SB Nation User Blog: Ben Q Rock

Stan Van Gundy dressed as Santa Claus during the Orlando Magic's holiday party. Photo by Dan Savage...

Ben Q Rock — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:52:50 -0000

Stan Van Gundy dressed as Santa Claus during the Orlando Magic's holiday party. Photo by Dan Savage of OrlandoMagic.com

Ryan Anderson's Adventures in Offensive Rebounding

Ben Q Rock — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:23:00 -0000

by Gregory Smith - AP

The book on Orlando Magic power forward Ryan Anderson reads that he is a three-point shooter, first and foremost. Prior to Monday's game against the Utah Jazz, he had attempted 100 of his 169 total shot attempts from behind the three-point line, or 59.1%. That's a more pronounced split than last season, with the New Jersey Nets, when three-pointers accounted for 46.4% of his field goal attempts. He digs the long ball for good reason, as he's connected on 37% of his treys so far in his brief career. Looking simply at those stats, it'd be fair to conclude that he's a specialist.

But there's more to the stat sheet than the 3FG/3FGA columns. Eddy's written before about how Anderson is far from the next Pat Garrity and could have a bright future in this league, and I wondered shortly after the Magic acquired him if he might develop into a Troy Murphy-like player. The reason is rebounding, and something I've noticed looking at the nuanced Anderson highlights OPP community member leeebear has shared here, as well as in-person in the Magic's game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. Anderson is a gifted offensive rebounder, especially when it comes to grabbing his own misses. The man shows remarkable sticktoitiveness. But no matter whose mess he's cleaning up, he tends to get good results.

Before the Magic's game against the Jazz last night--again, I'm emphasizing this fact to indicate that the data are one game out of date--Anderson's snagged a modest 27 offensive boards in 22 games, or 1.2 per game. What's striking is that he's tallied an offensive rebound in only half of his appearances, which I can't explain. On the Magic, he ranks behind only Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat in offensive rebound rate; in overall rebound rate, he places behind those two as well as small forward Matt Barnes. Interesting that, in both metrics, he outperforms the more traditional power forward Brandon Bass, whose presence many pundits (whether they qualify as observers or experts is questionable, given that Anderson had moderately outperformed Bass in rebounding even prior to this season) predicted would be a boon to Orlando on the glass.

But back to my point: he scored via a putback or a drawn shooting foul 12 times. We can increase that figure to 13 if we include an assist he dished to Bass immediately after an offensive rebound on December 2nd against the New York Knicks. Moreover, 9 of his 27 offensive rebounds have been of his own misses--sticktoitiveness!--and he's converted 6 of those 9 into scoring chances for himself. Summarily, he presents two threats to opponents in offensive rebounding situations: first, that he's going to grab one; and second, that he'll put the ball right back up and in (and potentially draw a foul trying) once coming up with the board. We also know he's a solid three-point shooter who can put the ball on the floor if chased off the three-point line; I refer you to leeebear's videos for more evidence of that. His combination of volume three-point shooting and offensive rebounding skill is more-or-less unprecedented: basketball-reference.com shows that only Korleone Young showed similar prowess to Anderson in both categories in an entire season, and that was in 15 minutes over 3 games with the Detroit Pistons in the lockout-shortened 1999 campaign. I'll let you decide if I put too many endpoints in that search, and I welcome your suggestions on improving it, as it seems perhaps too reductive.

The next time Anderson checks in, try to pay attention to his work on the offensive glass, and see how he gets after it. There's a 50% chance he'll come up empty in any given game--which, again, is very strange--but there's also a chance he'll do something productive when he does track down an offensive rebound. And that skill, combined with his long-distance shooting touch and youth (he doesn't turn 22 until May) makes him a very special player. Perhaps the "certain national writer" who told SLAM that the trade that brought Anderson and eight-time All-Star Vince Carter to Orlando "will be remembered as the deal where the Nets gave up Ryan Anderson" was onto something.

Orlando Magic 104, Utah Jazz 99

Ben Q Rock — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:09:17 -0000

More photos » by Phelan M. Ebenhack - AP

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Propelled by Dwight Howard's lockdown defense and J.J. Redick's explosive scoring, the Orlando Magic gutted out another tough win at home, this time over the Utah Jazz by a 104-99 score. Howard's 5 blocked shots go "hand-in-hand" in limiting Utah to 28 points in the paint and 40.4% overall shooting, said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. Redick poured in 20 points off the bench, second on the team only to Howard, who scored 21, primarily at the foul line. This neck-and-neck game saw 19 lead changes and 18 ties, and Orlando only gained control for good after Rashard Lewis and Redick sank consecutive three-pointers with less than 5 minutes to play.

