Orlando Magic vs. Boston Celtics
Friday, November 20th, 2009
TD Garden – Boston, MA
8:00 PM Tip
For the first time this year, the Orlando Magic will be tested on the road as they come into the Garden tonight to face the Celtics. The Magic will be looking to get 1 step ahead of Boston, while the C’s will be ready to get redemption from last years game 7 loss at home. The green have proven they can go and beat Cleveland, and tonight they will have the chance to prove they are indeed the Easts most elite.
This game has a ton of interesting matchups. The first of which is at the point guard position. With Nelson out, Rondo will be matched up against Jason Williams who is coming off his first start of the year. I would hope for the Celtics to try and use this miss match of abilities to the best of their advantage. Then, as posted earlier on “Kendrick Perkins “The Beast” Battles Superman Tomorrow Night“, Perkins and Howard will get into a good battle. Finally, as what may appear to be an invisible matchup, is what is likely to be the defense of Marquis Daniels on Mickael Pietrus. Pietrus proved last year to be a knock down shooter. If Daniels gets himself caught up in helping down, this Celtic killer could have a good shooting night off the bench.
We should be watching hard tonight to see if the Celtics perimeter defense has what it takes against the Magic. The team is as comfortable as ever putting Perkins on Howard one on one. Therefore, there is little excuse for not getting a hand in the face of a shooter. When push comes to shove, the Orlando Magic are purely a finesse group of guys (Just look at JJ Reddick- It only takes him maybe 3 hours to do his hair before the game?). With that being said, they would love to stand around the arc and shoot threes. So if the Celtics are up by 8, they need to keep building on it because at any moment the Magic could hit a string of threes and be right back in it. This game should be very interesting.
To see news and notes from the other side of this matchup check out our friends over at Howard The Dunk, Fansided networks Orlando Magic Blog.
We are changing the style up for our chat from now on. The chat will now consist of a pregame, halftime, and post game chatter. We did so due to the fact that everyone is so glued to the games when they are on, the last thing they want is to pull their eyes away to write on a computer. So stop by during one of those periods and talk about what you think is going to happen, what you see, and what you saw. Also check in later tonight or tomorrow morning for our recap on the Magic vs. Celtics.