Still the same: Revamped Pistons humble Orlando Magic just like the old version
10:14 p.m. EST, November 3, 2009
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. -
And they call this place "The Palace?"
For the Orlando Magic, who entered the building as NBA royalty, it's more of a prison.
There's simply no escaping their Detroit demons. The Pistons did not resemble the same team that has bedeviled the Magic for years and years, but the result was no different.
Despite missing two starters, the rebuilding Pistons beat the Magic 85-80 to hand Orlando its first loss of the season on Tuesday night at the, ahem, Palace of Auburn Hills.
The Magic were looking to become the first team in franchise history to start a season 4-0, and they had Vince Carter back in the lineup while the Pistons were missing stalwarts Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. Oh, and Magic antagonists Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess are playing elsewhere.
It was set up on a tee for them, right?
Instead, the Pistons defeated the Magic for the 20th time in their last 25 regular-season meetings. Rich DeVos doesn't really own the Magic; the Pistons do. How do you figure it?
The Pistons shot just 37.5 percent, didn't make a 3-pointer, recorded just eight assists and started only one guy (point guard Rodney Stuckey) who was on the team last season. Stuckey and fellow guards Ben Gordon and Will Bynum combined for 63 points.
All Orlando had to do basically was be ordinary. They were anything but. One of the league's highest scoring showcase clubs had just one basket for almost the last half of the final quarter. Submit it to Ripley's.
Call it that Motown mystique.
The Magic couldn't overcome a poor, listless start and Dwight Howard's foul trouble that made him more of a spectator. His line: eight points, five rebounds, three turnovers and a sore right shoulder in a little more than 16 minutes.
"I haven't played 16 minutes since rec league," Howard said, an ice pack wrapped on his shoulder, which he originally strained Sunday in Toronto. Howard isn't expected to miss any playing time because of the injury.
The Magic couldn't even shoot themselves out of it as they've been known to do, finishing at 36.7 percent. They were a wretched 10-of-35 from 3-point land, with power forward Ryan Anderson even losing his golden touch (1-of-11).
No team had ever launched that many 3s against a Pistons team, but then Orlando had little choice with Howard and back-up center Marcin Gortat hearing whistles all night. The Magic didn't move the ball and made a habit of fouling the Pistons, who made 31-of-38 free throws while Orlando was just 12-of-16.
"We tried to force things offensively and didn't play our game as a team. We tried to hit the home run, we tried to do things individually," said point guard Jameer Nelson, who had five turnovers and just seven points.
Said Stan Van Gundy, "Jameer had a nightmare. He couldn't dribble the ball more than two times without losing it."
And Carter, who had returned after spraining his left ankle on Friday, scored 15 points but couldn't finish. He was unable to drive to the basket on it, he said, and played just about four minutes of the final period with the game still in doubt.
He said he "tweaked" the ankle again stepping on teammate Brandon Bass's foot and would be a game-time decision again tonight at home against Phoenix.
The Magic had just one field goal in the last 6:51 of the game, missing 10 in a row at one stretch. They finished with Bass, 6-8, at center.
Howard fouled out with the Magic ahead 77-75, but the Pistons scored eight consecutive points to lead by six with 14.6 seconds left.
"We didn't play well or smart. We had a very, very bad night all the way around," Van Gundy said.
From Third Quarter Collapse:
Detroit Pistons 85, Orlando Magic 80
by Ben Q Rock on Nov 3, 2009 11:04 PM EST
The Orlando Magic had yet another night to forget against the Detroit Pistons, as they suffered their first loss since Game 5 of last season's NBA Finals, 85-80, thanks to sloppy and uninspired play. The Pistons' combination of 3 diminuitive scoring guards--Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey, and reserve Will Bynum--combined for 65 of Detroit's 85 points on 20-of-45 shooting. More importantly for Detroit, they nullified Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat, the Magic's only centers, by driving aggressively at them and drawing fouls. The Magic's offense was out-of-sync all night, looking as bad as it ever has under Stan Van Gundy. Vince Carter returned after a 1.5-game absence due to a sprained ankle and led the Magic with 15 points, but shot just 6-of-16 from the field and, worse yet, was unable to get on the floor in crunch time as his ankle acted up on him. With no go-to scorer available, the Magic withered with the game in the balance, and Detroit escaped with a well-deserved win.
