But the real question is who did they impress? If you only looked at the final score then you would trick yourself into thinking Orlando dominated and coasted to a easy 120 - 106 win over the Sixers. But if you watched the game then you, like me, were a little disappointed with the lack of effort in the second half. Almost like Stan pulled the chain back on his "dogs". Even more stunning was watching the magic come out in the 4th with a "Lets Get This Over With" approach and watched Philly out score them by 17 points in the final quarter. Something Stan looked quit upset with (and I'm sure will let his team know in practice tomorrow)
Having said all that, I'm going to give a free pass to the team this time considering Stan didn't have a single player play over 30 minutes (Pietrus had exactly 30) and he did have 5 new players to fit into his system. Showing the entire NBA that Orlando IS the deepest team in the Association and loosing their All-Star and highest paid player Rashard Lewis for 10 games will not slow them down TOO bad.
Looking at the players, I have to say Vince looked like...well...Old Vince, not "Old Man" but the "Old" 6 Time All-Star, Toronto Raptor Vince Carter. Even Though He Played Limited Minutes(26 to be exact), he made everyone of them count with 15 points 3-5 from downtown and 2-2 from the line. Best of all he looked "happy" something we didn't see much of last year in NJ. Also if you missed the game you missed an amazing comeback of Jason Williams, who had not played a real NBA game in almost 2 year, off the bench scored 15 points and dished 5 assists in 23 minutes and looked great showing the less then a million he will be paid could be a huge steal. Jason will battle with Anthoney Johnson for backup PG duty for All-Star PG Jameer Nelson. (who had a quiet game with 7 points in 21 minutes) But the player of the game was none other then All-World Center Dwight Howard. Superman wasted little time throwing his hat in the ring for the long list of awards he can win this year. In only 29 minutes he scored 21 points (on 9-11 shooting) 15 rebounds and blocked 2 shots
Overall it was a nice win. which got ugly from the start and if Orlando wanted, could have been worse. Defence will need to step it up if they want to get better then they were last year but with so much talent on that team. The Biggest challenge could be staying focused (Something they had trouble with on game 1) With almost every eastern playoff team getting better on paper it looks like the paper is looking very promising for this Orlando team
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