2022-2023 Regular Season Game 56: Denver Nuggets (38-17) at Orlando Magic (22-33) - 7pm

[eyriq]

Play-in push alive and well

I could see you guys winning a play-in game. I think the natural progression that the organization would want to see is moving Anthony and Suggs into the starting line up next year and having the 2 rookies fill their spots on the bench or maybe just Suggs starting. At some point I think Cole is going to want to start somewhere.

Would love to see the play-in win. WeHam will have some tough decisions to make in the offseason.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Paolo’s scoring has come down to 20 ppg. It would be ashamed that he played shot so consistency all year shooting 20* only to lose that scoring average at the tail end of his rookie season. But oh well, I’ve noticed a ton of rookies have hit that slump right now.

[Last Guardian]

Somehow Magic beat the best shooting team in the league without dominating from 3…it’s almost like defense wins games

[ibraheim718]

Somehow Magic beat the best shooting team in the league without dominating from 3…it’s almost like defense wins games

You get it. In the important games it's about stopping teams from scoring or at least making them expend more energy to score. I'm not a fan of outscoring or outshooting teams personally.

[Skybox]

Fun game...I was there. Cole's looking like a real player, giving great effort on both ends. Our two young studs are playing in mud and need to shake it off. I really would like both of them to end the season with that "special" 20.00 ppg status. Missed layups all over the place. Fultz trying for highlight dunks every game now - he start eating a healthy breakfast or something?

[tooler]

Our two young studs are playing in mud and need to shake it off. I really would like both of them to end the season with that "special" 20.00 ppg status. Missed layups all over the place.

Almost makes you wish for a little load management! It makes a lot of sense now.

[NavalAviator94]

Somehow Magic beat the best shooting team in the league without dominating from 3…it’s almost like defense wins games

Our length legit bothers teams. It’s a unique advantage

[Stormofreign]

Paolo’s scoring has come down to 20 ppg. It would be ashamed that he played shot so consistency all year shooting 20* only to lose that scoring average at the tail end of his rookie season. But oh well, I’ve noticed a ton of rookies have hit that slump right now.

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[Bakomagic]

Paolo NEVER runs back hard after a missed shot where he thinks he got fouled. It's absolutely infuriating.

That applies to 99% of the league.

People forget he is a rook, most games he's probably played in a season.

Franz also did this tonight and David Steele pointed it out. I’ve basically seen all our players do this outside of Caleb haha, but he’s just trying to stay out of Lakeland.

[Bakomagic]

Man Chicago lost to Starless Nets.

That was embarrassing for them

That said, I bet the Nets will be a playoff team. Dinwiddie, Mikal, Simmons, Cam, Claxton is not a bad mix of offense and defense.

Of course they’re a playoff team. They have 33 wins already with 27 games to go.

Even if they crater and play .300 ball the rest of the way, that’s still an 8-19 finish which would get them to 41 wins.

They’re a lock to get in.

This puts in perspective how weird the Nets situation got. You never see a team who is in position to have home court advantage in the first round blow up their team at the deadline.

KD, Kyrie and Ben Simmons are Elite team wreckers haha.

[pepe1991]

Somehow Magic beat the best shooting team in the league without dominating from 3…it’s almost like defense wins games

Magic shot 9 -27 for 3 ( 33,33%)
Nuggets 10-30 for 3 (30%)

But Magic won this game in particular because their bench outscored Nuggets bench 56-10.



Magic also grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, that is, i belive, season high.

Cole and Bol off bench combined for 16-25 FG ( 64%).

Contenders are, due salary structure, always top heavy, and when they miss somebody ( Nuggets tonight Murray) it is very noticable. Nuggets in particular have second worst bench in nba, behind only Spurs. Magic took full adventage of it and won game. Again, Magic bench outscored Nuggets bench 56-10. That's how they won game. Not "great defense", not "3 point conspiracy theory". Depth.

[Knightro]

Somehow Magic beat the best shooting team in the league without dominating from 3…it’s almost like defense wins games

Denver is actually a surprisingly good matchup for the Magic because they’re one of the lowest 3PT volume teams in the league.

Combine that they’re already low volume with the fact that two of their biggest threats from deep - Murray (6.1 3PTA per game at 40%) and Hyland (5.7 3PTA at 38%) - were out injured and got traded away today and it was even more beneficial for the Magic because they weren’t going to be behind the 8 ball from a pure math perspective like they are against a lot of other teams.

When Orlando played the Nuggets in Denver earlier in the year, the Magic attempted ten fewer threes… and perhaps not coincidentally Murray himself took 10 threes that night.

[drsd]

That was a great win

Moving aside from the fact Orlando beat arguable the NBA's best team, the Magic has been very weak in the 2nd quarter this season. Orlando won quarter-2 in this game. That is really nice to see.

[drsd]

What an awesome display of bench depth. WOW


Anth-sanity and Bol-sanity rules!

..

[drsd]

Glass half-empty stat: not only did the Magic get to the line much less than on average, the percentage makes was horrible. This was perhaps Orlando's worst FT shooting game of the season.

And I don't care. Just a great win!

[drsd]

Glass half-full stats: Orlando dominated on possessions. Orlando controlled the boards (47-to-39) and won the TO battle (10-16).

This resulted in 13 more FG attempts (97-to-84). And that's the game.



p.s. and speaking of awesome bench play, the bench had ONLY 2 TOs and ALSO 17 rebounds. No doubt what lead to the 56 points from the bench.

[drsd]

Orlando do is now currently only 2 Ws behind Washington for 3rd place in the SouthEast.

[drsd]

Four dribbles from the Bolarcoaster:

Watch on YouTube

[jezzerinho]

Good game. Tremendous effort in general. Paolo needs to up his defensive effort, but he's v young and has been trucking hard all season. Not surprised he's heavy-footed.
Who doesn't have any excuse to be heavy footed is Isaac. He looks soooo slow out there and the shooting touch doesn't look hugely improved. Playing him at the 3, as Mose isndoing, is not a option, imo.

A lot of missed layup from a lot of players. We could have been a lot further out of sight, so credit to the roster and especially the bench for a team win.

Gordon was outstanding. The rest of the Denver team, Joker included, didn't look mentally at the races. Starters deflated from not having added more depth at the deadline? Bench distracted about whether they were getting traded or not? Who knows.

Prob just another night where a playoff-boumd team can't build up the excitement for a game against a bottom dweller.

Take Orlando for granted at your peril. This team has a massive head of steam built up at this point.

[Ralof]

I'ts very simple: Fultz,Wendell and (i have to admit) Cole Anthony are the heart of this team.

We won because Denver was too sloppy in first half and that bench is abysmal,that ish smith-cancar combo was unplayable.
But kudos to us for the effort and to Mosley,cause he's always follow the flow of the game.

That said,with a normal FO in the summer we would be aggressive and look for a trade for a star,a reliable scorer,with 2-3 players and 2-3 picks we could add the player we need,if the right chance will be present.

Aaron gordon with 37 points on 15/21,i'll say no more