Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog has once again coordinated a massive NBA team-specific blogger preview mission. For your convenience, here are links to the various previews of Southwest Division teams:

Dallas Mavericks
Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets
grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake  

Memphis Grizzlies
Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets
Rohan: At the Hive
ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype
Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs
Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

Stay tuned for more previews as we get closer to the start of the season.

The Orlando Magic easily dispatched CSKA Moscow last night by a final score of 94-66. Take a look at the boxscore here.

Here's a quick look at the Four Factors:

The Magic have yet to out-perform their opponents on the offensive glass this preseason. Not a good sign.

For the rest of this recap, I'm going to crib from a format the guys at Blazer's Edge, SB Nation's Portland Trail Blazers blog, use in their recaps.

Individual observations for the starters:

• Dwight Howard lead the way for Orlando, as expected. CSKA Moscow had no answer for the Magic's franchise center, who tallied game-highs in points (28), rebounds (10), and steals (5) in only 28 minutes. He showed improved footwork in the paint, although it's unclear to me if the talent disparity between him and his defenders had something to do with it. After the game, coach Stan Van Gundy praised Howard's intensity and approach. He also said that Dwight has, in general, taken a more serious attitude in practice. John Denton has more on this encouraging-for-us-slash-discouraging-for-every-other-team-in-the-league story here. Because I'm so pleased with this development, I'll go ahead and re-print my favorite quote from the piece:

  "I'm trying to be more serious and show everybody that it's about business when we're on the floor," Howard said. "Then, after it's over we can have fun."

  Hot damn.

• Hedo Turkoglu also got on-track tonight, but only in the offensive sense of the phrase. He scored 16 points on 9 shots, but did not tally a single rebound in 23 minutes. A 6'10" forward playing against a team that couldn't shoot straight (29-of-71 on the night) should manage to grab a few rebounds, right?
• Rashard Lewis simply had an off game. His legs weren't under him, as he shot 5-of-14 from the field overall and 0-for-5 on three-pointers. What I liked, though, was his intensity. He did not appear to take the competition lightly, and could be seen cursing himself after losing the ball out of bounds on one possession. That display of emotion from the usually stoic Lewis indicated (at least to me; I'm not a psychologist) that he was at least engaged in the game. It was not a question of effort tonight for Rashard; he just had a bad night.
• Mickael Pietrus didn't do much, but then again, he hardly touched the ball on offense. His lone field goal came thanks to a gorgeous lob from backup point guard Anthony Johnson. Pietrus noticed his defender was napping, cut along the baseline, elevated, and threw down a reverse dunk with both hands. The play got the languid crowd on its feat and prompted Simon the Music Guy to play the SportsCenter theme over the P.A. Pietrus also blocked 2 shots from the weak-side and played good on-ball defense. Moscow ran the same pick-and-roll play on the right side several times, and each time the screener nearly flattened Pietrus, and each time he busted his butt to get through the screen anyway. Dude plays hard.
• Jameer Nelson had the sort of night that his detractors, of whom there are many, love to point to. Although he grabbed 4 rebounds and handed out 4 assists, he did not select his shots very well and went 1-for-6 from the field as a result. He only turned the ball over once (on a silly, forced fast-break pass to Keith Bogans in the right corner) but that number doesn't tell the whole story. He picked up his dribble too early at times. Coach Stan Van Gundy had several animated discussions with him on the sideline. Not a good night for Jameer.

Observations of the team's reserves, of the team as a whole, and of in-arena happenings after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

2008/2009 NBA Preseason
	@
0-0		1-1
October 10th, 2008
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
No TV
Probable starters:
J.R. Holden	PG	Jameer Nelson
Trajan Langdon	SG	Mickael Pietrus
Ramunas Siskauskas	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Matjaz Smodis	PF	Rashard Lewis
David Andersen	C	Dwight Howard

Okay, I took a stab at naming Moscow's starters based on its website, but I'm only reasonably sure of the backcourt. You can count on J.R. Holden and Trajan Langdon being in the starting lineup tonight.

The last time the Magic faced an international team, they won easily, defeating Team China by a score of 116-92.

In today's Orlando Sentinel, Kyle Hightower has a piece about European basketball teams' appeal to American-born players. Meanwhile, John Denton has a roundup of sorts, which includes this quote from Brian Cook, who disputes the notion that he's out-of-shape, as Stan Van Gundy said he was earlier this week:

"I've lost 10 pounds from last season and I'm in good shape, but all I can concentrate on is the stuff that I can control."

Stuff like his jump shot, maybe. Again, Cookie Monster shot 1-for-10 against Charlotte. I know it's only the preseason, but still...

Anyone else hoping for a Marcin Gortat sighting tonight? And how about at least taking a look at Dwayne Jones and Jeremy Richardson?

Tip's at 7, but once again it doesn't appear as though the game will be televised. Bummer.

