in check for most of the second half, and played tight defense down the stretch overall. Tonight, they simply played sloppy. They held the Wizards to only 6 points in the second period--or did the Wizards limit themselves to 6 points?--yet scored only 16 themselves. The 22 combined points for both teams in the period was an Amway Arena record-low. Caron Butler, who went scoreless in the first half, nearly equaled that total himself in the third quarter, with 21 points. His hot streak prompted Stan Van Gundy to use the tall lineup of Jameer Nelson, Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Tony Battie, and Dwight Howard for the first time this year. Courtney Lee is a better individual defender than Turkoglu, by leaps and bounds, but doesn't have the size to match-up well with Butler. The Magic could have put Godzilla on him and it wouldn't have mattered. Butler was simply unstoppable, swishing reasonably well contested jumpers.

It didn't help that the Magic's offense stagnated around the same time Butler heated up. The passing wasn't crisp, to say the least. And even when the ball did move, the players had a tough go of actually putting it in the basket. Nelson, Lee, and Lewis combined to shoot 12-of-36 for 34 points. Luckily, Turkoglu bailed the Magic out by snapping out of his recent funk to score 22 points on 12 attempts. Turk was the only Magic player who drove the lane consistently--although Nelson made several drives in the closing minute, looking to put the game away with higher-percentage shots--and was rewarded with 10 free throws. Better yet, he converted on 8 of them.

I'd be wasting your time if I went into greater detail about this game, frankly. Turkoglu was the difference, as was Howard's ability to clean-up misses around the rim. Even then, his focus on both ends of the floor seemed to wane in this game. Only Turkoglu, J.J. Redick (8 points on 4 attempts, 3 rebounds, 1 steal in 18 minutes), and Marcin Gortat (2 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks in 10 minutes) played well, which leads me to believe the Magic are in for a rough go of it tomorrow night in Atlanta. This poor effort only barely nudged them by the East's worst team tonight. Imagine what it'll do against the fourth-place Hawks tomorrow.

UPDATE: Courtney Lee will get his first career start tonight for the Orlando Magic, according to Kyle Hightower of the Orlando Sentinel. Lee will start in place of Keith Bogans, who has been bothered by foot and ankle issues lately. Here's Lee on getting the opportunity to start:

"I'm definitely excited, but I just have to focus on it the same as any other game," Lee said. "I just have been going out there being prepared, knowing the situation and focusing on the personnel."

UPDATE 2: Ivan Carter of the Washington Post reports Darius Songaila will replace Andray Blatche in the Wizards' starting lineup. (HT: Bullets Forever)

2008/2009 NBA Regular Season
	@
7-25		26-8
January 6th, 2009
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Mike James	PG	Jameer Nelson
Caron Butler	SG	Courtney Lee
Antawn Jamison	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Dominic McGuire	PF	Rashard Lewis
Darius Songaila	C	Dwight Howard
Previous Meetings:
November 27th: Magic 105, Wizards 90

The Washington Wizards accomplished the improbable on Sunday afternoon, beating the juggernaut Cleveland Cavaliers thanks in large part to LeBron James' being called for traveling en route to making what would have been the game-tying basket. In a lot of ways, they did the Orlando Magic a favor. By knocking off Cleveland on the same day the Magic lost to Toronto, the Wizards ensured the Magic did not lose any ground to the Cavaliers in the standings.

So tonight, the Magic will look to thank the Wizards... by beating the pants off them. That's what they did on Thanksgiving, when Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard combined to score 46 points against a mostly helpless Washington defense. Not much has changed for Washington. It still doesn't have a reliable defensive anchor in the middle, nor does it defend the three-point line well. In Howard, the Magic have one of the league's deadliest interior scorers; in Rashard Lewis, they have the league's most prolific three-point shooter. It should add up to spell disaster for Washington...

...emphasis on the word "should." After all, the Wizards still have Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, two All-Stars capable of scoring 40+ points on any given night. And for all their defensive faults, this team still beat the Magic by holding them to a 33.8% shooting performance last season, on Hedo Turkoglu's birthday, no less. The Magic can't afford to take the Wizards, even at 7-25, lightly. I imagine they'll be extra motivated to put this game away early, given how poorly they played against Toronto on Sunday. I'm hoping for a rout¹, but not exactly counting on one, either.

The tip's at 7 on FSN Florida. Enjoy. Go Magic.

