Denton: Magic-Hawks Postgame Analysis
By John Denton
November 26, 2009
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
ORLANDO -- Teammates like to make fun of Anthony Johnson’s no-frills wardrobe and his squeaky Southern accent and often the 35-year-old guard is referred to as ``Dad,’’ by the younger players on the Orlando Magic.
But on Thursday night, the Magic had a new name for their mostly forgotten veteran point guard: Savior.
Johnson took the reins of a Magic team up just two points starting the final period and scored 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter of Orlando’s gutsy, come-from-behind 93-76 victory against the red-hot Atlanta Hawks.
For an Orlando team that was coming off an excruciating last-second home loss a night before, this one qualified as a key victory. The Magic (12-4) were on the second night of a back-to-back, while the Hawks (11-4) came into the game having been off the past four days. And before Thursday, Atlanta had been unbeaten at home in seven games.
But Orlando wiped out a sluggish first half and a 14-point deficit with a dominant 54-25 second-half performance. The Magic swung the game in the third period with a 28-14 turnaround and then Johnson finished off the Hawks in the fourth period.
Johnson didn’t play last spring in the NBA Finals and was bumped to the third point guard role string much of this season. But with Jameer Nelson out following knee surgery and Jason Williams gassed after playing big minutes a night earlier, Johnson stepped in and gave the Magic just the burst of play-making that they needed.
``Anthony Johnson hadn’t played that much until (Thursday), but he almost played the entire second half, and he played well,’’ said Magic center Dwight Howard of Johnson, one of his regular targets for locker room humor. ``This team is not worried about who plays the most minutes, just about winning.’’
Here’s a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from one of Orlando’s most stirring victories of the season:
THE GOOD
---- Johnson showed how he’s been able to survive 13 NBA seasons and stints with seven different NBA teams. He just knows how to play, how to score and how to run a basketball team.
He started the fourth quarter off with a hard drive to the hoop, one in which he wisely flung the ball back over his head to Howard for an alley-oop dunk.
Then, on maybe the signature play of the night, Johnson hit another big shot. J.J. Redick came off a pick with the ball, swung it to Ryan Anderson, who moved it to Matt Barnes. Then, with the Atlanta defense out of position, Barnes found Johnson, who buried the 3-pointer from the corner that put Orlando up 74-67.
He followed that big shot up with two free throws, another 3-pointer and a nifty left-handed layup past Hawks shot-blocker Josh Smith to put the Magic up 82-71. Johnson’s shot sent Atlanta into another timeout and the Hawks’ second sellout crowd of the season heading for the exits.
Johnson made six of 10 shots, three of five 3-pointers and both of his free throws. He had 17 points, but more importantly the Magic were plus-14 in Johnson’s 21 minutes on the floor.
---- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy challenged Howard at halftime to shake out of his doldrums and the superstar center did just that in the second half.
He dominated every phase of the game over the final two quarters and finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots. The four blocked shots and the six offensive rebounds showed just how unstoppable and active Howard was down the stretch.
Howard started the second half with a three-point play and a sweeping left-handed hook and he was on his way to a big performance after mustering just six first-half points. He had five straight points midway through the third period – four on put-back dunks. And twice in the fourth quarter, Howard frustrated the Hawks by swatting the shots of Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams.
``I wasn’t happy with the way I played in the first half, but I came out in the second half and trusted my teammates,’’ Howard said. ``The last couple of games I haven’t been aggressive enough. (Thursday) I just kept asking for the ball, and we played inside-out and it was successful for us. It doesn’t matter if we’re down 20, we continue to fight. I think we’re a deep team.’’
---- Orlando’s defense was tremendously more active in the second half, contesting shots and running the Hawks off the 3-point line. Atlanta managed a measly 25 points in the third and fourth quarters and shot just 34 percent in the second half.
``We were like two different teams,’’ Van Gundy said. ``In the first half, our starting lineup looked like they didn’t even want to play, but our backups kept us in the game. When the starters went back in the game, they went through six minutes of sleep walking, and I had to ask them at the half, ‘Does anybody actually want to play?’ I knew if we wanted it bad enough, we would get thing back together.
