The Orlando Magic cruise past the Indiana Pacers with a 92 – 74 win
The Orlando Magic restricted the Indiana Pacers to just 30.7 percent shooting from the field to hand them a 92 -74 loss on April 13, 2011 at the Amway Center in Orlando.
The Magic held the Pacers to just 29 points in the first half to record the easy win and end their regular season on a high. Orlando won four of its last five games heading into the playoffs.
Indiana looked troubled but the Magic didn’t lag too far behind as they helped their opposition by committing an unprecedented 28 turnovers, which the Pacers then converted into 27 points.
Ryan Anderson led the Magic with 14 points; Dwight Howard had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Hedo Turkoglu also chipped by scoring 13 points.
Both teams were resting players in preparation for the upcoming playoffs. The Magic rested guards J.J Redick and Gilbert Arenas, while the Pacers rested forwards Danny Granger and Jeff Foster.
The Pacers clearly needed Granger to put up a fight against the formidable Orlando Magic, but Pacers Coach Frank Vogel was hopeful the rest would promise a good showing from him in the upcoming first-round playoff clash against the Chicago Bulls.
“We certainly didn't want to be blown out the way we were,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “We wanted to be more competitive than we were. We played to win with the guys we had on the court. We just didn't play well enough.”
Coach Vogel was hopeful his team will be well rested and ready for the daunting matchup against the best team in the league.
“We are going to have to turn it up another notch,” Indiana’s Roy Hibbert said. “Chicago is a very good team. We are just going to go up there and play really, really hard.”
Orlando grabbed an early 20 – 9 lead when Dwight Howard converted two-free throws at the 3:16 mark in the first quarter. Indiana made a couple of shots before Ryan Anderson responded with eight straight points for Orlando to finish the quarter.
Indiana sparked off a 12 – 3 run at the start of the second period capped by back-to-back three pointers by Brandon Rush to cut into the Magic lead. Orlando countered by outscoring the Pacer 20 – 3 run the rest of the period to put the game away for good.
Orlando led 57 -31 at the 10:47 mark in the third quarter; their biggest lead of the game. Later in the period Mike Dunleavy poured in 13 straight points to cut the Magic lead to 12 points with close to two minutes left on the clock.
The Pacers outscored the Magic 26 -18 in the third to slice the deficit somewhat, but they couldn’t overcome their poor showing in the first half and went on to lose the matchup.
Mike Dunleavy and Brandon Rush led the charge for the Pacers by putting up 16 points apiece while Tyler Hansbrough contributed nine points.
Tags: