Tonight the Orlando Magic go into the United Center to face the driven Chicago Bulls in a contrasting match up. The Orlando Magic are not the most defensively sound team, nor do they have the offensive capability to take full control of games. The Orlando Magic I feel are fully dependent on their 3 point shooting, and their effort from Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard's effort is inevitable, he's most likely going to get a double double every night and that's alright for teams to face. The problems where most teams have against Orlando is with Ryan Anderson drifting along the 3 point line bringing their 4's outside to defend his 3 point shot. Chicago has won it's last 9 games out of 10. Last night Derrick Rose hit a game winner on Brandon Jennings, and I believe the Bulls are going to take their momentum from last night to contain the Magic. The Magic in their last 10 are 6-4 which isn't too bad, although they do tend to lose focus. On March 6, the Magic played in Charlotte against the Bobcats where the Bobcats won by 16 points. Is this enough for the Magic to come out tonight and play strong to find the motivation to try to get through the post season? Or is it foreshadowing the speculation that Dwight Howard is going to be traded by the deadline and it's time to start building the franchise over? The Magic as a team shoot 38.7% from distance, grab 43.3 rebounds, and average 15.2 turnovers per game. In order to keep this game close, or even win the game outright the Magic are going to have to shoot the 3 ball at a high percentage and prevent Chicago from getting out into the open court. The Bulls have a good enough center in Joakim Noah to try to defend Dwight in the paint, and also have Luol Deng, Ronnie Brewer and Taj Gibson on defense to guard Ryan Anderson and Hedo Turkoglu at the 3 point line. Derrick Rose is self explanatory because we know that he's going to come out and perform at the best of his ability every night and after that game winner from last night, I expect him to have humble arrogance and be on his high horse ready to play tonight. Tonight the Bulls are going to have to swarm the 3 point line, have all men going for loose balls and rebounds, and let Joakim Noah play Dwight straight up and initiate help defense when necessary in order to get the win. The Orlando Magic are going through their ups and downs, and tonight could be one of those nights where Orlando shows up. But I also took into account that the Bulls are playing like a championship caliber team with their mission on mind, and they aren't going to let other teams get wins easily on their home court. I think the Bulls win the game outright, and cover the spread.
Result: I'm not the biggest Dwight Howard fan, and I personally I still think Andrew Bynum is the better center but today, Dwight had an impressive show out against the Bulls on the road. Dwight went 11/19 from the field to score 29 points and got 18 rebounds for a double double. The Magic as a team went 11/26 from the 3 point line shooting at 42.3%, 4% better than their average which we said would most likely be the statistic that could keep the Bulls at bay. Ryan Anderson went 3/8 from the 3, and Jason Richardson went 4/6 from distance. The Magic at half were only up 5 due to a Bulls comeback in the last 3 minutes of the game led by Derrick Rose after being down by as much as 15 points. Carlos Boozer had a good night with 26 points and 7 rebounds, and Derrick Rose struggled with 17 points going 6/22 from the field although he did have 9 assists finding his team mates. The Bulls bench played a solid game with a good effort from Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver, but the starters looked uninterested and fatigued during the game. The Bulls have the best record in the east and they've won and done more than enough in a tight season to lose a game without criticism. The Magic let go of a lead, but it was enough to win against the Bulls on the road 99-94. The next time these two meet, I'm expecting a completely different game than the one that happened this past Thursday. It's not often the Bulls lose at home and Derrick Rose is always going to give his best effort despite things not going his way. Chicago goes to Orlando on March 19, and the Bulls being the best revenge team in the league and Joakim Noah probably being the funniest trash talker in the league.. I expect this game to have playoff vibes.
12-5-1
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