No, Coach Hill is a sandbagger.

Lol, yeah Dwight is funny tell him to go work on his free-throws.

unlike milwaukee and philly the previous 2 years, the magic don't have that 'one' guy who can steal a game from us, like AI and Redd. dhoward should be good practice in case we have to play shaq in round 2.

Exactly. I got the impression that they were watching the end of that game hoping that the Wiz would lose so they would not have to face the Pistons. Since it happened they all made light of it.

Also remember guys. There are no matchups that favor the Magic except Howard and the Pistons know how to shut him down. They did a very good job at that in the last game.

I think we are going to sweep this one. Lot of built up aggression over last years dissapointment and the Magic just happen to be here.

Love D. Howard, but he can't shoot free throws, he consistently gets traveling calls and have no mid range game to speak of.

CB owns Jameer Nelson.

If this series is not a sweep, I would be totally surprised, and if the Magic wins this series, the Magic did not beat us, we beat ourselves.

5 Opponents to watch

Who will win? I pick Detroit in 4, but I do not expect the games to be easy.

Orlando and Detroit are very similar in one respect, no consistency. For Brian Hill's team, thats largely due to injuries this season, but also due to the flucuating performances of some of his team. Orlando started out 1-2 as Ariza was injured to begin the season. Ariza came back, got stronger, and soon Orlando was winning and winning a lot. But Ariza then got injured and missed pretty much all the mid-season. And Orlando struggled a whole lot. Ariza is the guy on Orlando who gets to all the loose balls, guards the opponents best wing player, and is just basically the guy that is the glue holding Orlando's rotations together. Ariza is fully healthy at the moment.

Turkoglu had a horrid season in all. He has had a nagging health issue most of the season. He does not know exactly what is going on, but feelings of nausea and fatigue plagued him most of the season. The result is that he shot horribly, and basically lost a lot of games from his poor play. Of late, Turkoglu seems fine, and is back to knocking down a very high percentage of his shots, especially three pointers. Turkoglu playing healthy is a huge key to success for Orlando, as it allows Orlando to use him at the power forward spot with success. Ariza can end up playing most of the small forward minutes.

Since Darko has that ankle injury, this is just that much more important. After Orlando's first 3 bigs, the talent level falls off to nothing. Bo Outlaw has lots of experience, but nothing left in the tank these days. He can still rebound and thats it. then you got Garrity, who just can't help any NBA team anymore. Don't expect to see him play unless Orlando has very serious foul trouble.

Darko had 20 straight games as a starter for Orlando while Battie was injured. Orlando did not do well. Ariza was injured or returning from injury during this stretch. Darko had to tiptoe around on D, knowing there was not backup really if he got in foul trouble. Turk could not hit a shot. Orlando was forced to play Bo Outlaw and even Garrity some. But despite the losses, Darko was gaining valuable experience. Now Darko is playing less minutes, but those minutes see him way more under control vs. the beginning of the season. You can also expect to see a very aggressive Darko on defense, because he is not starting and does not need to worry that much about fouls.

Howard can be stopped. But you have to double team the guy. When Darko is in the game, manning the other post, this becomes difficult. Darko is looking for a pass from Howard and will dunk the ball on you. On offense, if Darko can't go because of that ankle, it will hurt Orlando quite a bit.

So we see a lot of changes up front for Orlando for the season. Turk ill. Darko in and out of the starting lineup. Ariza injured much of the year. Battie out for a long stretch.

For the guards, just as much turmoil. Nelson has been the most consistent part of the backcourt, but even he has not been able to consistently hold onto his minutes. Nelson is weak on defense, although he can chase small quick guards aound ok. Sometimes he can shoot up a storm, and other times he can shoot his team out of a game. Not much of a play maker, a lot of people really don't think Nelson should be the starting point for Orlando. In this series, look for Nelson to run away from the slower Billups. Nelson will get inside on you, and if you are unlucky, he will can his outside shots. With Webber being no shotblocker, we can expect Nelson will do a lot of inside scoring on us.

The backup for most of the year to Nelson has been Arroyo. Arroyo had quite a shooting slump earlier in the year. That combined with the simple fact that Orlando was losing too much made coach Hill go in a different direction. But with or without Arroyo, Orlando just kept losing. The problem was not Arroyo. Arroyo has had some pretty good games of late and is now back in the rotation, helping Orlando to finish 5 of 6, with their only loss being to Detroit. Arroyo is a true point guard, a pass first point guard if he has his preference-but Orlando's way means Arroyo is called on to be a scorer. On that score, again, he had quite a long slump midseason but otherwise can score on you.

This is Grant Hill's first "full" season back from injury. He shows flashes of good O from the start, but tended to fade in 2nd halves of games. And he did not help his team overall as his D was pretty lame. He was back, but not all back. But lately, just this past few weeks really, Hill looks rejuvenated. He can beat you on his first step and finish at the basket very well, even against a lot of defense. And he makes his shots, in both halves. Look for Hill to be a problem. We may have to replace Webber in the starting unit and put someone in just to address Hill to keep him from scoring on us too much.

Reddick is a rookie who can shoot. He hustles a lot too, but is not ready for major minutes at the moment. Maybe if they started playing him earlier, who knows. But for the moment only expect to see Reddick breifly in each game. Diener is another point guard who got into the rotation a bit mid-season. He can defend and shoot very well, so don't be suprised at all if he pops up in this series.

Bogans has been in and out of the rotation. He is also the guy most likely to start when Hill does not play (which was about 28 games this season.) Bogans is their best defender in the backcourt, and he can score too. We have no idea what to expect Brian Hill will do with Bogans' minutes for this series. He is very ready to play.

Dooling is not really a point guard, but Orlando used him there quite a bit toward the end of the season. Dooling is a clutch shooter. He will also score inside well. While his point guard skills are minimal, he does have some. A pretty good defender, and decent scorer, Dooling could see anywhere to no time or major minutes in this series.

Battie, well, he is ok, experienced at least of defense. Sometimes he can score for you, but the other team has to be ignoring him for this to happen. Not the best, but he provides depth at his position.

As you can see, the backcourt was in just as much turmoil as the frontcourt for Orlando this year. What exactly to expect from them in this series, well, you would have to read Brian Hill's mind for that I guess. But one thing you should note from all this. Orlando has a roster full of players who have played minutes this season. And nearly all of them are healthy and ready to go. Just Darko has that ankle injury, and last I heard, that might not be very serious an injury at all. The Pistons had better come to play, cause Orlando surely will.

This is fantastic stuff lee. Thanks.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I will give the Magic game three that's it.