Team	Pace	Efficiency	eFG%	FT Rate	OReb%	TO Rate
Jazz	105	93.9	44.4%	22.5	18.2	16.1
Magic	91	114.0	55.3%	47.0	14.3	17.5
Green denotes a stat better than the team's season average; red denotes a stat worse than the team's season average.

As exciting as the game was in the end, it got off to an uneven start as both teams looked sluggish in the first half. Sure, it had its moments, like Redick's deep, off-balance three-pointer to beat the shot-clock buzzer halfway through the second period, but by and large both teams just felt each other out in a dull way. Orlando out-shot the Jazz handily, but Utah's 8 extra possessions helped it muster a 40-all tie at the half.

No, the fireworks didn't begin until the third period, which saw referee Sean Corbin eject Magic point guard Jason Williams on two quick techincal fouls during what appeared to be a reasoned enough conversation, as Williams pled his case after Corbin whistled him for fouling Utah's Deron Williams. Deron Williams' shot counted, and he drained both technical foul shots as well as the and-one, giving the Jazz a rare five-point possession. The quick ejection fired up the Amway Arena crowd, which stirred in the first half when the 6'04" Redick was called for a loose-ball foul trying to box out the Jazz's 6'11" Mehmet Okur, who leaned on Redick and nearly forced him to the ground. Mickael Pietrus, who hardly registered in the first half, drilled a three-pointer and got an easy dunk off a great feed from the double-teamed Howard. Both plays gave the Magic a one-point lead. The Magic also forced Utah to commit 7 turnovers in that quarter, after forcing just 6 in the entire first half. Van Gundy didn't think his team did anything differently, though, and said, "we're not really forcing turnovers, quite honestly. Teams are turning the ball over because we're more compact and trying to hold down field goal percentage and rebound the ball." He also said he thought the Magic are last in the league in forcing turnovers (they are, naturally; no detail escapes Van Gundy) because "it's not an emphasis of ours."

Redick didn't play in the third period, but started the fourth, joining Anthony Johnson--who did not appear in the first three quarters--in the backcourt. Redick's 11 points in the 4th were key, and it got to the point that Van Gundy left him in the game and subbed starting shooting guard Vince Carter at small forward because, said Van Gundy, "there was no way I was taking J.J. out." It was a risky move on his part because it left Carter guarding Andrei Kirilenko, to whom Carter yields 3 inches. Kirilenko made three three-pointers in the fourth quarter, two of them with Carter in the game. But Van Gundy's gambit ultimately paid off. Redick scored enough to compensate for whatever Carter gave up to Kirilenko on the other end. Plus, Carter drew the defense and assisted on the aforementioned Lewis three-pointer that broke the 86-all tie. He drove from the right side and found Lewis wide-open in the left corner. Ronnie Brewer, who was guarding Redick on the left wing at the time, tried to close hard on Lewis, but he couldn't get there quickly enough. There was a time early in his Magic career when Lewis would have seen Brewer charging at him and made the extra pass to Redick for the shot, but firing away himself was the proper move in this instance. There's no need to exchange one wide-open look for another. Lewis, by the way, scored 18 points. Let's see how many times this year he plays a key role and I manage to bury his contributions in the nether portions of the recap, shall we?

Orlando's offensive display in the fourth quarter, in which it scored 34 points, demonstrated how dangerous it can be when its shots drop and when it plays great defense. Sure, Utah scored 31 points of its own. However, 3 of those came on a meaningless, uncontested trey by C.J. Miles at the final horn, and the Magic can live with Kirilenko, who sports a career 30.9% three-point mark, teeing off from deep. What Van Gundy was most pleased with was, again, his players' ability to control the paint. Deron Williams was hardly able to get into the lane, which shut down Utah's drive-and-kick game and instead forced the Jazz into taking mid-range jumpers. Generally, it's the least efficient shot in basketball, but power forwards Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap have it in their arsenal, which makes it a good--but not great--option for the Jazz every so often. Incidentally, Millsap led all scorers with 23 points in just 26 minutes, shooting 9-of-12 from the field. Public address announcer Paul Porter became audibly more disgusted with each successive Millsap bucket.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, though, must have been beside himself with each Redick basket. Redick said after the game "I'm not a guy who can afford to fall behind" in terms of game conditioning, so he must compensate by working hard and playing smart. He did so tonight. What's impressed me is his ability to create for himself off the dribble. One of the knocks on him coming out of college, and a criticism that persisted through last season, is that he's neither tall enough nor athletic enough to get shots off against NBA-caliber athletes and defenders. He's slowly but surely been able to convince me otherwise. Twice tonight he ran a pick-and-roll with Howard and got open shots for himself as a result, just by using some well-timed hesitation dribbles to fool his defender into thinking he was ready to pass to Howard on the roll. He displayed his awareness again at the 3:17 mark of the fourth quarter, when he cut hard from the right wing to the basket once his man left him to double Howard, who had the ball in the left mid-post. Howard found Redick, who laid it in softly for a 5-point Magic lead. He's shown tremendous confidence in the last several games, and throughout the whole season, really. He attributed the confidence boost to some good all-around performances in last year's playoffs, which carried over into his offseason workouts and preparation. Van Gundy said Redick "is playing with great confidence, and with good reason," later adding that "we have great confidence in him." I don't think anyone saw Redick's emergence coming, save for perhaps Redick himself.

