J.J. Redick dribbles the ball upcourt in his first career NBA start last night against Toronto. Redick's performance has captivated parts of the blogosphere.

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Lots of news today. The first four bullets are sort-of general, while the rest of them concern J.J. Redick. Just a warning for those of you who are sick of J.J.:

• This story is now all over the blogosphere, so you may have seen it already, but I'll post it because I'm kinda in love with Marcin Gortat. Anyway, as Kyle Hightower reports, Gortat won a bet with Mickael Pietrus by dunking from the foul line after a recent practice. Dunking from that distance is impressive for anyone, but especially someone who is 7-feet tall. So congratulations, Marcin!

• Kevin Sawyer, in a guest post at Detroit Bad Boys, writes that the Orlando Magic aren't "for real", but "could be a real threat come playoff time."

• FRANCHISE of Raptors HQ offers his thoughts on Jameer Nelson in his recap of Orlando's victory over Toronto last night:

  Nelson is a great example of a player who has done the most with his talent as he's turned himself from an undersized scoring point guard with a suspect jump shot, to a solid starter in the league who can now hit that mid-range shot with ease. He absolutely killed the Raptors last night coming off of high screens and hit 10 of his 15 shots on the night.

  A fan of an opposing team respects Jameer Nelson. I never thought I'd see the day.

• Magic point guard Mike Wilks underwent surgery to repair his knee today. When asked his name after coming out of surgery, Wilks answered, "Barack Obama." Don't laugh. Wilks may have a point, as he and President-Elect Obama will play the same amount of minutes for the Magic this season: zero. Best wishes on a full recovery, Mike.

• Goathair of Hardwood Paroxysm reviews each first-round draft pick in four words. The verdict on Courtney Lee? "Outplayed by J.J. Redick."

• However, Magic beat writer Brian Schmitz believes that J.J. will once again find himself playing behind Lee and Keith Bogans once Mickael Pietrus is available again, which could be as soon as Friday against Indiana. From a career-high 34 minutes last night to a possible garbage-time cameo or DNP this Friday. Yup, that's J.J. Redick's career.

• In the same post linked in the previous bullet, Schmitz writes that either Redick--who appears to have backed off his trade request--or Keith Bogans "is going to get moved" this season. Brian Cook, who can't crack Orlando's rotation despite his great three-point shooting, may also find himself packing his bags sooner rather than later.

• For his part, John Denton believes that Redick and Lee will split minutes as the team's third shooting guard, behind Pietrus and Bogans, depending on the situation:

  Most likely, [Magic coach Stan] Van Gundy will opt for Lee when the Magic need perimeter defense and Redick when Orlando is searching for shooting and scoring punch.

  Then, Stan offers his comments on the situation:

  "You just don't know because I like all of those (shooting guards)," Van Gundy said. "I just want our guys to understand that nobody is down for the count for the year. All those guys can help us and their time will come. J.J. keeps himself ready."

• Finally, you can find video of J.J.'s post-game interview with Sun Sports' Paul Kennedy on J.J.'s blog.

Tomorrow's Off-Day Open Thread, if there is one, will likely discuss Orlando's shooting guard situation. Unless, that is, you'd rather discuss something else; I don't blame you if you're sick of J.J. talk.

Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic takes a jump shot against the Toronto Raptors on November 18th, 2008. The Magic won the game, 103-90

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports called last night's Orlando Magic/Toronto Raptors playoff rematch the NBA's "Game to pay attention to". It certainly didn't disappoint. The game was closer than the final score may indicate. The teams were knotted at 45 halfway through, the Magic only lead by 6 points heading into the 4th quarter, and the Raptors were still within 6 with two minutes to play. A three-pointer by Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu 16 seconds later ended Toronto's mini-rally. Ultimately, the Raptors' poor ball handling--24 turnovers in a 99-possession game simply will not get it done--and their inability to stop Jameer Nelson and Turkoglu from nailing perimeter jumpers cost them the game. It's a shame, too, as Chris Bosh once again lit-up the Magic for 40 points (on 14-of-19 shooting) and 18 rebounds. What a waste.