Was Van Gundy ever right. Orlando turned it around in the second half because its defense was significantly better.
Said Van Gundy: ``Our defense played pretty good in the second half. That’s five straight games we’ve played pretty good on defense. Dwight was absolutely phenomenal in the second half. He was challenging every shot at the rim. He was working hard on the offensive end as well.’’
THE BAD
---- Atlanta’s offense was mostly a mess after halftime. Too often, the Hawks didn’t move the ball and just simply stood around and hoped that Joe Johnson would make a play. And when several of his shots rimmed out, the Hawks had a complete meltdown offensively.
At one point in the third quarter, the Magic forced nine consecutive misses from a Hawks team that carved up Orlando in the first half while jumping to a 51-39 lead at the break.
``We played totally different than we played in the first half,’’ Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said. ``We shot it, we moved the ball, we defended well in the first half. And it was like we forgot how we got the lead, and played so differently in the second half.
``I thought we became a jump shooting team in the third quarter,’’ Woodson continued. ``The game was still where we wanted it to be, they just made a heck of a run in the third quarter. We became a jump shooting team. We just couldn’t make shots like we did in the first half.’’
THE UGLY
---- The Magic were hit with three technical fouls in the first three quarters. Van Gundy was whistled for a T for continuing to argue an out-of-bounds call that referees incorrectly ruled had gone out of bounds off Magic star Vince Carter (21 points).
J.J. Redick was hit with a technical foul in the second period when he angrily reacted when he was called for a pushing foul while trying to defend the 6-foot-9 Marvin Williams on a pick-and-roll switch.
And Howard was called for his fifth technical foul of the season for gesturing at referee Mark Wunderlich when there was no foul call on one of his low-post moves.
---- Atlanta donned its ``alternate’’ A-T-L jerseys for the first time all season. But in the end it was the Hawks who were left seeing red by the Magic.
John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. His Orlando Magic ``Behind the Scenes’’ segment can be heard on ESPN 1080 AM on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. Submit questions to John for his ``Ask J.D.’’ mailbag feature that will appear every Friday at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
By John DentonNovember 26, 2009
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
ORLANDO -- Teammates like to make fun of Anthony Johnson’s no-frills wardrobe and his squeaky Southern accent and often the 35-year-old guard is referred to as ``Dad,’’ by the younger players on the Orlando Magic.
But on Thursday night, the Magic had a new name for their mostly forgotten veteran point guard: Savior.
Johnson took the reins of a Magic team up just two points starting the final period and scored 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter of Orlando’s gutsy, come-from-behind 93-76 victory against the red-hot Atlanta Hawks.
For an Orlando team that was coming off an excruciating last-second home loss a night before, this one qualified as a key victory. The Magic (12-4) were on the second night of a back-to-back, while the Hawks (11-4) came into the game having been off the past four days. And before Thursday, Atlanta had been unbeaten at home in seven games.
But Orlando wiped out a sluggish first half and a 14-point deficit with a dominant 54-25 second-half performance. The Magic swung the game in the third period with a 28-14 turnaround and then Johnson finished off the Hawks in the fourth period.
Johnson didn’t play last spring in the NBA Finals and was bumped to the third point guard role string much of this season. But with Jameer Nelson out following knee surgery and Jason Williams gassed after playing big minutes a night earlier, Johnson stepped in and gave the Magic just the burst of play-making that they needed.
``Anthony Johnson hadn’t played that much until (Thursday), but he almost played the entire second half, and he played well,’’ said Magic center Dwight Howard of Johnson, one of his regular targets for locker room humor. ``This team is not worried about who plays the most minutes, just about winning.’’
Here’s a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly from one of Orlando’s most stirring victories of the season:
THE GOOD
---- Johnson showed how he’s been able to survive 13 NBA seasons and stints with seven different NBA teams. He just knows how to play, how to score and how to run a basketball team.
He started the fourth quarter off with a hard drive to the hoop, one in which he wisely flung the ball back over his head to Howard for an alley-oop dunk.
