1
2
3
4
FINAL
Magic29
12
20
24
85
Wizards18
23
19
33
93
TOP PERFORMERS
Wizards
Magic
Kevin Seraphin
PTS
24
Jameer Nelson
PTS
19
Kevin Seraphin
REB
13
Glen Davis
REB
10
John Wall
AST
7
Jameer Nelson
AST
7
John Wall
STL
2
Davis / Redick
STL
3
Kevin Seraphin
BLK
4
Earl Clark
BLK
3
Crawford / Wall
TO
4
3 tied
TO
3
Kevin Seraphin
+/-
+14
Daniel Orton
+/-
+4
Wizards Player of the Game
This is about as simple as it gets. I knew Kevin Seraphin was going to have a huge game with Dwight Howard out of the Magic's starting lineup, but this was much more than I could have ever expected. With career highs in scoring (24 pts) and rebounds (13 rebs), it was nothing short of a career night for the blossoming Center from French Guyana. He also managed to tie his career high in blocks with four for the night, including one on Glen Davis which sent his attempted slam dunk in and out of the hoop for a highlight on the blooper reel.
WE’s to Watch/WE Spotlight
Ryan Anderson With Howard out, I probably would have picked the three-ball connoisseur to be the player of the game for the Magic, too. My how WE were wrong. With only seven points, four boards, and only one three pointer, Ryan Anderson had a very off night for the Orlando Magic. The Magic chucked up 35 three-point field goal attempts (seven of those from Anderson), but as Wittman stated in his post-game press conference, the Wizards found a way to defend that three-point line in the second half. This silencing of Anderson was a big key in getting the big W.
While Ryan Anderson was essentially noneffective (to the surprise of many, including myself), Roni got this pick right as Seraphin dominated the paint every single quarter. He played the most minutes out of the team (just under 40 minutes) and proved that while he's still learning the game at the age of 22, he is quickly learning from a lot of his mistakes. Seraphin had a couple of blunders on easy lay-ins, but instead of getting frustrated, he quickly made up for it on the defensive end, and then right back on the offensive end again. This kid has no quit, whatsoever.
The Good
Learning from mistakes. The Wizards are a very young team and are going to make a multitude of mistakes, but the big key for them is learning from those mistakes and making changes to your game so they won't happen again. The team succeeded in that tonight as they didn't let their mistakes put them into a shooting or defensive slump. With 13 turnovers, the Wizards could have simply rolled over and let the Magic run the floor off of each and every one of those turnovers. But instead, the defensive play of Crawford, Seraphin, Martin, and James Singleton really allowed them to prevent too many points being reached off of these careless turnovers. The team had six turnovers in the first quarter, but quickly recovered as they came nowhere near that number for the second, third, and fourth quarter of the win.
The Bad
Orlando's field-goal percentage. Shooting for only 36.6% for the night, the Orlando Magic proved that they are not a superpower without their big-man Dwight Howard in the lineup. Glen Davis doesn't bring in that post presence that allows the Magic to get those easy shots over defenders. The thing that kept them in the game, however, was their three-point shooting. Sinking 11 (out of 35) for the night, the Magic managed to hang in there throughout the game with a third of their field goals coming from three-point land.
The Ugly
Chris Singleton? Paging Chris Singleton? Singleton seems to have lost his mojo over the past couple of games. In just under 19 minutes, he registered 0 points on 0-4 shooting and four boards. For a guy that has played consistently well on both the offensive and defensive end throughout the entire season, it's peculiar that he would not perform well in an injury-plagued part of the season. This is truly his chance to shine along with the other young players on this team. One thing I am happy about is that Wittman recognized another off-night from Singleton, and instead replaced him with, well, the other Singleton. What worries me about this is the question that this brings up; which (or both or neither) Singleton will be on this roster next season?
Original Story:
http://www.wizardsextreme.com/2012-ar...
