Orlando Magic head to the Salt Lake City for a gripping contest
"You can't coach energy. You can't coach hard work. It comes from a player. If you don't want to play hard, you've got to sit down and let somebody else step up."
A visibly perturbed Dwight Howard said in a post match conference, as the Orlando Magic lost their third game in a row after putting in a spineless performance against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The phenomenal 6ft 11in center was in an unforgiving mood as his team failed to back up his season best performance of 39 points and 15 rebounds, and instead let a 14 point first quarter advantage slip, to slump to their seventh defeat of the season.
To make matters worse, they face the red hot Utah Jazz next. The comeback kings of the season so far, are currently 8-1 for the season against Eastern Conference opposition, with their lone defeat coming against the resurgent Miami Heat on Wednesday. The
team which boasts the Western Conference player of the month Deron Williams, will however be looking to resurrect their impressive record, as they take on a stuttering Orlando Magic at the Energy Solutions Arena, come Friday night.
Utah is 25-19 all-time against Orlando with a 14-7 record at home and 11-12 record on the road. Last season, both the teams split the series following a 0-2 sweep the previous year by Orlando.
Utah though had the better of Orlando the first time both the teams met this season. The match, second in a string of comeback victories, sparked the Utah outfit to the best November in the franchise’s history. The Jazz offense exploded in the fourth quarter
to cast a spell over the Magic. Dwight Howard scored 21 points, as Utah overcame an 18-point deficit down the stretch to defeat Orlando 104-94.
In the clash of the titans, Utah will definitely have the edge as they come into the match with all the momentum, but the team from Salt Lake City has its weaknesses. The Jazz are one of the very few teams in the league who are rebounding at less than 40.
Their post weakness was emphatically exploited by the Miami Heat, and the presence of Dwight Howard who is spearheading the league with 12.2 boards, in the opposition camp will offer a tough proposition for the Jazz forwards Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap.
This is one problem definitely bugging the Jazz hierarchy, as Deron Williams said prior to Thursday's practice, "We've always been a good rebounding team since I've been here, I don't know why (we're not now), but we've got to do a better job."
The Magic are the league leaders in term of points allowed and just do not provide any space for the opposition offence. Even in their Thursday night defeat against the Trail Blazers, they did not allow 100 points, and will definitely have the upper hand
in defence.
The dilemma for the Magic though is their shooting rate, which eventually affects the points they score. Except for Dwight Howard who has been letting it rip at 25.3 points per game on a 58.5 percent shooting, the rest of the Orlando starters have been struggling
of late. Without Howard’s efforts, the Magic were reduced to 33.3 percent shooting in the last match against the Trail Blazers, and this is one area they definitely will have to improve on.
Verdict
For most of the teams it is fast becoming a strategy to let Howard flow, while keeping the rest of the Orlando team pinned down. Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, has to make sure that the one man show for Orlando is not repeated come Friday night, if the Magic
want to arrest their slide this season as they face off against the high flying Utah Jazz.
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