Turnovers have been a major problem for the Orlando Magic this season.
How else can you explain how a team that is 10th in offensive efficiency and third in defensive efficiency and has a player in Dwight Howard who is accumulating better numbers than any player not named LeBron James can have so many problems?
The Magic are averaging 14.6 turnovers per game and have a turnover ratio of 24.6%. They rank 23rd in the NBA in turnovers per game and 24th in turnover percentage.
Sure, giving the ball away isn’t Orlando’s only problem.
They’ve had trouble finding other scorers to step up next to Dwight Howard.
There have been times where they’ve struggled shooting the ball.
They’ve had a difficult time defending perimeter scorers.
They’ve had trouble rebounding the ball at times (They were outrebounded by 20 in their loss to the Chicago Bulls Friday).
Dwight Howard was suspended for Orlando’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers Monday night for picking up his 16th technical foul.
Howard will be suspended another game for every two technical fouls from here on out.
But it’s not just Howard.
As a team, Orlando has been called for a league-high 93 technical fouls.
However, there most consistent problem has been turning the ball over.
The trend continued in Monday’s loss to the Blazers when the Magic won every statistical battle except for two – turnovers and the scoreboard.
“We were a little bit better than them in very area, but we had 19 turnovers and they had nine,” Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said following the loss Monday night. “Ballgame.”
Orlando’s point guards, who have been the definition of “up-and-down,” combined to turn the ball over 11 times.
Jameer Nelson, who was also ineffective on offense (1-of-7 from the field) turned it over six times and was benched for the fourth quarter.
His backup, Gilbert Arenas, who has the second highest turnover ratio on the team, turned it over six times in just under 27 minutes.
“Our point guards had 11 turnovers between them,” Van Gundy pointed out. “That’s not going to get it done.”
To read the rest of this story, click here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).
Original Story:
http://howardthedunk.com/2011/03/09/t...
