Hawks-Magic Review...Eh, It Was So-So

The game last night had its high and low points. Most notably, Dwight Howard's play was the undisputed high point. The guy had 30 points, 11 rebounds and a bunch of blocks, and just simply dominated. Patrick Ewing's influence seems to be worth every cent at this juncture with Dwight actually not sucking at the free throw line and attempting (hold your breath) relatively outside shots. Ewing can take Howard to all of the strip clubs he wants if he gets that sort of production out of him. Clifford Ray, a super-popular Howard coach who was let go during the awful Brian Hill regime, might have just become an afterthought.

Another great performance was that of resident Magic poet Adonal Foyle. Easter Island Head had 11 points and looked extremely solid in a short amount of playing time. It seems like that pickup is making Otis Smith look smarter and smarter by the second.

-Oops, wait a second. Hold that last thought.

Rashard Lewis, the BIGGEST Magic splash this offseason was mediocre at shooting and left the game with leg cramps. My biggest concern with Lewis is him holding up playing at power forward for a full season, and this game was not very reassuring. Every Magic fan was ready to commit suicide by way of homemade guillotine when they read on yahoo/heard on the radio that Lewis was injured in the game. Thankfully it was not a big blow, but scary nontheless. Lewis said that he had a lot of jitters and was trying to hard, which is fine so long as he can calm down and become the Ozzie to Dwight Howard's Harriet.

Most Magic fans' (myself included) favorite part of the game was actually Stan Van Gundy's Jim Mora-esque post game quotes. Instead of doing the quiet, nonchalant press conference that Brian Hill and his mannequin-like predecessor did, Stan seemed to tear the team a new one. He called a few players out, most notably my least favorite Magic player Hedo Turkoglu on his lack of effort (Stan referred to it as 'seeming tired'). You can tell that Stan actually gives a damn about making the team better and has a real concrete plan on how to do so. He has become one of my favorite parts of the team, and not just for the dick jokes.

As for the battle at shooting guard, JJ Redick looked decent out there and Ariza somewhat picked up where he left off (A ton of rebounds and an absolutely AWFUL shooting performance). Stan Van Gundy said Keith Bogans looked crappy out there so he gave the others a shot, which is a good thing. After one game, it would appear that Redick has the inside track simply due to how many minutes he played, which was the most on the team. We'll continue to monitor this as it still is anyone's spot to win (-including myself. I am not ruling that out.)

We saw a good amount of James Augustine, who didn't completely suck as he shot at a high percentage. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Marcin Gortat, who seems more raw but also more apt to run with his high energy level. The chances of both making the team is good unless we can bring in a Chris Webber or another player to help down low. The Magic clobbered the Hawks in post points, obviously mostly due to Howard's god-like abilities. You can almost hear the over-anxious Magic fans saying to themselves, "I'm totally taking Howard first in fantasy basketball this year! No one will see it coming!" These same people will be the ones saying in a huff at the season's midpoint, "Why did I quit the fantasy league? Who wants to play a stupid game where free throw percentage is so important anyways!" Their faces when they say this will resemble that of Keyon Dooling's in the photo above.

In my opinion, this game was a pretty rough first one for a team undergoing what is looking like a major facelift. There were positives and negatives, but I have a feeling that things will really start to click once the team can get its minds around Van Gundy's gameplan. His gameplan MUST be good if he didn't even play Pat Garrity in the first game, right?

I'm already looking forward to the next game, and hopefully the team can rebound (both literally and figuratively). Until then, you stay classy...planet earth.