When Van Gundy said, "If we continue to play with this kind of focus and intensity, then we're going to be in pretty good shape," he was probably right. Carter shot just 5-of-15 for 18 points (though Van Gundy praised his decision-making in crunch time), Jameer Nelson missed all 6 of his shots in his first 14 minutes of playing time in 5 weeks, and neither backup power forwards Ryan Anderson or Brandon Bass tallied a field goal. However, Orlando came through with a great showing on both sides of the ball. The Magic just might be turning the corner here on this homestand.

My thoughts on Nelson? He played a decent game, and looked excellent running two fast-breaks with Bass late in the third quarter. Johnson got the call at point guard over Nelson in the fourth quarter because, according to Van Gundy, Nelson's "decisions on when to shoot and when to pass were not real good, and that's to be expected." He said Nelson played "pretty well" overall and displayed "good quickness."

Tonight's Orlando Magic Game: vs. Utah Jazz

Ben Q Rock — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:04:27 -0000

2009/2010 NBA Season
	@
16-11		20-7
December 21st, 2009
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Deron Williams	PG	Jason Williams
Ronnie Brewer	SG	Vince Carter
C.J. Miles	SF	Mickael Pietrus
Carlos Boozer	PF	Rashard Lewis
Mehmet Okur	C	Dwight Howard
Previous Meetings
December 10th: Jazz 120, Magic 111
Game Officials
Dan Crawford
Tony Brown
Sean Corbin

The Orlando Magic have a shot at redemption tonight when they host the Utah Jazz, who handed them a humbling, 120-11 defeat earlier this month, tonight at Amway Arena. Utah point guard Deron Williams lit up the Magic for 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 15 assists in that meeting, while power forward Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 14 boards and swingman C.J. Miles scored a season-high 22 off the bench. Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports that coach Jerry Sloan has slotted Miles into tonight's starting lineup ahead of Wesley Matthews due to his "experience and length," although I suspect Miles' strong showing last time out may have influenced Sloan's decision a bit.

Orlando wants to strengthen its defense overall, but is particularly concerned with keeping Williams out of the paint. His dribble-penetration can set up either a shot for himself or a pass to an open teammate, which makes him so dangerous. The fact that he's also an excellent jump-shooter makes him even more lethal. Stopping Williams is Orlando's top priority, which means Magic starter Jason Williams will have his hands full tonight. All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson will return from a nearly five-week absence due to left knee surgery off the bench tonight, but how effective he'll be is up in the air. Coach Stan Van Gundy may have to call on third-stringer Anthony Johnson to defend Deron Williams if Jason Williams isn't up to the task, and if Nelson proves ineffective. When was the last time the Magic used all three point guards in a non-blowout situation? I don't know offhand, but there's a chance it could happen tonight.

One thing to watch for tonight is the potential re-emergence of Magic guard Vince Carter, who's mired in a dreadful shooting slump, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel explains here. He scored 34 points earlier this year against the Jazz, but has exceeded 12 points once in the five games since then. He shot 1-of-14 against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. Exploding against Utah is nothing new for Carter, as he's averaged 25.3 points per game on 53.8% true shooting against it over the last five seasons.

Another subplot: the matchup between Boozer and Magic center Dwight Howard. While the two likely won't guard one another, they are good friends owing to their shared experience winning the gold medal for the United States in last summer's Olympics. Tim Povtak of AOL FanHouse reports that they spent Sunday, an off-day, hanging out and discussing the possibility of playing together again. Boozer's an unrestricted free agent this summer. Make of that information what you will, though I advise caution in romanticizing the Magic's making any huge free-agent pickup this summer.

I'm at Amway Arena to cover the game live. Tip's at 7 on ~~Sun Sports~~ FSN Florida.

