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The Magic have now clinched the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference, but are still chasing the Los Angeles Lakers to have the league’s second best record. Orlando will get back to work on Wednesday night when they take on the Washington Wizards. You can find a preview of that game here.
Jason Williams has made a major contribution for the Magic – both on and off the court.
Williams spices up long plane flights with card tricks. He enlivens the locker room with jokes and one-liners. He dazzles teammates with an arsenal of fancy shots and showy passes.
“He’s kind of like a one-man circus,” starting point guard Jameer Nelson says. “I love the guy.”
There’s also the way Williams has played.
The Magic love that most of all.
The 34-year-old has enjoyed a career renaissance this season. After taking a year off to help his wife through a difficult pregnancy, Williams is posting career-highs in field-goal percentage and in his shooting percentage from beyond the arc. He also ranks among the league leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Josh Robbins has that story here.
Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says not to overlook Orlando.
After struggling to shoot the ball — more appropriately, he was a black hole — earlier in the season, Carter is shooting 50 percent over the last two months and has been effective in creating his own shot in the halfcourt. Nelson appears recovered from knee surgery earlier this season and is averaging nearly 14 points and six assists over the last two months.
Howard, meanwhile, is shooting a career high 61 percent from the field and will likely be named Defensive Player of the Year for a second straight season.
Because of all of this, over the last six weeks the Magic have scored victories over the Cavs, Lakers, Nuggets and Mavericks.
You can find that story here.
If you’re an ESPN Insider, you can see John Hollinger’s All-Defensive picks here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks and Sir Charles In Charge. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).
Original Story:
http://howardthedunk.com/2010/04/07/o...