Team Pace Efficiency eFG% FT Rate OReb% TO Rate
Magic 87 91.5 39.9% 15.2 22.2 17.2
Pistons 97.7 37.5% 43.1 22.0 11.5
Allow me to paraphrase one of my earlier Magic/Pistons recaps--I'm not sure which one it was, since all the Magic's losses to Detroit blend together in my mind--but if they aren't going to defeat Detroit when it's missing its two best players in Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, when are they going to defeat them? What's it going to take for the Magic to get over the hump against the Pistons, in general? This futility against Detroit, over the course of several seasons, has moved past the "comic" stage and into the "tragic" one.
In any case, the Magic were a disjointed, out-of-sync lot this evening. Despite their tip-to-horn poor play, they led by 3 at the half and looked to be a few made baskets away from permanently wresting control of the game from the Pistons. But "flat" doesn't adequately describe the Magic's second-half offense, which scored 39 points on 11-of-36 shooting, with 10 turnovers.
The biggest issue for Orlando, at least offensively, was its utter refusal to drive the ball to the basket. The Magic's reputation as a one-dimensional, three-point-shooting gimmick team is a bit exaggerated, thanks to the media, but tonight they played right into that stereotype. 35 of their 79 shots came from beyond the arc, while they only converted 10. Ryan Anderson was the most egregious offender, taking 11 of his 14 shots from long-range... and making just 1. Meanwhile, the Magic managed a mere 16 free-throw attempts (to the Pistons' 38). Carter and Jameer Nelson, the Magic's best perimeter scorers, took 13 threes and 0 foul shots. Just a lazy, complacent showing from the Magic, two days after they blitzed the Toronto Raptors for 17 makes in 29 attempts from downtown.
I really can't say enough about how Detroit earned this win. I've received several complaints about the officiating on Twitter, and maybe it looks bad in the box score, as the Magic committed 30 fouls to the Pistons' 17. However, none of the calls that went against the Magic were particularly puzzling, and I don't believe a few more whistles going Orlando's way would have swung the game in its favor. Tonight, the Pistons outclassed the Magic. There's not much more to it than that. And if coach John Kuester's game plan was to use his small lineup to attack the Magic's defense, get their bigs in foul trouble, and subsequently earn foul shots, bravo to him and to his team. Detroit doesn't have a credible offensive presence inside--this is a team that starts Ben Wallace at center, with noted garbageman Chris Wilcox off the bench--but counters that with aggressive guard play. It worked tonight, against the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and one of the best defensive backups in the league. Saddled with foul trouble, Howard and Gortat combined for 12 points, 12 boards, and 12 fouls this evening. The Magic might as well have just cloned Roy Hibbert twice and played those versions at center, given those stats.
As for the Magic's game plan? Didn't see much of one. Howard's foul trouble prevented them from establishing him inside, which led to an offense that stood around and looked to create one-on-one. I understand Carter's ankle isn't at full strength, but he should have at least entertained the idea of taking the ball to the cup a few times. Instead, pull-up J after pull-up J, which elicited no shortage of pithy comments from Raptors and Nets fans, who long criticized him for settling for jumpers too often.
He's hardly the only player guilty of that crime tonight, though. Stuckey and Bynum soundly outplayed Nelson, at both ends, which is worrisome. As the only star on the floor in crunch time--Rashard Lewis is suspended, Howard's disqualified, and Carter's nursing a nagging injury--and as a team co-captain, he needed to demonstrate more poise down the stretch. Poor shot selection and consecutive turnovers effectively ended the Magic's comeback bid. The loss isn't squarely on his shoulders, as nobody really played well for the Magic. But he did not acquit himself with his 7-point, 6-assist, 5-turnover outing.
I know it's only one game, out of many, so I don't want to go into "the sky is falling!" mode. But the Magic should beat any team that's missing its top 2 players, especially when it holds a 30-0 advantage on points scored from three-point range. If the Magic don't shape up offensively in a hurry, they could find themselves in a bit of a rut. Unfortunately, they don't have much time to regroup after tonight's poor performance; they return to Orlando tonight for a game against the high-octane Phoenix Suns tomorrow.
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