UPDATE - Denton: Jameer Nelson to Play Limited Minutes on Monday

Ben Q Rock — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:04:13 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

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It appears as though Jameer Nelson's return to the Orlando Magic from left knee surgery will come earlier than expected. According to John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com, Nelson will play "limited minutes" tomorrow night against the Utah Jazz.

At shootaround yesterday, Nelson and coach Stan Van Gundy said Nelson could return Wednesday, against the Houston Rockets, at the earliest.

Nelson has missed the Magic's last 16 games. Orlando went 12-4 in that stretch, with Jason Williams taking Nelson's starting role.

UPDATE: Denton expands upon the news in this story for the team's website. An excerpt:

Part of the reason the Magic want to get Nelson back on the court is because of what [Deron] Williams did to them two weeks ago in Utah. He repeatedly battered the Magic in pick-and-roll sets, going for 32 points, 15 assists and eight rebounds in a 120-111 Jazz victory.

If Nelson does return Monday, he could be in for a week of facing Williams, Houston speedster Aaron Brooks and Boston’s Rajon Rondo. But that is of no concern to the Magic’s 6-foot point guard.

"They will also have to guard me, too," Nelson said brazenly. "I’m not trying to be cocky or anything. It wasn’t like I was in practice not being aggressive. I’m trying to be aggressive and make plays."

That's the sort of attitude that I imagine the Magic love to see from their co-captain... and that other teams (and their fans) may not appreciate.

They made an effort to get Brandon Roy the ball in places where it's hard to double [team]. Coming...

Ben Q Rock — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:43:06 -0000

They made an effort to get Brandon Roy the ball in places where it's hard to double [team]. Coming down the stretch, he basically took a majority of their shots, and kinda played into our hands with them being a one-person team. Once he missed a few shots we were able to take advantage of it. He's a great player. But when one player has to carry the load, whenever they have a stretch of missing two or three shots, then hopefully the team can take advantage of it.

Orlando Magic point guard Anthony Johnson assesses what made the Magic's defense so effective against the Portland Trail Blazers in their 92-83 victory on Saturday night.

Orlando Magic 92, Portland Trail Blazers 83

Ben Q Rock — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:30:34 -0000

More photos » by Phelan M. Ebenhack - AP

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The Orlando Magic's team-wide effort and energy proved to be enough for them to defeat the undermanned Portland Trail Blazers, 92-83, on Saturday night. The Magic, for the most part, executed their offense and got the looks they wanted, but the shots tended not to drop. Just ask Vince Carter, who missed 13 of his 14 shots en route to a 9-point night. Rashard Lewis led Orlando in scoring with 15 points, while Dwight Howard scored 12, blocked 4 shots, and grabbed 20 rebounds, propelling Orlando to a decisive 54-35 edge on the glass. Brandon Roy scored 33 for Portland, including 15 of the Blazers' 20 in the third quarter as they unsuccessfully tried to maintain their halftime lead. Andre Miller was the only other Blazer to make more than 3 baskets; he finished with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Curiously, the Blazers finished wth 7 assists on their 29 made field goals, with 7 different players tallying 1 assist each. For a team that, as Magic coach Stan Van Gundy noted earlier today, can play 3 point guards at a time--Steve Blake, Miller, and Roy--that's a jarring stat.

Team	Pace	Efficiency	eFG%	FT Rate	OReb%	TO Rate
Blazers	91	91.2	39.1%	28.2	16.3	13.2
Magic	90	102.6	48.0%	25.0	32.5	21.2
Green denotes a stat better than the team's season average; red denotes a stat worse than the team's season average.

Van Gundy emphasized energy, effort, and focus at shootaround today, but early on, it didn't look like his team responded. Orlando opened the game in an 8-0 hole, coming up empty on its first 7 possessions, which included 3 turnovers. Jason Williams then accounted for 7 straight Magic points to bring them to within 1 point of Portland, which got the Amway Arena crowd, eager for any excuse to go nuts, at least engaged in the game.

Williams' streak seemed to ignite a spark in the Magic, and they played hard, albeit not particularly well offensively, the rest of the night. In his post-game remarks, Van Gundy said his team tended to play too much one-on-one basketball in the first half, and then added, "but we played really, really hard." That really was the story. The same Magic team that couldn't be bothered to play defense Thursday night against the Miami Heat managed to shut down the Blazers' offense, while acknowledging that Portland is short several key players at the moment. Van Gundy's most telling statement of the night?

As a coach, I'm pretty proud of what they did tonight.

And later:

I know we didn't play real well offensively, and I know we turned it over way too much, but there's really a lot more positives in this game than negatives.

