Here are some quick numbers to examine Magic’s defense in the first five games :

They top the league along Miami for allowing the less field goals made by an opponent and are just behind the Heat in the opponent’s effective FG %, while being in the 9th position on FG attempted by opponent per game. They do top the league in opponent shooting %.

(It’s funny to notice how much Orlando’s and Miami’s numbers are close in the defensive side.)

Magic let their opposition shoot 17.8 three pointers per game (15th in the league) and got scored on 7 of them (20th).

Magic top the league when it comes to not sending opponents to the free throw line which is quite an accomplishment IMO and are third in the league in less FTs made by the other team.

Magic are n° 5 in blocks and 27 in steals (as usual). Orlando doesn’t create much TOs either but it’s no surprise.

Note that so far the line-ups that played the most minutes are:

Nelson-VC-Q-Lewis-Dwight with 24.97 minutes DefRtg 104.26

Nelson-VC-Ryan-Lewis-Dwight with 13.27 minutes DefRtg 100.00

Nelson-JJ-Q-Bass-Dwight with 9.70 minutes DefRtg 73.68

Combining this numbers with the great work on the boards, it is safe to say that, as expected, Magic are doing a pretty decent effort on the defensive side of the court. Not that Stan would allow it to be any other way.

(numbers from teamrankings.com)

 As I wrote in a post missplaced in the off-day thread, there is a general feeling judging by the recent interviews of the players and SVG that they will be some line up changes or "experimentations" this year. We all know that teams in the east are building themselves to match-up better with Orlando and as Redfield's post  learned us, the nba has a new rule that seems been created especialy for Stan but the Magic are going through some change of the own to be better prepared.

Lewis had a video on the Sentinel saying he'll be palying the 3 spot too, Otis said that Bass gonna have more playing time, Gortat seems to believe that the twin towers will be more used this season, Stan tries to build better chamistry with his players etc...

It is certain that this kind of fondamental changes need time to gel. Peronnaly I trust SVG, I believe that some adjustements need to be made to a certain degree and the organisation seems once again as winning it all is the only target.

Do you think if the game plan will change, we should anticipate some transition period ?

Do you think that it's OK to get less wins during the regular season in order to gel things and have more options in the playoffs ?

Or you think that no changes need to be made at all ?

(sorry for my bad english)

I saw in the Magic site a top 5 games of the year which gave me the idea for the post.

Which would you consider your favorite and which the worse game of this regular season ?

(I don't include the playoffs because the best and worse probably came in the same series)

I would take the win vs LA (mar 07) Amway for the best and the defeat by the Wizards in Orlando (jan 08) for the worse.

I loved the intensity of the LA game with Barnes going at KB, Dwight at Gassol. LA managed to cut the lead which made the stress level explode and the happy ending even more rewarding.

As for the Wiz game, I don't have the words to describe that but I remember SVG using "crap".