Then, on maybe the signature play of the night, Johnson hit another big shot. J.J. Redick came off a pick with the ball, swung it to Ryan Anderson, who moved it to Matt Barnes. Then, with the Atlanta defense out of position, Barnes found Johnson, who buried the 3-pointer from the corner that put Orlando up 74-67.
He followed that big shot up with two free throws, another 3-pointer and a nifty left-handed layup past Hawks shot-blocker Josh Smith to put the Magic up 82-71. Johnson’s shot sent Atlanta into another timeout and the Hawks’ second sellout crowd of the season heading for the exits.
Johnson made six of 10 shots, three of five 3-pointers and both of his free throws. He had 17 points, but more importantly the Magic were plus-14 in Johnson’s 21 minutes on the floor.
---- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy challenged Howard at halftime to shake out of his doldrums and the superstar center did just that in the second half.
He dominated every phase of the game over the final two quarters and finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots. The four blocked shots and the six offensive rebounds showed just how unstoppable and active Howard was down the stretch.
Howard started the second half with a three-point play and a sweeping left-handed hook and he was on his way to a big performance after mustering just six first-half points. He had five straight points midway through the third period – four on put-back dunks. And twice in the fourth quarter, Howard frustrated the Hawks by swatting the shots of Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams.
``I wasn’t happy with the way I played in the first half, but I came out in the second half and trusted my teammates,’’ Howard said. ``The last couple of games I haven’t been aggressive enough. (Thursday) I just kept asking for the ball, and we played inside-out and it was successful for us. It doesn’t matter if we’re down 20, we continue to fight. I think we’re a deep team.’’
---- Orlando’s defense was tremendously more active in the second half, contesting shots and running the Hawks off the 3-point line. Atlanta managed a measly 25 points in the third and fourth quarters and shot just 34 percent in the second half.
``We were like two different teams,’’ Van Gundy said. ``In the first half, our starting lineup looked like they didn’t even want to play, but our backups kept us in the game. When the starters went back in the game, they went through six minutes of sleep walking, and I had to ask them at the half, ‘Does anybody actually want to play?’ I knew if we wanted it bad enough, we would get thing back together.
Was Van Gundy ever right. Orlando turned it around in the second half because its defense was significantly better.
Said Van Gundy: ``Our defense played pretty good in the second half. That’s five straight games we’ve played pretty good on defense. Dwight was absolutely phenomenal in the second half. He was challenging every shot at the rim. He was working hard on the offensive end as well.’’
THE BAD
---- Atlanta’s offense was mostly a mess after halftime. Too often, the Hawks didn’t move the ball and just simply stood around and hoped that Joe Johnson would make a play. And when several of his shots rimmed out, the Hawks had a complete meltdown offensively.
At one point in the third quarter, the Magic forced nine consecutive misses from a Hawks team that carved up Orlando in the first half while jumping to a 51-39 lead at the break.
``We played totally different than we played in the first half,’’ Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said. ``We shot it, we moved the ball, we defended well in the first half. And it was like we forgot how we got the lead, and played so differently in the second half.
``I thought we became a jump shooting team in the third quarter,’’ Woodson continued. ``The game was still where we wanted it to be, they just made a heck of a run in the third quarter. We became a jump shooting team. We just couldn’t make shots like we did in the first half.’’
THE UGLY
---- The Magic were hit with three technical fouls in the first three quarters. Van Gundy was whistled for a T for continuing to argue an out-of-bounds call that referees incorrectly ruled had gone out of bounds off Magic star Vince Carter (21 points).
J.J. Redick was hit with a technical foul in the second period when he angrily reacted when he was called for a pushing foul while trying to defend the 6-foot-9 Marvin Williams on a pick-and-roll switch.
And Howard was called for his fifth technical foul of the season for gesturing at referee Mark Wunderlich when there was no foul call on one of his low-post moves.
---- Atlanta donned its ``alternate’’ A-T-L jerseys for the first time all season. But in the end it was the Hawks who were left seeing red by the Magic.
John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. His Orlando Magic ``Behind the Scenes’’ segment can be heard on ESPN 1080 AM on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. Submit questions to John for his ``Ask J.D.’’ mailbag feature that will appear every Friday at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