Obviously, the Raptors missed point guard Jose Calderon, who sat out his second straight game with a strained hamstring. Will Solomon started in his place, and stunk up the joint with a Palacio-esque line of 10 points (5-of-13 shooting), 4 assists, and 7 turnovers. He made poor decisions all night, on both sides of the ball. On offense, he'd either throw the ball directly to Magic players or he'd get caught in midair without a shot or a pass. Defensively--and Magic television color analyst Matt Guokas pointed this out several times during the broadcast--he refused to go over screens to cover Nelson, leaving Orlando's budding star point guard open for jumpers all night. Nelson made him pay, shooting 10-of-15 for 22 points. I wasn't too impressed with Solomon's backup, 24-year-old rookie Roko Ukic, but he should have played more than 16 minutes tonight. Solomon was that bad.

The Magic started this game flat, which didn't surprise me. and let the Raptors score 26 points on 61% shooting in the first period. Bosh scored 6 and Jermaine O'Neal scored 10 of those points. O'Neal, though, got in foul trouble and was a non-factor for the rest of the game, contributing only 6 more points the rest of the way. Quite frankly, I forgot he played at all in the second half. Then again, it's hard for a player to make an impression when he can't get the ball because his point guard is busy throwing it away.

The Magic's defense--or perhaps Toronto's awful offense--kept them in the game until their own offense began to click. It took a while. Neither Dwight Howard nor Hedo Turkoglu made a field goal until more than halfway through the second quarter. It was Howard's first bucket, an awkward hook, that ignited 12-2 Orlando scoring run to tie the game at 41. The Magic had momentum heading into the locker room, even though the game was tied, and pulled away in the third quarter. Fittingly, J.J. Redick made the biggest momentum-changing shot of the game. One possession after drilling an 18-foot jumper over the prone body of Anthony Parker, who flopped on the play, Redick connected on a silky-smooth three-pointer from the left wing. That bucket bumped Orlando's lead to 60-50, blew the roof off the Amway Arena, and forced Raptors coach Sam Mitchell to burn a timeout.

Turkoglu, who was one of the NBA's leaders in fourth-quarter scoring last season, showed the same killer instinct tonight. He started the period quickly scoring 7 points on 3-of-3 shooting--all jumpers--in the first 1:42. The last shot in that sequence pushed Orlando's lead to a fairly comfortable 80-69. He added three more three-pointers later, including a back-breaker to answer Andrea Bargnani's trey on the previous Raptors possession to put Orlando ahead, 97-88, with less than two minutes to play. His overall stat line--22 points on 8-of-20 shooting--won't impress many people, but make no mistake: his fourth-quarter marksmanship likely saved the game for Orlando, which may have not withstood Bosh's 40-point outburst without it.

It seems wrong not to mention that Nelson and Turkoglu were not the only Magic players to score 22 points, a team-high. Rashard Lewis also scored 22. He is a phantom.

More thoughts on Bosh's excellence, Howard's struggles, and J.J. Redick's performance in his first career NBA start after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

RED-ALERT ULTRA MEGA UPDATE: J.J. Redick will make his first career start tonight for the Orlando Magic, according to the Orlando Sentinel's Brian Schmitz. Mickael Pietrus will miss the game with bruised ribs. Adonal Foyle will replace Pietrus on the active roster.

2008/2009 NBA Regular Season
	@
5-4		7-3
November 18th, 2008
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Will Solomon	PG	Jameer Nelson
Anthony Parker	SG	J.J. Redick
Andrea Bargnani	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Chris Bosh	PF	Rashard Lewis
Jermaine O'Neal	C	Dwight Howard

First thing's first: there's a chance that Jose Calderon, the Toronto Raptors' star point guard who is ailing with a sore right hamstring, could still play tonight. He did some drills yesterday and will undergo treatment today. The Magic would much rather he sit tonight's game out. His backup, Will Solomon, played capably against the Miami Heat on Sunday night, but he's still shaky at best. The more the Magic see of him, and the less of Calderon, the better.

