Magic at Hawks
THE STORY: Imagine how the Orlando Magic’s series with the Atlanta Hawks might shape up if they didn’t employ Dwight Howard. Game 3 of the first-round series moves to Atlanta on Friday and Howard will seek a third consecutive monster outing in the series that is tied at 1-1. The Orlando center is averaging 39.5 points, 19 rebounds and shooting 71.4 percent from the field through two games. Howard had 33 points and 19 rebounds in the Game 2 victory to follow up a 46-point, 19-rebound effort in Game 1, won by Atlanta.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2, FSS
ABOUT THE MAGIC: Getting Howard some help is a big-time priority. Jameer Nelson scored 27 points in the opener but made just 4 of 15 shots in Game 2 while scoring 13 points. Hedu Turkoglu scored 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting – dropping him to 6 of 25 in the series – and Jason Richardson was a nonfactor with eight points on 3-of-12 shooting. Orlando continues to struggle from 3-point range against the Hawks. The Magic is shooting 24.4 percent in the series after shooting just 22.6 in four regular-season contests against Atlanta. J.J. Redick is just back from an abdominal injury and is playing more minutes per game (18.9) than struggling Gilbert Arenas (9.2). Orlando shot just 34.6 percent from the field in Game 2 and received a boost by outscoring Atlanta 29 to 11 from the free-throw line.
ABOUT THE HAWKS: All-Star forward Al Horford played just two minutes of Tuesday’s first half due to foul trouble and was less than thrilled with his lengthy stay on the bench. Horford averaged 35 minutes per game in the regular season without fouling out and felt his track record afforded him the chance to avoid receiving a third foul. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. Sixth man Jamal Crawford scored a team-high 25 points for his second consecutive 20-point outing. Josh Smith contributed 17 points and Joe Johnson tallied 14. Jason Collins is starting at center because he is supposed to help slow down Howard. Instead, Howard is scoring at will and Collins has grabbed just one rebound in two games.
WHO'S HOT/WHO’S NOT: Crawford is averaging 24 points and has made 7 of 12 3-point shots in the first two contests. Richardson is averaging just six points while shooting 5-for-20 over the two games.
KEY STATISTIC: Orlando had 20 offensive rebounds (eight by Howard) while outrebounding Atlanta 52-39 in Game 2.
LAST WORD: “Our offense will come. Guys are going to start making shots. (We) have to continue to believe in ourselves. I’m not too worried about the offensive end. I think this series is going to be about the defense and we have to get some stops.” – Howard on the lack of scoring support from his teammates.