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From Orlando Sentinel

Raptors 127, Magic 110

Orlando Magic defense drops the ball

Orlando can't stop Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon in a possible playoff preview.

Brian Schmitz | Sentinel Staff Writer
February 21, 2008

TORONTO - Point guards Jameer Nelson and Keyon Dooling sat next to each other in silence, their feet in ice buckets, cooling their emotions while their coach was still hot under his mock collar.

Stan Van Gundy stormed out of the locker room Wednesday night after the Orlando Magic (34-22) were dissected by the Toronto Raptors, 127-110, the wheels of his travel bag catching the corner of the door.

He gave it an angry yank, although the bag did not receive a heated earful. Nelson, Dooling and others caught Van Gundy's wrath during the game and afterward, just 24 hours after being applauded for their work in crushing the Detroit Pistons.

It was debatable, however, whether Nelson and Dooling were more pleased to be away from Van Gundy or Raptors point guard Jose Calderon.

They'll see Calderon running the pick-and-roll in their nightmares, although better to deal with it now than in a possible playoff matchup against the Raptors come April.

Raptors all-star Chris Bosh scored 40 points by making an amazing 14 of 16 shots, highlighting Toronto's 58.8 percent target practice. But it was Calderon who controlled the night and twisted the Magic's defense into knots.

Among other things, Van Gundy said he didn't think his guards "take a great deal of pride" stopping the probing of guards such as Calderon. It's an old Magic problem that still haunts, even though Orlando just had trumped Pistons nemesis Chauncey Billups.

When this message was relayed to Nelson and Dooling, they stared straight ahead, perhaps biting their tongues or embarrassed by Calderon's clinic.

Calderon finished with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting with 13 assists, and Carlos Delfino added 23.

"They ran the pick-and-roll like Stockton and Malone," Dooling said, saluting the famed duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone.

The trade deadline is at 3 p.m. today, but Jason Kidd is already in a Dallas Mavericks uniform. The Magic aren't expected to make a deal or one big enough to cure what ails them.

Twenty-four hours after praising all-star center Dwight Howard for his defense in the Motown beatdown, Van Gundy also tweaked him in a rant on the defense -- despite Howard's 37-point, 15-rebound response to Bosh.

"There was not one thing they did that we could guard," Van Gundy said. "Chris Bosh, we could not guard. We have to think about double-teaming him next time. I thought Dwight Howard could guard him a little bit, but he obviously could not."

Howard just shook his head and bit his tongue even harder.

Ah, the adventures of Stan Van and Superman continue.

"We watched film of [Calderon], and I thought it was on fast forward, but it was on regular speed," Howard said. "He's tough. We might see these guys in the playoffs, and we have to play better defense. They just exposed some of our weaknesses."

Orlando came into the game with the No. 3 seeding and Toronto with the fourth seed. Even though the three-game series is now tied 1-1 -- the final game is March 4 in Orlando -- the Raptors returned serve with some extra topspin.

The Raptors (29-23) avenged a 105-96 loss to the Magic in Toronto on Nov. 7 by pulling away late in the second quarter and survived a token Orlando fourth-quarter run. Toronto built a 14-point halftime lead and extended it to 21 before Orlando cut the deficit to 10 early in the final quarter after a 14-2 run. But shots that found the nets in Detroit wouldn't go down. Calderon then nailed show-closing, back-to-back 3-pointers that caused Van Gundy to almost go Bobby Knight on Dooling.

"They literally hit about anything they put up. Calderon controlled the tempo. A lot of it was our defense; we weren't showing on the pick-and-rolls and missed rotations. It was totally different than the defense we played against Detroit," said Rashard Lewis, who had 16 points as did Hedo Turkoglu.

Scoring points was not the Magic's problem.

"We've got to be able to guard them," huffed Van Gundy. "We could not. End of story."


Brian Schmitz can be reached at bschmitz@orlandosentinel.com.

Related topic galleries: Stan Van Gundy, Superman, Keyon Dooling, Vehicles, Toronto Raptors, Hedo Turkoglu, Orlando Magic

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Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel

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