¹: as an aside, a rout would likely mean playing time for Washington reserve point guard Javaris Crittenton, whom many Magic fans wanted Orlando to acquire from Memphis before it traded him to Washington. Since joining the Wizards, Crittenton has played in 8 games, and has averaged 7.8 minutes per game, 0.9 points per game, 1.4 rebounds per game, 0.8 assists per game, and 1.1 turnovers per game. He's shooting 25% from the field. Kinda makes Magic fans appreciate Anthony Johnson more, no?

Two quick bullets before tonight's game between the Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards:

• Courtney Lee will get his first NBA start in that game, so we'll honor that by making our first item David Thorpe's latest Rookie Watch feature for ESPN. Thorpe's focus this week is defense, and he features Lee most prominently. Here's Thorpe on Lee's performance in the Magic's win over Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat last week:

  So as the fourth quarter began, with Wade already having poured in 33 points, Lee was assigned to defend Wade and try to slow him down. Well, the game ended with Wade still stuck on 33 (he was 0-for-3 from the field with zero free throw attempts in the fourth quarter) and Lee further cementing his place in Orlando's rotation. Not because he shut Wade down by himself -- he didn't. Lee simply took [Stan Van Gundy]'s challenge of guarding Wade aggressively, working to stay in front of him and forcing him to drive toward [Dwight] Howard (who blocked one of the three fourth-quarter misses and made Wade alter another).

  But Lee gets credit for his offense, too:

  It wasn't just his stellar efforts on defense that caught my eye against Miami. His offensive game, while not always efficient, is very solid [....] He's at 39.5 percent from 3 after starting the season 4-for-18 from downtown; he's hit 13 of his past 25 attempts from beyond the arc.

• Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus has the first in a two-part series in trying to determine the best point guard in the Eastern Conference:

  With Jason Kidd in Dallas and Chauncey Billups dealt to Denver, the coveted title of the top point guard in the Eastern Conference has come open this season. With apologies to veterans Mike Bibby, Andre Miller and Mo Williams, stathead favorite Jose Calderon and rapidly improving Derrick Rose and Rodney Stuckey, it is three emerging young point guards--New Jersey's Devin Harris, Orlando's Jameer Nelson and Boston's Rajon Rondo--who are vying for the honor and at most two spots on the East All-Star roster behind the likely starting backcourt of Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade.

  Check the link to see what he says about Nelson, and definitely check back tomorrow to see how Jameer stacks up in comparison to Rondo and Harris.

• Ryan McNeill from Hoops Addict spoke with Stan Van Gundy before Sunday's game against the Raptors. Here's the video, in which Stan discusses the team's improved defense and Rashard Lewis' impact in his second Magic season:

  Ryan told me to expect more about Lewis in the coming days.

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard and head coach Stan Van Gundy appear to differ in their opinion of Howard's career-long struggle to make free throws. Counting his 11-of-18 performance on free throws in yesterday's loss to the Toronto Raptors, Howard is shooting a career-worst .569 from the line this season. Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict caught up with Howard and Van Gundy after yesterday's game. Here's Dwight:

Howard, however, wasn't too worried about his free throws. When asked in the locker room if he's frustrated or will beat himself up mentally over missed free throws he quickly responded, "No, I'm going to miss free throws. I'm not worried about it as long as I go back on the defensive end and make a play. I'm not 100 per cent from the line, so I know I'm going to miss some, but I've just got to have confidence when I step up there that I'll make them. I know Stan (Van Gundy) gets on me a lot, but I'm going to miss some and I'm going to make some."

Contrast this take with Stan's:

When asked directly about Howard's woes from the "charity" stripe, Van Gundy didn't hide his disgust when he responded, "It's not good enough, but that's about what he shoots. Sixty per cent at the free throw line makes it tough (to win). We've got a tremendous advantage down there because they couldn't guard him at all but they get to the fourth quarter and they just foul and it's just one out of two every time. Then we're coming down to the other end and it's two-for-two which is a big difference."

I hesitate to call Dwight out for doing bad--even with the poor free-throw shooting, he's having the best individual season of his career and is quite obviously Orlando's most important player--but it seems to me he should care more about missing free throws. Sure, he does a lot of things great. But consider this: if Dwight just shot 67.1% at the line--that's his career-high, from 2004/2005, his first professional season--he would have scored 47 more points this season, adding 1.5 points to his per-game scoring average. That's not an insignificant total. It's not like we're asking him to be Ray Allen or Reggie Miller at the stripe. Just two-thirds will do, man. Two-thirds! Does that sound nit-picky to you? Or am I being reasonable in asking a professional basketball player to make two-thirds of his foul shots?