# Orlando Magic vs. San Antonio Spurs Game Thread



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Wednesday December 22, 2004
Orlando Magic vs. San Antonio Spurs, 7:00 p.m. ET









Orlando Magic 
Coached by: Johnny Davis 

Projected Starting Lineup:




































S. Francis  | C. Mobley  | Grant Hill  | D. Howard  | T. Battie 

Key Reserves:






















J. Nelson  | H. Turkoglu | P. Garrity 












San Antonio Spurs 
Coached by: Gregg Popovich  

Projected Starting Lineup:




































T. Parker | E. Ginobili  | B. Bowen  | T. Duncan | R. Nesterovic

Key Reserves:






















D. Brown | M. Rose |B. Barry 



Key Matchup:
Battle of the Shooting Guards-















Cuttino Mobley vs. Manu Ginobili


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

NBA.com's Preview of Tonight's Game 

The San Antonio Spurs try to continue their recent run of success against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday. 

The Spurs have won seven straight meetings and 13 of the last 15, including a 94-91 victory on Wednesday. Tim Duncan scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in helping the Spurs bounce back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter. 

Duncan has led the Spurs in rebounding in every game this season and has at least shared scoring and rebounding honors in 18 of 24 contests. 

Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili each scored 21 points on Saturday, as San Antonio topped the Golden State Warriors, 104-85. The Spurs went on an 18-2 run in the first half to break open the contest. 

Orlando dropped a 117-107 decision to the Miami Heat on Sunday, despite shooting 51 percent (40-of-78). Steve Francis led the Magic with 31 points, while Cuttino Mobley scored 22 and Grant Hill added 20. 

The Magic, who lead the league in rebounding (45.4) and are third in scoring (101.8 points), have won eight of 10 at home. 

But the Spurs, who top the NBA in blocked shots (6.64), are 9-4 on the road and have won 12 of their last 14 games.


----------



## X-Factor (Aug 24, 2004)

I just don't see us stacking up to the Spurs in this one. 
Spurs 113
Orlando 99

I hope that the Magic can win this one but realistically I don't see it happening.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Damn, Francis and Mobley are the third highest scoring backcourt in the league.


----------



## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>hobojoe</b>!
> Damn, Francis and Mobley are the third highest scoring backcourt in the league.


Who's the 1st and 2nd? lemme think...

Hughes and Arenas
Marbury and Crawford?


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Lets hope Bowen doesn't rough up Hill and break his ankle.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Sweet dunk Dwight.

This has been a pretty atrocious 5 mins. Orlando fumbling the ball all over the place.

Too bad, the way SA is shooting, we could be up 15 already.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Orlando has to win tonight. It is Cuttino Mobley nutcracker night!


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Damn that nutcracker is about as ugly as the Magic's offense has been so far tonight. We need to get the fastbreak going, that's pretty much our only chance to win this one.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

We're running our offense like crap-0.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Johnny needs to have Hill playing PG on offense in the 2nd. We're not getting any passing going. All one on one.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

19-16 Spurs after one. Horrible execution of the halfcourt offense thus far. Everything's been isolation. We need to move the ball around in the halfcourt and get Hill some open midrange jumpers.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Super Mario! :laugh:


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Do we have any assists yet?


----------



## X-Factor (Aug 24, 2004)

> Originally posted by <b>JNice</b>!
> Orlando has to win tonight. It is Cuttino Mobley nutcracker night!


For the low-low price of $100!!


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Hopefully all this tech crap will get us playing well again.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Boy, the refs sure don't like calling anything that would involve going against Duncan. I know he is like the most respected dude in the league, but man ... at least call one thing against him.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Lord what a move by Francis. That was nuts.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Steve-o poseterizes Tim Duncan! Oh man what a dunk!


----------



## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>JNice</b>!
> Lord what a move by Francis. That was nuts.




Yeah, that was sick.




Duncan's been posterized twice this game.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>KokoTheMonkey</b>!
> 
> 
> Yeah, that was sick.
> ...


Yeah, too bad Duncan probably gets the last laugh.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Battie and Howard are doing a great job on Timmy. 5-12 from the floor so far for Mr. Duncan.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>hobojoe</b>!
> Battie and Howard are doing a great job on Timmy. 5-12 from the floor so far for Mr. Duncan.


Nice jinx.

He is almost unguardable.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Whats with Brent Barry? He looks so out of it on the Spurs. Just like the last game against SA, he is passing up wide open shots.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Some real nice shot blocking by Dwight tonight.


----------



## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>JNice</b>!
> Whats with Brent Barry? He looks so out of it on the Spurs. Just like the last game against SA, he is passing up wide open shots.




He's got the "soft" mentality that most of the Spurs players have.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Four blocks in the half for Howard. Nice second quarter for Steve Francis after doing nothing in the first. Hedo looked good tonight, perhaps breaking out of his slump from the past 6 or 7 games. Mobley didn't do much, and as usual took a few ill-advised shots. He was running the point a little today, something you haven't seen much of this year. I don't really like it. 

Great finish to the half though to open up a 6 point lead, we just can't let this one slip away like we did last week in San Antonio.


----------



## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

As long as the Spurs keep playing like this, they won't win this game. They got by with wins playing like this against New Orleans and Golden State, two terrible teams, and they sure as hell aren't getting by playing like this tonight. 