Chief among those positives, at least from my point of view, was the fact that all 10 guys who played tonight contributed meaningfully. Carter shot poorly, but drove the ball to the rim, played the facilitator role a bit, and battled on defense. Mickael Pietrus gave Roy about all he could handle defensively. Matt Barnes sat the entire first half, but immediately made an impact in the second, gamely defending Roy with Pietrus in foul trouble while adding 8 points and 4 boards in just 14 minutes. Van Gundy praised Barnes' work this evening as "professional," which is apt. J.J. Redick gave the Magic "a huge lift," in Van Gundy's words, with some timely shooting and playmaking ability. It goes on.

If you want to take the "one play defining the whole game" angle in discussing the Magic tonight, it'd surely be Ryan Anderson's blown fast-break dunk early in the 4th quarter, which he simply rimmed out despite the fact that no Blazer was in sight. Barnes followed up the play and flipped the ball in to knot the score at 70. Barnes' tip just barely made it over the front of the rim, making the play that much more exciting. The teams continued to trade baskets until Pietrus hit a three-pointer to give Orlando a 79-76 edge; the Magic scored 8 straight points after that 3 for an 87-76 lead with 3:32 to play, putting the game well in hand. 4 of the 8 points in that stretch came after offensive rebounds, a further indication of the team's hustle tonight. They also tied a season-high with 11 steals, with Johnson contributing 4 thefts.

I'll try to sum it up this way: were it not for the superstars and the high payroll, you might have mistaken this team for the scrappy "Heart and Hustle" unit of the 1999/2000 season, which won 41 games without any standout players under coach Doc Rivers' leadership. If that sounds like high praise, it's meant to be. Apart from the lax first 4 minutes, Orlando went hard for the entire night, which wore down the Blazers.

But onto the sloppiness and offensive issues: they could have done a lot of damage. Plenty of unforced errors for Orlando tonight, such as Johnson's trying to throw a silly crosscourt jump-pass to Redick in the left corner, or Lewis passing to the tops of Howard's new sneakers with Howard not even looking on one transition possession. Portland, for its part, was opportunistic. On 2 occasions LaMarcus Aldridge was able to strip Lewis, who's usually surehanded, cleanly while Lewis surveyed the defense at the top of the key.

Aldridge, though, struggled offensively. The man Van Gundy deemed the most underrated player in the league missed 5 of his 6 shots and scored 3 points in 30 minutes, while mired in foul trouble. Throw in Martell Webster's awful night (1-of-11 shooting, 2 points) and Joel Przybilla's usual offensive inactivity (4 points, 2-of-2 shooting, 29 minutes) and you've got a situation in which Howard outperformed the other team's entire starting front line by himself.

I give Blazers coach Nate McMillan credit for trying to make things work with the limited assets at his disposal. Not counting the cameos appearances Juwan Howard and Dante Cunningham made, the Blazers had a 7-man rotation. McMillan even went Don Nelson-style bonkers when he shifted Aldridge to center and surrounded him with four guards: Blake, Miller, Roy, and Jerryd Bayless, who probably would rather not see this game tape again. Orlando successfully limited the Blazers not named Roy, as Miller was the only other one with at least 5 made baskets. No one else had more than 3. I asked Johnson what that fact meant about the Magic's defense:

They made an effort to get Brandon Roy the ball in places where it's hard to double [team]. Coming down the stretch, he basically took a majority of their shots, and kinda played into our hands with them being a one-person team. Once he missed a few shots we were able to take advantage of it. He's a great player. But when one player has to carry the load, whenever they have a stretch of missing two or three shots, then hopefully the team can take advantage of it.

More on Bayless, Van Gundy's strategy, and scenes from the locker room after the jump.

Bayless shot 3-of-13 for 10 points, which isn't so great, but that's not why I think he'll be upset after this one. Nope, it's that the Magic picked on him defensively, running isolations for whomever Bayless guarded... even Johnson, who's probably the Magic's 11th-most-talented healthy offensive player. Worse yet for Bayless, it worked. By my unofficial count, the Magic either scored or drew a foul every time they cleared out to attack Bayless. Process that: a team with Carter, Howard, and Lewis--three All-Stars--on the floor, along with the corner three-point specialist Pietrus, is running plays for Anthony Johnson.

Something worth noting from the locker room: Carter's poor shooting night didn't seem to faze him, and I mean that in a good way, not in a "he doesn't care about playing well" way. When asked how players respond to shooting slumps, he said he likes to "just keep shooting," and added that some players tend to over-think and adjust their shooting form when mired in them; he described how he tried to "take a little off" one of his shots tonight because he missed long on his previous one. For him, it was just a poor shooting night, and one that's not likely to repeat itself. Van Gundy agreed, saying "there's not gonna be many 1-of-14s in him" and praised Carter's work on the defensive end.

