Toronto Raptors vs. Orlando Magic - NBA Preview
Toronto Raptors will be hosting the Monday night game against Orlando Magic at Air Canada Centre, eyeing to grab their 13th win of the season on March 5th 2012.
However it seems like a far cry especially against Orlando, in retrospect to their last encounter on January 1st.
Magic used some brilliant clutch shooting to edge out Toronto 102-96, doing so by shaving off a 16 points deficit to gain a 94-89 advantage with only 3:05 left in hand. Dwight Howard was impressive as ever with 19 points and 15 rebounds that time. Most significantly, Magic connected on 4- for-5 from downtown in the ensuing passage with Ryan Anderson making 2 of them.
Close losses have been a trend for the Raps this season and they will be looking to address this situation come Monday night. Even though Dwight Howard has been bugged by the trade rumours, he remains as a centrepiece for Magic with 20.4 points per game and he leads NBA with 15.0 rebounds per game.
Magic have been deadly with 3-pointers this season. They have made 1,003 3-point attempts netting 39.0% of them. J.J. Redick, Chris Duhon along with Ryan Anderson have been scoring 42% from down town and on the night, the Raps will have to challenge the Magic sharp shooters.
Anderson who came up with 24 points and chipped in with five 3 pointers in the game against Raptors earlier is ready for the game.
“We're a tough team to guard, because you have to pick your poison, if you want to double-team on Dwight (Howard) and take him out of the game, you're going to leave open one of our shooters."
This does not mean that Magic will run away with the game. In Linas Kleiza and Jose Calderon, the Raps also possess exceptional shooting prowess and the matchup between the sharp shooters from both sides will be a treat to watch.
Raptors come into the game having outgunned Golden State Warriors, 83-75 on Sunday mainly due to strong defence in the second half and it will be that defence that might well lead them to an otherwise unlikely win. Moreover they will have to fight against the fatigue as playing back to back games has its repercussions deep in the game.
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