Hornets at Magic, Christmas Day, 12pm

[AdamTheGreek]

Dwight's Christmas Special Superman shoes:






Ryan Bowen looks old:









OH MY GOD:

^^^DISGUSTING, pic actually did it justice.




He shot a horrible percentage, but that jumper looked GOOD:

[FFBlitzace]

Gortat's gift to New Orleans? Letting them walk out alive.

[magicmamma]

Great crowd at the game today. Loud and enthusiastic. I guess you have to expect that of those who came on Christmas day. Second quarter, I started yelling I wanted a 20 point lead at half time. It turned into 30 so fast it made my head spin. Dwight talked to us before the game, thanked us for coming on Christmas day, and said the team was planning to give us a Christmas present. And they did.

Game threads are amazing. I scan the last few pages and see people complaining about giving up the big lead. Huh? We were up 30 at half time and up 22 at the end. NO is supposed to be a come from behind team. They actually got the lead down to 19 at the end of their hot quarter. The number two team is the west is supposed to stay down by 30??? There was no grief at Amway, although the guy next to me said the magic were famous for giving up big leads, and I said, "Not this year!"

Stan is so funny when he's happy. His last few post game comments have been hilarious. It was funny when he was asked about the Magic ending Paup's steal streak. He said he didn't care, but he thought the guys were pretty happy about it. I think that was an understatement, LOL.

Did you see the Suns-Spurs game? Fantastic ending. Lakers-Celtics is pretty good too. I can enjoy tight games when the Magic aren't involved. I prefer blowouts from the Magic.

On the way home from the game, I turn on ESPN radio, and this idiot (I have no idea who he was) is asked if perhaps the Magic are underrated. He said their record looked good, but he couldn't consider a team that good when they had no go-to guy in late game situations. They couldn't go to Dwight because he would just get fouled, Rashard was just a catch and shoot guy, and Hedo was a playmaker but not much of a scorer. At least I think that's what he said. It was so incredible that I wondered if I had just imagined it. But my son was with me and he said, " What the..." so I guess he heard the same thing. Even the guy who asked the question had to point out that Hedo had made quite a few game winners. Of course part of why the Magic are so deadly at the end of the game is that they have a floorful of go-to guys, so who are you going to stop?

[Optimus_Steel]

Gortat's gift to New Orleans? Letting them walk out alive.

Being Christmas, Gortat decided to show his merciful side. They are lucky The Gortat was in a good mood.

[AdamTheGreek]

4-0 all time on Christmas, not bad. Best game Magic Christmas game has to belong to Penny's '95 winner vs. Houston, brought back a little revenge for us getting swept.

23-6 = Best start in franchise history, man does that feel great.

Funny, Dwight had a bad shooting game and we had a horrendous 2nd half (scoreless for 7 minutes in the 4th) yet we win by 20 and I will probably never again enjoy a game that much without feeling a bit of nervousness.

Peaches showed glimpses as to why he was called the "French Michael Jordan", guy was working it everywhere.
Glad to see Hedo with somewhat of a bounce back game, but we know he can still play much better.
Rashard and Jameer did their thing.
Glad to see Cookie back on the floor after his father past away, was hoping he'd at least get a shot off.
JJ's 3 = Icing on the cake, Christmas was here for most of that crowd.
Kebo was the only one who played bad (even Old Man River outplayed him), just some stupid mistakes.

Watching Chris Paul pout was unexpected, and to break his 108-game steal streak is pretty amazing considering AJ had 10 minutes with him.

I love Stan to death and he showed why I think he's the best coach in basketball. He's destroying his voice though and he's gonna have a heart attack one day.

Doris Burke is one hell of an announcer. I said that last year and she just knows her basketball for the most part.
LOL at Bill Walton drinking our koolaid for one day.
I had Brian Schmitz drive past me in his gold Isuzu Rodeo after the game, thought that was hilarious.

3-game road trip starts Saturday. Immediate trap game vs. Minny as we can't look past them towards the Detroit game or they'll burn us.

[FFBlitzace]

Bogans hasn't made a shot in the last 2 games, lol. In fact, dating back to Dec 15th, Bogans is only 5-29. My goodness. Hopefully Pietrus is back in the starting lineup soon.

I think JJ may have surpassed Bogans in fg% after today. It'll be close.

[Optimus_Steel]

Bogans hasn't made a shot in the last 2 games, lol. In fact, dating back to Dec 15th, Bogans is only 5-29. My goodness. Hopefully Pietrus is back in the starting lineup soon.

I think JJ may have surpassed Bogans in fg% after today. It'll be close.

LOL so true, I cant stand Bogans and he is doing his best to loose most of his playing time. I would not be shocked to see MP starting our next game.

I thought this was interesting:

The Magic led by as many as 31 points early in the third quarter. The Hornets did not get closer than 19 points the rest of the game.

"You don't want to give the championship already, but they played well tonight," Paul said. "They got us."

We have to understand that against some of the these you can come out and mess around a little bit, but against the Lakers, Orlando and the team we play tomorrow night you can't come out that way," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "That's the bottom line."

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/8988 ... eal-streak

[Bay_Areas_Finest]

There is no reason at all that Bogans should be getting any playing time at all right now. If he isn't hitting his three-ball, then he's usually.

The ONLY way Bogans should be getting PT is if we didn't have any other good defenders at the SG position, but we have Pietrus and Lee who both play pretty stellar D, and they shoot the ball better than Bogans too.

I have no idea why SVG likes Bogans so much.

[damo[23]]

Pretty disappointed with Bogans of late .. but up until his slump he was playing pretty damn well.

MP seems to be working hard, clearly he wants his starter role back. I am pretty sure SVG wouldnt go with a rookie .. but Lee is making a case for himself now aswell, looking very composed out there on the floor.

Ahh well, its been a good day. Good food, Magic win and Lakers just toppled Boston.

And ... I have NBA2k9 finally - even though my xbox is over heating like a cheap laptop .. just contemplating getting a Elite now .. thats if Microsoft dont send me a new one when this innevitably dies a horrible and firey death.

[Bensational]

There is no reason at all that Bogans should be getting any playing time at all right now. If he isn't hitting his three-ball, then he's usually.

The ONLY way Bogans should be getting PT is if we didn't have any other good defenders at the SG position, but we have Pietrus and Lee who both play pretty stellar D, and they shoot the ball better than Bogans too.

I have no idea why SVG likes Bogans so much.

probably because he's a professional who knows his role. While Pietrus and Lee may be capable of performing better, i think Bogans is the only one that goes out and sticks to the role SVG wants out of him. Pietrus' D can be good, but it can also be erratic and costly at the foul line. Pietrus also hasn't done anything to shut down any good opposing SG's this season either, so i dunno if i'd say his defense is stellar.

Lee is just a rook, and SVG isn't good with rooks.

i started out the season not wanting Bogans on the team, but i've liked what he's done for us this year. he helped out in a big way when we struggled at the start of the season. let's not hang him out to dry now that he's in a bad spell.

[EasternMagic]

wow...
i like this team

[SOUL]

Me too.






















Except Bogans

[eyriq]

Just watched the game. Great Christmas present from the Magic! Dominating a stud team like the Hornets is no small task, and that defense was beastly.

[Bay_Areas_Finest]

probably because he's a professional who knows his role. While Pietrus and Lee may be capable of performing better, i think Bogans is the only one that goes out and sticks to the role SVG wants out of him. Pietrus' D can be good, but it can also be erratic and costly at the foul line. Pietrus also hasn't done anything to shut down any good opposing SG's this season either, so i dunno if i'd say his defense is stellar.

Lee is just a rook, and SVG isn't good with rooks.

i started out the season not wanting Bogans on the team, but i've liked what he's done for us this year. he helped out in a big way when we struggled at the start of the season. let's not hang him out to dry now that he's in a bad spell.

lol. Yeah, okay, dude. Really, this excuse only works when the team is winning, so I understand why you're saying this. But Bogans has been garbage this month and when his shot isn't falling, he's pretty useless. If you're gonna hang Pietrus out to dry for his defense, then do the same for Bogans.

He can't really drive and finish too often, which is something Pietrus and Lee are more than capable of doing in comparison to Bogans. They are just more well-rounded players that deserve to be getting the bulk of the minutes. I think SVG just doesn't want to tinker with the lineup because we're winning, but it certainly hasn't been because of Keith.

[SOUL]

I don't even care if Bogans starts, but he should be getting the least minutes out of Pietrus and Lee.

[mhectorgato]

I loved our intensity and focus during the first half. Our defense was tremendous, especially our man defense. They started to get some results from the screen-role, but we adjusted. West was for the most part invisible.

The 2nd half they started to get going a bit, and we got a bit lackadaisical. Probably because SVG was quite upset - I think that was after Mo Pete knocked down a wide open 3 - we picked it up again and got it going. There were some times when help defense didn't come.

The 3s that Jameer knocked down were great - all in stride.

We kinda mentally checked out after they subbed out their starters with 10 to go. The refs started to swallow the whistle, with some missed obvious calls, but they probably wanted to keep the game going when it was for the most part out of reach.

It's hard to imagine that I would be worried with a 20 point lead, but I was starting to get to worried.

Loved Peaches' two handed block. And wondered about Hedo's TOs.

Plus I wondered why SVG left the starters out there for so long - esp Dwight.

Great game to be in attendance for! Scotty wasn't that annoying today to me. It got awfully quiet 1/2 way during the 4th. Not sure how the dude shooting for airplane tickets missed that many up close, but made the right decision to keep 'em.

[golfreak]

We all know ESPN is horrible when it comes to the MAgic but tonight iced the cake.
They showed all the NBA games, talked about the NFL for a bit, then showed the Dallas game in progress and finally the Magic's highlights.
Its like WTF....its the Hornets, we're not playing a creampuff here.

BTW, did any of you hear SVG losing his voice in the huddle during the 3rd qtr ??
Then they showed D12 imitating SVG and he sounded just like SVG....classic.
Hope someone get this on youtube.

[magik9113]

I don't even care if Bogans starts, but he should be getting the least minutes out of Pietrus and Lee.

same. and it's not like he kills the flow or anything when he's in, plus he plays good D

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

Ohhhh and Magic girl........wow.....

Megan still #1 but Magic girl is now a close #2.

A guantlet has been thrown once again. We shall see, we shall see.


Also, I saw Adonyl Foyle last night at midnight mass at St. James last night. He walked by me on the way out and I made eye contact with him, and my face kinda lit up and he smiled back, knowing I knew who he was. Night before a game and he's in church. I love the guy for that.

I for one do not agree.... I can tell that Magic girl is hotter and I can't even see her face! You better take her to not only Epcot, but ALL Disney Parks, Universal parks, water parks and wherever the hell else she wants to go Orange. Just a few conditions. She has to go in just that shirt, It should be windy and possibly raining, and you have to post pics!

[AdamTheGreek]

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