On why Johnson, and not Williams, closed the game out at point guard:

A.J. was playing well, we had a group on the floor that was playing well, so we just went with it.

This point guard situation reminds me of what happened in 2007/08, when Van Gundy doled out backup point guard minutes to either Carlos Arroyo or Keyon Dooling, depending on how each one had played recently; there wasn't a clear 2nd or 3rd-stringer, as Van Gundy preferred to ride the hot hand, so to speak. With Jameer Nelson due back as early as Wednesday, it appears as though Williams and Johnson will have to do battle for backup minutes. It's quite a departure from training camp, where Williams thoroughly outplayed Johnson and claimed the backup role with apparent ease.

On Matt Barnes' ability to play through a left hand injury he re-aggravated tonight, and what he would have done if Barnes had to come out:

Thank God [he stayed in], because at that point we had Vince with 4 [fouls], M.P. with 4, we're still in the third quarter, and I didn't have another wing guy. It was a tough night to slide Rashard back to the three because they were small anyway. I would have gone with A.J. at the two, but then that still leaves us with no size on Brandon Roy at all at that point. So him toughin' it out and stayin' in the game at that point was huge for us, and a big, big, part of the game.

Matt Barnes, doing the little things. Like staying in the game. Does that qualify as "little"? Probably not, if it means not having to play your third-string point guard at shooting guard against one of the league's best players.

On the back-to-back tip-ins during the decisive 11-0 scoring run in the 4th quarter:

That's what you have to do when you're struggling offensively is you have to make plays like that. You gotta play defensively. I thought guys stayed on the boards, I thought we really defended hard. I know we need to play better, probably, a lot of nights but as a coach I'm pretty proud of what they did tonight.

This is high praise from Van Gundy, who was clearly in good spirits after the game. The locker room, too, was boisterous, which caused Andrew Melnick of Howard the Dunk to wonder aloud if it's the best mood the players have been in after a game all year. Anderson had a laugh about his blown dunk and implored Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel to list him at 6'09" in his game story; Anderson's listed at 6'10". In addition, Howard wandered around shouting nonsense like "LEGION OF DOOM!" (which makes transcribing the players' remarks a tough task), cackled like a mad man, and so on.

The best Howard moment came when he borrowed a media member's tape recorder and leaned into Redick's locker, furrowing his brow in mock concentration on Redick's comments. Redick played along with the gag, turning toward Howard and saying, "You had a question," opening the door for Howard to continue his charade (although I suspect he would have plowed through that door regardless). Howard asked a rambling, incoherent question of Redick--something about Van Gundy's consistency with berating referees for poor calls--who responded with hearty laughter while mocking Howard's interview skills: "Was that a three-part question or a four-part question?" Howard defended himself by saying the media's questions aren't much better.

With the Howard and Redick Comedy Juggernaut still assembled, one of the media members asked them to discuss Anderson's blown dunk. Howard smiled and said, "That's why they're never in the dunk contest."

To which Redick responded, "They?! THEY?!" before excusing himself in mock outrage. Howard offered a sheepish "Oops!" as Redick left.

Tonight's Orlando Magic Game: vs. Portland Trail Blazers

Ben Q Rock — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:33:59 -0000

2009/2010 NBA Season
	@
16-11		19-7
December 19th, 2009
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida / NBA TV
Probable Starters
Andre Miller	PG	Jason Williams
Brandon Roy	SG	Vince Carter
Martell Webster	SF	Mickael Pietrus
LaMarcus Aldridge	PF	Rashard Lewis
Joel Przybilla	C	Dwight Howard
Game Officials
Derrick Collins
James Capers
Olandis Poole

The Orlando Magic, losers of 3 of their last 5, will look to snap out of their funk against the ailing Portland Trail Blazers. The NBA's lone Pacific Northwest team is so banged-up that it was allowed a special exception to add a 16th player, Anthony Tolliver.

The silver lining in light of the injuries is the emergence of second-year combo guard Jerryd Bayless, who hardly played with everyone else healthy. He's quick, crafty, and able to get to the basket with ease. He also averages 3.6 free-throws per game, in just 12.2 minutes per game. He draws fouls on 23.6% of his shooting possessions, which is just silly, to use a technical term.

Orlando will also have to contend with free-agent signee Andre Miller, who's finally wrested the starting point guard job from Steve Blake. Miller played well against the Magic as a Philadelphia 76er in last year's playoffs, and gives them trouble in general. Throw in the daunting task of slowing Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and you've got a tough assignment on your hands.