Second: the Raptors are a changed team from when the Magic defeated them in the playoffs. They removed all traces of purple from their logo, unveiled a sleek black alternate uniform, and put a nifty new third logo at the center of their home floor. But the changes they made were more than cosmetic: consider the trade in which they obtained center Jermaine O'Neal, a six-time All-Star. While he's not contributing much offensively--just 12.9 points per game on 40.4% shooting--he's anchoring the defense and, more importantly, rebounding. Yet for all the beefiness he's added to the Raptors' front line, they're still 29th in offensive rebound rate and 20th in defensive rebound rate this season. Furthermore, their opponents are getting 28% of their shot attempts close to the basket--the same percentage as last year--and they're making 51.1% of them. Those numbers will improve in time, and I believe the acquisition of O'Neal will turn out to be a net positive for Toronto in the final analysis.

The front lines of both teams will be under great scrutiny tonight. Orlando's trio of Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, and Dwight Howard presents mis-matches galore, but the Raptors may have found a way to negate those mis-matches: by going tall themselves. Sunday against the Heat, they started 7'00" Andrea Bargnani, drafted first overall in 2006 as a center in the Dirk Nowitzki mold, at small forward alongside Chris Bosh (6'10") at power forward and O'Neal (6'11") at center. John Hollinger of ESPN wrote that it's tallball, not smallball, that's fashionable now. The strategy, surprisingly to me, worked, and Raptors beat reporter Doug Smith says all signs point toward the Raptors continuing to use it this season. How the Magic handle the Raptors' height will be interesting. Bargnani stands no chance to guard Turkoglu on the perimeter, but likewise Turkoglu is ill-suited to guard Bargnani when he posts up, as he did successfully against Miami. Perhaps more problematic for Orlando is the chore of having to defend Bosh, who has eaten Howard's lunch several times in their head-to-head matchups. He also outplayed Howard in the Olympics. I hope Dwight is sufficiently motivated to exact some revenge.

Indeed, we'll learn a lot about the Magic tonight. This game is their biggest of the season to date. A victory, especially a blowout, would go a long way toward proving their streak of seven wins in eight tries is not a fluke.

Tip's at 7 on Sun Sports, so buy this shirt while there's still time. Go Magic.

Here's today's news. Keep your eyes peeled for the GameThread later this afternoon.

• NBA attendance is down across the board, and the Orlando Magic have been especially hard-hit. Yahoo! Sports correspondent Nick Friedell reports that the Magic are the only team in the bottom third of the league in attendance that has a winning record. Even more worrisome, the fans who do show up aren't very enthusiastic:

  For the most part, the crowds I've seen at Magic games are flatter than a pancake. Sure, there are some exciting moments, and, if asked, the fans are usually willing to get out of their seats and cheer. But, if it wasn't for the noise blaring from the speaker system, you would be able to hear Stan Van Gundy barking out orders on almost every possession.

  It was only seven months ago that the Magic blew the roof off the Amway Arena by defeating the Toronto Raptors in the playoffs. Wow.

• Van Gundy talks to John Denton about his team's recent 3-0 road trip:

  "The thing that I liked the most was that we showed a good resolve and resiliency throughout the trip," Van Gundy said. "We were able to hang in there and get the job done even though things didn't always look too good for us."

  Can't argue with that. A real test will come in December, when the Magic will play the Portland Trail Blazers, the Phoenix Suns, and the Utah Jazz in the middle of a five-game road trip. That's a tough stretch of games there.

• Brian Schmitz rates the Magic's players individually through ten games. He's too easy on Anthony Johnson (B), too harsh on Michael Pietrus (C+), but mostly on the money with everyone else.

• Orlando Magic Blog also looks at individual players, comparing their statistics from this season to their statistics from last season.

That's all for now. If you haven't already, check out my review of the Magic after 10 games.

UPDATE: Okay, one last bullet before the game...

• John Denton points out just how well Rashard Lewis has defended opposing power forwards this season:

  Lewis held [Elton] Brand to six points and [Antawn] Jamison to seven points. [LaMarcus] Aldridge needed 17 shots to get 16 points, while [Dirk] Nowitzki did pour in 24 points against Lewis.

  He'll really be put to the test tonight against Chris Bosh, although he's defended him well in his Magic career, too:

  Bosh did average 24 points in the playoffs last spring, but he did so by shooting less than 50 percent. And in the Game 5 clincher of the playoffs, Bosh faded badly with a poor performance and he was so rattled by Lewis' defense that he was hit with a technical foul.

The GameThread is scheduled to post at 3:45.