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A win tonight would keep the Magic 2 games ahead of the Pistons who are just outside the 8th seed looking in. A loss however would tie up the two organization's 2015-2016 records.

The Pistons come into tonight's game 5-5 over the last 10 games compared to 6-4 for Orlando.

Look for Orlando to struggle to keep Drummond's dominance of the boards at bay. He is averaging over 19 rebounds per game over the last 3 games and is sitting on season averages of over 18/16 a game.

Detroit is a disciplined defensive team so don't expect many foul calls to go Orlando's way tonight.

Injury Notes-

Both starting point guards have ankle issues.

Jackson's rolled ankle heightens PG intrigue: Brandon Jennings may be in line for an increased role faster than he thinks. Detroit Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson rolled his left ankle with 2:20 left in Saturday's 94-82 loss to the Indiana Pacers, and while he remained in the game the rest of the way, he was in clear discomfort and how the injury responds overnight remains to be seen. -

Payton, meanwhile, was kicked in the ankle area and his status for tonight's game remains unclear. He sat out a rare back-to-back practice on Sunday.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JoshuaBRobbins/status/684013127223119872[/tweet]

Possible Lineup Change Coming for Orlando

In the second time in a span of a few weeks, Orlando coach Scott Skiles hinted after Orlando's loss to the Cavaliers Saturday that the club may look to a new lineup to overcome energy issues to start games. The team has tried to plug holes and has done so effectively, only to have new holes open up and start leaking shortly thereafter. It is unclear if there is a way to plug some glaring weaknesses with the current combination of players on the roster.

*Found a relevant article, BS must be reading my posts.*

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/magic-basketblog/os-magic-scott-skiles-coaching-moves-20160103-post.html

The Lookout

The Pistons like the pick and roll, and Reggie Jackson runs it often and steady. More than 50% of his plays are pick and roll, and he converts at 0.83 PPP. He attempts to score on ~80% of his pick and roll plays so our guard defense will need to be on point tonight.

The Opposing Coach

On the other end of the court ex-Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, best seen here in his natural setting:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztY0oxObXI[/youtube]

Our Coach

"When we talked to the guys this morning about if we have any intention of playing in the postseason or having a chance of winning a series, generally you don't win a (playoff) game 120-111," Skiles told the Magic's official website. "You might win one game, but generally it's 96-91. If we don't understand that now, there won't be a postseason anyway."

The coach said he may re-insert Victor Oladipo into the starting lineup. Oladipo, averaging 12.4 points, has come off the bench the last 20 games.

This is actually a very important game. We are somewhat similar, a young team trying to get back into the playoffs for the first time in a while. We are fighting with this Det team for a playoff spot so this would be an important win, specially in April. We need to win this game.

Just updated with new quotes from Skiles, who said he may insert Oladipo back into the starting lineup tonight. Although it may be for Payton, we don't know, and may not know until much closer to tipoff.

Victor has been our most consistent energy guy. That’s something that we can count on,’’ Skiles said on Sunday. ``I’m not leery of (changing his role). It’s something that we may do. Victor is our best on-the-ball defender. Over (eight) games and you have a precipitous drop like that, we have to address the defensive end.

We need to get Payton healthy. The team has just not been right for the past few games with Payton clearly not at his best.

Another tough gane for the team.. I predicted a 4 or 5 game losing skid for the team so I'm going to say we loss this one as well.. obviously I would love a W but I feel like Detroit will kill us on the boards and they have 3 points shooters.. either way GO MAGIC

Payton needs to rest to get healthy because he is important

I love that quote from Skiles about winning 96-91 in the playoffs. I'm fully on board with a lineup change. Let's get back to that top 5 defense we wanted to start the season.

If we miss the playoffs because of it, then we weren't ready anyway.

Drummond is going to get so many offensive rebounds. I'm scared to watch.

Skiles won eastern conference coach of the month for December.

I watched that video: goddamn do i love Stan

stan is the best coach ever.

I'm hoping AG cracks the starting lineup and get more opportunities. We'll finally be able to see AG and Tobias play together for an extended period.

Looking forward to this one. I've caught bits and pieces of Magic games this year but excited to see a full one. I like your guys' roster a lot!

Just win.


..

I do miss Stan a tad but Skiles is on point and iron sharpens iron so lets see what pur guys are made of

Got a feeling Jennings is going to go off

Hoping either Gordon or Oladipo make the starting lineup tonight. In no particular order. I do think starting oladipo should give him another push possibly but if i HAD to choose one ifd be aaron

Starting or not, we already know how Oladipo is going to play. He's going to try to pound the ball and chuck his way out of his shooting slump.

GameOver25 wrote:Starting or not, we already know how Oladipo is going to play. He's going to try to pound the ball and chuck his way out of his shooting slump.

For the sake of a win, lets hope you're wrong. We should be able to win this -- but Elf's not been playing like himself with this injury, so the game can go either way. I am curious about this line-up change, any new word on it yet, or still a wait and see thing?

If at any point Oladipo starts at PG over a fully healthy Elfrid Payton, I'll be the first to start a fire Skiles thread. If Oladipo starts at PG, I hope it's because Payton is sitting out.