H o o p s C o r n e r . c o m
-------------------- December 09, 2003 Orlando's Magic
The Orlando Magic who had lost 19 straight NBA games since winning their opener have once again found the thrill of victory yesterday in Orlando. Their record so far, 2-19. Their victory came against the Phoenix Suns, who have been in a similar situation before (double digit loosing streak), who also have a player with jersey #1, who used to play for the Magic, and - gasp - was heavily counted on to lead the francise to the promised land... O.K, O.K Penny Hardaway as a Magic had publicly stated (and personally to Michael Jordan) that he will lead the league in scoring with a 40 point per game average before the 97-98 season. The only scoring he lead in, was familiarity points with the trainer's knife. Tracy McGrady has already done it without any fanfare with a modest 32ppg. The game score was 105-98. High scoring in today's game. Orlando had 4 players score at least 15 or more points. Shawn Marion had 29 and Penny Hardaway 22 for the Suns. Indeed for the Magic to win they need to score. Discreetly engage their adversary in a scoring race, if that's possible. So far their opponents this season have averaged nearly 10 more points than the Magic. The source of the problem - Juwan Howard. Yes folks you read it first at HoopsCorner.com. It's problably no secret we haven't been a big fan of his since the 99-00 season, but we're trying to make a legit claim here. Howard came aboard because the Magic were looking to sign somebody who would be vice-president to McGrady's presidency in scoring. And so far he's doing just that. But while McGrady has to give up the ball more this time around, it has also disrupted his game rhythm. He's barely converting 40 percent of his shots. But all that wouldn't matter if he had a bona fide second scorer. Juwan Howard is just averaging over 14 points a game. We'll take a guess and say the team probably expected more. With another scorer McGrady has to give up being aggressive all the time to allow the scorer to take the load off of his shoulder. But when the second scorer isn't carrying his complete share of the load that leaves a gap unfulfilled, because the primary option is doing a tad less than he should. That gap is what the 19 opponents have exploited to make a glaring embarassment. The Phoenix suns had a double digit loosing streak in the 96-97 season after Sir Charles left. A few trades later (with Jason Kidd on board) they had another double digit streak - of winning - and made the playoffs. -------------------- Next: Rockets retouched Previous: 2002 draft overview Back to articles index Back to top
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