Go Magic.

• Otis Smith is taking off for the next nine days to scout NBA teams in nine different cities, says John Denton.

  Whoa.

  There are two kinds of scouting: the kind in which you look at your opponent's strategy in advance of playing them, and the kind in which you look at specific players to see gauge your interest in acquiring them. The former job is reserved for, uh, scouts and assistant coaches, so I can only assume Otis is doing the latter. Brian Schmitz thinks Otis might be looking for a power forward.

• The previously linked Denton post says the Magic may choose to start the season with only 13 players under contract, which would mean not signing camp invitees Dwayne Jones, Jeremy Richardson, or Mike Wilks. I had been under the impression that Wilks had signed for the entire season. As it turns out, his salary is only guaranteed if he's still on the roster on January 10th, 2009.

• Schmitz also says Keith Bogans "accepts his apparent predicament [of being out of the rotation] with a laugh." At the same time, though, Bogans wants to play because he's in a contract year.

• The reason Bogans is out of the rotation is due to the sudden emergence of J.J. Redick. Mike Bianchi, cynical as ever, thinks the move has less to do with on-court results and more to do with cashing-in on the former Duke star's popularity:

  As the months and years pass with J.J. sitting on the bench, you keep thinking the obsession might fade, but it just keeps getting stronger. It was fueled once again this week when the Magic picked up the option on J.J.'s contract and [Stan] Van Gundy said that if the season started now J.J. would be in the rotation.

  Translation: "Hey, Magic fans, get your season tickets today!"

  Jerry Greene, Bianchi's colleague, takes him to task.

• Former Magic guard Maurice Evans, now with the Atlanta Hawks, told everyone who would listen, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Sekou Smith and the Orlando Sentinel's Kyle Hightower, that he wanted to return to the Magic and was disappointed in the way they handled his free-agency. Here's Mo, in a q-and-a with Hightower:

  "They gave me the impression that I wanted to be back and I gave them the impression that I wanted to be here. For whatever reason I guess it just wasn't meant to [be]. I don't know. It wasn't just me I guess, because they didn't sign any of those players back that contributed with Keyon and Carlos. I guess it's just business is business in the NBA."

  Evans is the third former Magic player in the past two summers who feels the team treated him unfairly. Darko Milicic, whom the Magic didn't even call when free-agency started in 2007, is the most obvious example. More recently, Keyon Dooling was insulted when the Magic offered him only the bi-annual exception, well below his market value. But neither Dooling nor Evans harbor ill-will; the Magic accommodated Dooling by signing-and-trading him to the New Jersey Nets, and Evans told Hightower, "I don't hold any grudges or anything." Still, it's disconcerting to hear so many stories about negotiations between the Magic and their players falling apart like that.

Orlando Magic rookie guard Courtney Lee jumps over Charlotte Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace to shoot a layup in the Magic's 118-80 victory.

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The Orlando Magic beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 118-80, on Wednesday night. The Magic held a 40-9 lead after the first quarter, in which the Bobcats shot 3-of-21 from the field and committed 6 turnovers.

I'm not sure what else there is to say, other than...

• Brian Cook needs to shoot straighter. 1-for-10 from the field (and 0-for-7 from two-point range) is not going to get it done. At least he made it to the foul line. Dude took six free throws and sank them all. Useless fact: 6 free throw attempts is just one shy of tying his career high for a game.
• J.J. Redick should have played more. He scored 12 points on 4 shot attempts in 14 minutes and committed only one turnover. Meanwhile, Keith Bogans didn't get off the bench. The tables have indeed turned.
• Dwight Howard is ridiculous. 20 points on 9 shot attempts to go with 5 blocks. Oh, and he went 8-of-10 from the line. Holy crap, you guys.
• So is Rashard Lewis. 17 points on 5-of-8 from the field. Well done, sir. He also added 4 assists and a blocked shot for good measure. He's having a fine preseason. In two games, he's a combined 13-of-21 from the field for 40 points... in 52 minutes. Instant offense!
• Both teams need to wake the heck up on defense. The Bobcats and Magic combined for 68 personal fouls and 94 free-throw attempts. Were they really so gassed that they had no choice but to hack away? Curiously, despite all those fouls, only one player was disqualified. Congratulations, Hedo Turkoglu.
• Jameer Nelson was nowhere to be found. The Magic shot 47.1% from the field and made 33 shots overall. How is it that Nelson, playing 21 minutes, managed only 1 assist? Anthony Johnson racked-up 7 in 4 fewer minutes. So, uh, if anyone could shed some light on that, I'd appreciate it.

Four Factors:

The Magic clearly need to do a better job of handling their business on the defensive boards. At least they cleaned up their own garbage tonight; the 30.0% figure is roughly two-and-a-half times better than the 12.1% one they posted Monday night.

The preseason continues for the boys in blue-and-white this Friday when they face CSKA Moscow.