Official Game Thread: Magic at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

Whatever you do, Devin, DON’T toss them across boats in the lake!

 

Alright, Florida, seriously, you’ve had enough fun. Cut it out.

How about ANOTHER championship team from the Sunshine State that nobody asked for? The Lakeland Magic are your hometown champs down in the Glubble, winners of the 2021 NBA G-League Finals last month after beating the 76ers’ Delaware Blue Coats.

I’ve already done a rundown of all the good fortune teams down in South and Central Florida have enjoyed over the past year, and all of the playoff and championship games hosted down there. That’s to say nothing of who gets first dibs in the upcoming NFL Draft. So, seriously, Devin Cannady, congrats to you and your Finals MVP trophy ball and your new two-way contract with the big-leaguer Orlando Magic. That’s enough confetti for the Floridians, thank you.

Our Atlanta Hawks can do their part this week to improve the likelihood that the NBA Playoffs won’t even make its way south of Valdosta this season. They’ve already submerged the Flo Raptors into a fight with the Wizards and the Bulls for what could be the final #10 Play-In seed. Currently at seed #7, the reigning conference champ heat could find themselves lip synching for their playoff lives, too, and Atlanta could ensure a crucial tiebreaker, if necessary, with a home win over Jimmy, Bam and Friends this Friday.

And we’ve got a touch of elimination practice, tonight, with what remains of the Magic in town (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Florida). The Magic-Tragic Number, if you will, for Orlando to catch the Hawks is a mathematical ‘2’. So a victory for Atlanta tonight will serve as the stiff-arm they’d need just in case Steve Clifford’s newfangled roster gets any crazy ideas.

Don’t be fooled by their last game on Sunday, a 114-110 home loss that gave the usually misfiring Houston Rockets their first win in six tries. Coach Cliff’s club, with a little abracadabra, will reach out and grab ya, if you’re caught fooling around too much. The Magic peaked, if you will, at 13-18 before stumbling into the All-Star Break with five straight losses, capped by Atlanta’s scintillating comeback on March 3 from 61-42, 88-70, and 106-90 down to escape O-Town with the 115-112 win.

Since then, they’ve sold off most of their longtime veterans for parts and picks, save for Terence Ross, who didn’t make the trip up here tonight (The Human Torch’s back is flaring up). Orlando (18-39) has only gone 5-16 since the Break, with two of those wins coming before the Trade Deadline. But it must be noted that four of those five wins were versus Brooklyn and Phoenix, pre-Deadline, then at STAPLES against the Clippers and at New Orleans (SVG’s Angry Birds pay one of his old stomping grounds a visit on Thursday).

The pièce de résistance came in a 115-106 win versus visiting Vucevic and the Bulls last week. Nikola and his new tag team partner, Zach LaVine, couldn’t do enough to outshine new Magic center Wendell Carter, who outworked his old team on the boards as Chicago’s fourth-quarter comeback proved to be too little, too late.

In addition to Ross, James Ennis (out, calf) and ex-Bull Otto Porter (out, foot) will stay home, while Michael Carter-Williams purportedly has a foot sprain. So try on, for size, hungry yung’uns in Cole Anthony, Chuma Okeke, and Mo Bamba, a couple of them having returned from injury and illness-related hiatuses of their own. Add to the ensemble ex-Nuggets Gary Harris and (newly 20-year-old) R.J. Hampton, each trying to earn their keep. Tack on a side of Dwayne Bacon, the only Magician to have played in every game so far.

Then, for depth behind Anthony and Harris, there’s a pair of two-way contracts, including Cannady, the undrafted guard out of Princeton, and Chasson Randle. Bolstering the frontcourt are two folks on ten-day deals, Robert Franks and Donta Hall, the latter aiding the Magic with 9 rebounds in under 17 minutes for the win versus Chicago.

You can be assured that none of the players touching the floor could give a hoot about tanking, where a likely pair of lottery picks plus injured returnees Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac will push many players off the Magic depth chart. They’re all out to impress their next NBA boss, whether that’s Jeff Weltman or not.

When Orlando has played at their competitive best, they’re playing mistake-free, hack-free Cliffyball (10.8 TOs/game in post-All-Star-wins, best in NBA; 6.8 personal fouls per-48 in those wins, 5^th-fewest). It’s up to Atlanta to ensure they’re not just sitting back and waiting for Orlando’s neophytes to make the mistakes.

Trae Young (2 steals vs. IND, first game w/ multiple steals since March 30) must avoid a tit-for-tat, you-shoot-I-shoot with Anthony, instead pestering ballhandling guards at the point of attack, roving into passing and driving lanes seeking out thefts, deflections, offensive foul draws and 50/50 balls.

The starting backcourt and wings like Kevin Huerter (1.2 SPG, highest among active Hawks) doing its job to constrain the number of Magic possessions ending in a shot attempt will allow Nate McMillan to relieve them with Brandon Goodwin on the back ends of halves. If the Hawks find themselves in a clash midway through the fourth quarter, it would be telling that they caught themselves looking ahead for the flight to New York to play the Knicks tomorrow, in the first back-to-back for Atlanta (31-26) in two weeks.

We can’t control what goes on in the NHL’s Central Division, or the American League East, but at least in the MLS, Atlanta United already did its job in dampening Orlando City SC’s spirits over the weekend, while I still trust Rafi Acuna will be back and chomping on Fish Sticks in due time. The next time I hope to hear about outsized title hopes from a Florida team, it will be time for don’t-call-them-cocktails in Jacksonville.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

No surprising changes are expected on the 5:30 boo-boo report for Grandmaster Dunn and the Injurious Five. Gallo, Snell, Hunter and Cam remain out. We'll see if any make the red-eye trip up to Gotham (EDIT: Odds are good, as of "now," that there will be a trip up there for a game tomorrow).

Magic Numbers entering today's slate of games: 8 for at least a Play-In (linked with Wizards and Bulls), 14 for a Top-6 finish (linked with the Hornets and Celtics).

OrlandoMagic.com's David Savage notes that in the last two losses to the Raptors and Rockets, the Magic won quarters #1, 2, and 4 by a combined 175-157, but they've lagged in the third quarters by a combined 70-37.

We getta lotta MoBamba.

~lw3 

[lethalweapon3]

Not sure what other directions there were to "push" toward, but okay.

~lw3

[mrhonline]

 

[lethalweapon3]

Gallo's 3-point-palooza back in February fell one short of tying this Yellow Jacket's career in-game mark, a former NBA record set 25 years ago this past Monday:

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

The pièce de résistance

Count the money Great thread as usual Lw3! I don’t even recognize the Magic. They keep retooling with no plan. Glad they are in our division.

Hawks ML -1000 (largest of the season and possibly the last 5 seasons) spread -12.5 o/u 218

Go Hawks! 

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Acuna will be back and chomping on Fish Sticks in due time.

Yes sir! Superstar MVP season. How cool would it be to have back to back Atlanta Braves MVP’s in Freeman and Acuna!  

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[MaceCase]

They brought down Hinrich’s goggles from the rafters!

[RedDawg#8]

I dont want to count any chickens, but we need to take care of business with the Magic being depleted, so that we can rest and be fresh against New York tomorrow.

[hawkman]

2 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

I dont want to count any chickens, but we need to take care of business with the Magic being depleted, so that we can rest and be fresh against New York tomorrow.

Hawks have a pattern of playing down to the comp. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pull this one out of the fire in the 4th.

[MaceCase]

Kev with confidence *chef’s kiss*

[kg01]

 Bock-dyno-vick

[bleachkit]

21 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

70's porn star look, I like it.

[kg01]

Don't like this start.  This ol scrappy team can beat you if a bench guy gets hot or something. 

Wait, do they still have Ross?   Fuuuuuuuuuuu 

[Dnice]

Is the team even focused tonight? 4 turnovers already,  and letting the tragic hang around. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I want to see the bench play well tonight.

[Buzzard]

We hear it all the time about how injuries help out other players. Huerter is stepping up with Reddish out in so many ways.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL Huerter.  Couldn't believe he was that wide open.

Don't hesitate man . . just fire it up.

[MaceCase]

Kev cooking