One factor may tip the scales in Orlando's favor tonight, and it's depth, to no one's surprise. In the Blazers' last game, their four bench players were Bayless; Steve Blake; Juwan Howard who's still in the league, if you can believe it; and Dante Cunningham, who played only 4 minutes. Blake's a career backup and three guys who couldn't sniff the rotation at the start of the season. (Partly because rotations don't smell like anything, but you see my point). If Howard can get Portland's bigs in foul trouble, it might be forced to play small, with Aldridge at center flanked with four guards, or three guards plus three-point sniping forward Martell Webster. It goes both ways, though. Starting center Joel Przybilla's defended Hoard well in the past, and isn't above flopping or pulling the chair out from under him. We all know how much such tactics annoy Howard and limit his effectiveness, so that's another thing to watch for.

Tipoff's in a scant half hour, at 7 eastern. I'm at The Am for the first time since this summer's NBA Finals, so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. If there's anything you'd like me to ask post-game, hit me up on Twitter @BQRMagic.

Orlando Magic Practice Report: Stan Van Gundy Concerned with His Team's Focus, as Well as Portland's Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge

Ben Q Rock — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:49:52 -0000

Orlando Magic Practice Report: Stan Van Gundy Concerned with His Team's Focus, as Well as Portland's Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge

Hey, guys. Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post, SB Nation's Orlando Magic blog, checking in. I attended the Magic's shootaround today, and both coach Stan Van Gundy and his players said they're impressed with Portland's energy and effort so far this season. Click through to read what he had to say about Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge specifically. Hint: they're positive things.

Orlando Magic Practice Report: Stan Van Gundy Concerned with His Team's Focus, as Well as Portland's Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge

Ben Q Rock — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:33:04 -0000

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The Orlando Magic haven't played the Portland Trail Blazers in over a year, but are still well prepared to take them on tonight. Coach Stan Van Gundy effusively praised Portland shooting guard Brandon Roy and big man LaMarcus Aldridge, as well as the Blazers' overall effort and energy level; his Magic charges echoed those sentiments. The team is on-point and ready to go, having lost three of their last five games to drop to 4th place in the Eastern Conference, and second in the Southeast Division. Said Van Gundy, "the bottom line is that we're fourth in the East right now, and that's not where we want to be."

The biggest takeaways from today's shootaround are these: Van Gundy believes the team has lost its focus, which happens a few times throughout the season; he used the phrase "autopilot" at one point to describe his team's effort and focus. Complacency is also a concern of his.

Interestingly, he also said Jameer Nelson, who's missed over a month due to left knee surgery, practiced today and will go again tomorrow if he experiences no swelling or pain. If all goes well, Nelson will return Wednesday against the Houston Rockets, which will be the five-week mark of Nelson's surgery, right in the middle of doctors' initial projection of a 4-to-6 week recovery time.

Stan Van Gundy:

What makes Portland a tough team to play?

Well, I think ... two great players in Roy and Aldridge, which is normally where it starts with teams, and a team that plays with a real good pace and energy. They defend very hard, they've got great overall size, so they've got a lot of very good things going.

I'd like to add here that, in a later conversation with Magic play-by-play man Dennis Neumann, Van Gundy said that although Brandon Roy is an All-Star, he's still "overlooked" in the NBA. He also praised LaMarcus Aldrige, calling him the league's most underrated player, and singling out his ability to run the floor, his mid-range jumper, and his proficiency in the pick-and-roll as his strongest suits.

Have you been able to diagnose why your team seems to come out a bit flat?

Well, we've done that in three of the last four games, and so it's just everybody's gotta take the responsibility of being ready at the beginning of the game, being focused, and playing a lot harder. I think that our focus has not been as good, we have not been as tuned-in getting ready to play in games, and we haven't come with great intensity. So I think it's, you know, each individual guy's responsibility to come out and be ready to play.

On the team's lack of focus and the importance of the week ahead:

I think there's times in every season, unfortunately, where you get.. where you hit lulls in terms of your focus and things like that, and you've gotta try and get back and refocus and the whole thing. And you get in stretches, you're playing a lot of games, and you're putting it on autopilot and coming out without an intentional focus on what's going on, and it catches up to you. Hopefully we will come with much more intensity tonight, much more energy, and a clearer focus. We've got four very, very difficult games here right up until Christmas, four games in a week here that are all up against good teams, so it'll be a good test for us to see how far we can come in these four games.

On the team's health:

Yeah, everyone seemed good today and even Jameer practiced this morning. With thirteen guys out there, it got crowded.

On how Nelson looked in practice:

Well, we were basically preparing for Portland so we weren't going up and down the floor, but he looked good. He got in and battled.