As for Orlando, since this is the Orlando forum, they've scared the Spurs from going into the paint, which is a huge advantage for them considering the Spurs can't hit jump shots. Howard is going to be a great one, you can just tell.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>KokoTheMonkey</b>!
> Howard is going to be a great one, you can just tell.


Just from watching this game you can say that, yet Howard is having a pretty bad game for him rebounding wise(only 2 in 18 minutes) and scoring (1-7 FG). He's doing a great job defensively though.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Why the hell can't Francis make free throws? :upset: 

He better knock down these two. I think it's time to bring in Turkoglu or Garrity as a spark plug. Actually, I think Davis just put Hedo in the game already. We need something to jump start the offense again.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Nice start to the 4th. Turk with the cram and Super Mario with the layup.

I hate to say it, but Mario looks like he is _slowly_ improving.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Hey, that Duncan guy is pretty good.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Come on now, that's not a foul unless that's Tim Duncan shooting the ball. :upset: 

We need to pull this game out, get Turkoglu some open looks, he's shooting really well tonight.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Magic open up a 10 point lead with a couple minutes to play. :greatjob:


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

I think the calls have really favored the Magic tonight. It hasn't been a horribly officiated game, but it hasn't been very good. They're making up for robbing the Magic in San Antonio a week ago.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

Magic win!
:wbanana: :bbanana: :wbanana: :bbanana: :wbanana: :bbanana: 

Boxscore


----------



## Idunkonyou (Feb 23, 2003)

Good win for the Magic. Good to see this team go at least 5-5 in that tough 10 game stretch in which they had to play 9 west teams and the only east team they played was the Heat, on the road, on the back end of a back to back. 

January and February are looking mighty easy. In January the Magic only have to play 3 teams that are 2 games over .500 for the entire month. In February they only have 11 games and 7 of those are at home. 

The Magic have a chance to go on a huge winning streak IMO.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>hobojoe</b>!
> I think the calls have really favored the Magic tonight. It hasn't been a horribly officiated game, but it hasn't been very good. They're making up for robbing the Magic in San Antonio a week ago.


That, and the fact that the Spurs couldn't shoot free throws worth crap. But i'll take it.

8 quarters against SA this year and Orlando basically won or been even in all but the 4th qtr of that last game.


----------



## X-Factor (Aug 24, 2004)

Magic win despite me picking against them for the first time this season. Damn I really do suck.


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Minnesota Magician</b>!
> Magic win despite me picking against them for the first time this season. Damn I really do suck.


:laugh:


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Post-Game Quotes 



> On not playing Dwight Howard down the stretch: “They really had all smalls at that point. Tim Duncan was the only big guy they had in the game and we had Tony in. So we went with a little smaller group to match that up a little bit better. I thought Dwight was huge for us just in rebounding and blocking shots he did a terrific job for us. The fact that he wasn’t ion the game late in the fourth quarter was nothing about how he wasn’t playing or something he wasn’t doing, it was just that the match up wasn’t a favorable one for him at that point.”


Legit answer.



> On what Coach Davis said to the team in the second quarter after the delay of game technicals: “One of the things that we have to have with our group is good balance and not get over emotional about things. We have to understand that sometimes calls are going to go against us but it’s not prudent to react in a way that gives you techs and puts the referees against us because it’s human nature that if you’re screaming at a guy, he’s not going to like you quite as much. I thought that once we got things calmed down, we got back to playing our game, took the focus off the officials because it’s never the officials. Sure, they make bad calls but it goes both ways. Some nights you get more than the other guys but you still have to play. I don’t ever want officials or lack of calls to be a reason that we don’t compete at a high level.”


Another good answer.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

I like those answers from Davis. I really don't like the habit this team has of picking up techs. Francis, Turkoglu, Cato and Davis all do it. It's acceptable from the coach from time to time, but I really don't like anyone else picking up techs more than once in a blue moon.


----------



## DwyaneWade4MVP (Apr 1, 2004)

Yeah, great win against the Spurs!!! Unfortunately a bad day for Dwight Howard....1-9 shooting...


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>DwyaneWade4MVP</b>!
> Yeah, great win against the Spurs!!! Unfortunately a bad day for Dwight Howard....1-9 shooting...


Honestly, watching the game it wasn't like Howard forced a bunch of stuff and was just missing shots, almost all of his misses(I'd say at least 4 or 5) came off failed put back attempts off offensive rebounds. He played a great game defensively though, blocking shots and challenging many others.


----------



## Idunkonyou (Feb 23, 2003)

Considering Howard had 5 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks in just 3 quarters is pretty good. Main reason he didn't play in the 4th was because of matchups. The Spurs went small so we went small.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Idunkonyou</b>!
> Considering Howard had 5 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks in just 3 quarters is pretty good. Main reason he didn't play in the 4th was because of matchups. The Spurs went small so we went small.


Yep, that's basically what Davis said after game. Howard played really well in the 3rd quarter crashing the offensive glass and keeping us his great defense.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

:laugh:


----------



## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>hobojoe</b>!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm amazed with the number of guys that stick their tongues out when driving that someone hasn't gotten smacked in the chin and bit the damned thing off. It's a very real possibility. I was playing pick-up ball with a kid years back that did that and got smacked in the jaw and bit clear through his tongue. Had a big hole right in the middle of it.


----------



## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)




----------

