Clyde said Dwight was healthy umpteenthgallion times tonight. He looked very healthy. Can maybe everyone chill on Dwight being healthy? Charlie Palilio? Clutchfans? National Media? The guy is ok, okay? We are finally deep enough to be smart with rest.
All the matches the Magic have played in the regular season so far have been close games against likely playoff teams.
We can't afford for Howard to not play? Our defense is no where to be found without him. And f mchale
Dwight is never going to be Orlando-Dwight anymore but tonight, he was pretty close and that is the Dwight we need to win, especially if Harden is struggling. This team has a long way to go. Offense, except for last minutes where it became iso heavy, made some great improvements. Lawson handled the ball way more and that really opened things up for us. The moment Harden lets Lawson do his thing more, will be the moment we will really take off. Defensively, we are a mess. Just doesn't look like we have any sort of game plan or fundaments defensively right now. No identity.
Exactly...we definitely made it more difficult than it needed to be but Orlando has played everyone tough like this...kinda what I expected.
Crazy When Dwight defends and STAYS IN THE FREAKING GAME, we are a different beast. Without any big in the middle we suck so bad its not even funny. Really need Donatas back. Like seriously. Where on earth is TJ by the way?
Happy with the win. Ty needs the ball in his hands until Harden gets over what ever he is going through. I think Ty can be even more aggressive. The game was almost lost when Montrezl came in as the small ball 5 in the 3rd. He either too small or just way too inexperienced to play that position right now. Mchale probably should have just called a timeout to rest Capela so he could play the whole 3rd or put in Chuck. 3-6 minutes of Chuck and Rockets probably don't lose the lead in the 3rd and go to overtime.
Loved Dwight and how we(didn't) used him. No forcing it into him for stupid post ups that just lead to bricks and turnovers. Get him on the roll for lobs and layups and have him feast on put backs and he can be an uber efficient defensive machine.
And he actually closed out on defense. That was the big difference imo. I can support his poor shooting performances etc. but when he doesn't play with heart like he occasionally did in the playoffs then I'm going to get on his case.