On if he'll return to game action on Wednesday, as previously scheduled:

Well, I haven't heard anything differently. I'm sort of at the mercy of what the medical people tell me. They have told me it would be Wednesday at the earliest. The plan is after going through today, both his workout and our workout, the plan is for him to practice tomorrow if he doesn't have pain or swelling after today's workout, and we'll see where we are. But they have told me at this point that Wednesday will be the earliest [he could return].

Several Magic players stayed a bit after shootaround to work on their individual games. I watched these sessions in between Van Gundy's availability session and the players'. Here's what happened:

Brandon Bass worked on short (5-7 foot) jumpers, then practiced midrange shots from either baseline, where his shots hardly so much as touched the rim on their way in; he was just about automatic. He also worked on making a jab-step before elevating for a jumper, and his post moves from the left block, finishing with either a righty hook or a turnaround jumper.
Dwight Howard shot free throws, with assistant coach Patrick Ewing rebounding and occasionally taking notes on a small black pad he stowed in the pocket of his gym shorts. Howard is animated while practicing, but still focused. At one point, he expressed mock-outrage at Ewing ("Look what you made me do!") for reasons I couldn't discern. Later, he yelled the audible equivalent of his frequent YUUUUUAAAAA Twitter messages, running to midcourt and back in exultation.
J.J. Redick worked on mid-range jumpers, free throws, and three-pointers. Anthony Johnson worked through a similar routine a bit more extensively.
Redick, Johnson, and Howard did their workouts on the court's "main" baskets, with Bass shooting on one of the four "side" hoops. Bass moved to the basket Howard occupied once Howard retreated to the locker room.
Patrick Ewing Jr. sat on the sidelines wearing sandals and Magic practice gear, with tennis shoes nearby. It looked like he went through the team's workout this morning, but there's absolutely no indication that the Magic have any plans to add Ewing, whose draft rights are owned by the New York Knicks.

After the jump, partial transcripts of the media's conversations with Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis, and Dwight Howard.

Jameer Nelson:

Before I turned my recorder on, Nelson said he was looking forward to watching the Magic win tonight than he was about making his own return to the court.

When did you know you'd be able to go today?

Probably about a week ago.

A week ago?

Yeah, I can't tell you guys all my information. I keep a lot of things to myself. [Laughs]

Rashard Lewis:

On the importance of this stretch of their schedule in the wake of some recent unimpressive showing:

You know, every game is important, especially playing at home. You always wanna take care of your home court. Gotta play some tough teams, protect our home court. We're trying to get ourselves prepared, to get better every game, to get better as a team.

On what makes Portland a tough team to play:

You know, they're a great team. They play together, they play fundamental. They have a lot of guys playing well. Brandon Roy's a tough player, they added Andre Miller, LaMarcus Aldridge is a great player... so they have a number of guys that they can go to to win ballgames, and they always play hard.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel asked Lewis, and a few other players, about Paul Pierce's recent suggestion that the NBA raise the rims three inches. Lewis said three inches "was a lot" and would make the game "more fundamental. He added that if he were commissioner, he would shorten the season to sixty games and extend the All-Star break to a full week. He added, with a laugh, "I'm tired!" If he's tired, it's not showing up in his play, as he's connected on 40% of his three-pointers over the last five games.

Dwight Howard:

On the importance of this stretch of their schedule in the wake of some recent unimpressive showing:

We want to continue to get better as a team. We're playing against some pretty good teams in this stretch, and we all know that each game is important, each possession is important. We want to get five good wins at home.

On what makes Portland a tough team to play:

They're very active. They got a lot of guys who can score. It starts with Brandon Roy, LaMarcus... and then they got guys who can spot up and hit threes. So they're a very tough team. They run a lot, do a lot of movement, and it's going to be tough.

On how he feels at the end of the third quarter when he plays the first 36 minutes of a game, as he's done in each of the Magic's last 2 games:

I felt great last game. You know, if Coach wants me to play 48 minutes, then I have to 48 minutes. You know, I just wanna do what I can to make my team... to get my team a win. And if that's playing 48 minutes, then I have to play 48 minutes... I can only do so much, but I can do whatever I can. My teammates need me to be dominant, and to be dominant for however long it takes.

Dan Savage of OrlandoMagic.com asked Howard if he had a chance to watch Blazers center Greg Oden play at all this season before he was injured. Howard smiled silently for four seconds before saying, in a near-whisper, "No, I didn't. Sorry." He said that it's hard for him to watch West Coast teams play, and that the West Coast games broadcasted via the NBA's newest mobile app that lets the user watch them on their phone doesn't get good service here.