ORLANDO - Jamal Crawford had just gotten loose for another jumper, clearly in a rhythm that only lethal scorers like him can get into, when the Amway Center fell as quiet as your public library on a Tuesday afternoon.
Apparently it's difficult to doubt and make noise at the same time.
Atlanta, already up 1-0 after stealing homecourt advantage over the weekend, took a 32-22 lead after Crawford capitalized on Gilbert Arenas' latest turnover, which was lustily booed by paying customers who had already seen enough.
Stan Van Gundy seemed to agree. Arenas took a seat he'd only vacate to go to and from the Magic locker room at the break and the final whistle, while Dwight Howard went to work on restoring a swagger that had exited stage left around the second quarter of Game 1 in this series.
Howard scored 18 of the Magic's next 26 points, imposed his will on the defensive end without compounding the situation with first-half foul trouble and inspired a comeback. Inspired is probably the wrong term, since it didn't seem like any teammate other than him had a pulse, but he not only held the fort down, he wound up rebuilding it from scratch.
"When I look at these shooting numbers - Wow. You have Dwight and 18-for-66 from the other guys. What Dwight did tonight was phenomenal," said Van Gundy. "Just the energy that he had out there. What he put into the game for 48 minutes in a game of that intensity. That's incredible."
The Magic survived Game 2, 88-82, holding off a late Hawks rally that trimmed a 14-point fourth-quarter advantage to 78-76 with 2:14 remaining. The manner in which they did it likely holds the key to whether Orlando will be anything but pretenders for the rest of these playoffs, which continue with a critical Game 3 Friday night at Philips Arena.
Orlando couldn't afford for Howard to rest for even one second as he put together another tremendous line, 33 points and 19 rebounds, to help the Magic even things up and find their wind. That's why the manner in which the Magic were able to solidify the result is so vital. Someone other than the guy wearing No. 12 stepped up.
Hedo Turkoglu, re-acquired from Phoenix at the trade deadline, made the type of play GM Otis Smith envisioned when he felt he needed him back, getting to the rim on a busted coverage to give the Magic a four-point cushion with a big layup to push the lead to four. He then created a 3-point opportunity for Jason Richardson, putting the Hawks in an insurmountable seven-point hole.
And with that, the Magic gets to hope for another few weeks, because you could almost read the collective thought of the sellout crowd after Crawford quieted an arena that never expected to be in a 10-point hole: we're done, Dwight is leaving and the team is set for a steep decline. Who knew there could be more than 19,
科沛达水泵,000 pessimists assembled in one place? Still, they had no choice but to ponder a bleak immediate future. After all, when you start a must-win Game 2 with the type of erratic miscues the Magic were continuously making, it's hard to stay positive.
Van Gundy will get some credit for getting his team to believe when nobody else did, stopping the bleeding with a critical timeout, but it was Howard's run that wound up changing the game's dynamic. The best player on the floor played like it and sustained it, inspiring a culture where Orlando would at least fight for every 50-50 ball and go out with some heart. The flipping of the script took the Hawks off their game.
"Their pressure forced us to lose our composure. I thought we lost our composure right before halftime," said Larry Drew. "They played aggressive basketball and we didn't respond well to them.
"We gave up 20 offensive rebounds. I don't see us giving ourselves much of a chance when you give a team that many second chances. We opened up a whole new can of worms tonight."
Atlanta went cold in the third quarter, as jumpers that had been going down for Kirk Hinrich and Crawford went awry, while All-Star Al Horford, sidelined early with two quick fouls, failed to catch a rhythm. That trio combined to shoot 1-for-11, serving as the main culprits in a period where the Hawks shot 25 percent. The Hawks demonstrated some resilience that they will carry forward, having accomplished their goal of stealing a road game in the series. They can take a moral victory from the late push considering last year's Hawks teams would've folded up their tent and lost by 25, quitting on the fourth. Even in defeat, they remained unified.
As for Orlando? Who knows?
Howard knows he can rely on Jameer Nelson, who in fairness, gutted out a rocky performance with his effort, scrapping for loose balls and winding up with eight rebounds in an ugly game where you could sense the desperation by the number of bodies hitting the floor diving for possession.
Whether he can rely on Richardson and Turkoglu, who have had their lunch eaten by Joe Johnson and Josh Smith throughout the first two games, remains to be seen.
Whether he can rely on Arenas, who played his way out of the rotation with a putrid second-quarter stretch, now appears doubtful. So much for the x-factor Orlando was optimistically he'd be at some point this postseason.
"It had nothing to do really with Gil, it had to do with matchups," Van Gundy said of his choice to go in another direction. "In my mind, it really came down to an either/or, J.J. or Gil, and I had to make that decision."
To start the second quarter, Van Gundy started a lineup featuring J.J. Redick, Quentin Richardson and Arenas, pieces that came into the postseason wearing major question marks. Redick is still clearly lagging behind the pace he'd been at after weeks of inactivity, Richardson never quite cracked the rotation throughout the season, rotating with Earl Clark on the fringe of Van Gundy's preferences. Arenas can probably be put in that boat as well, but he actually got opportunities as Van Gundy patiently waited for the old spark to emerge.
What we learned on Tuesday night is that the desperate can no longer afford to be patient. The ceiling comes down a notch or two, but at least it remains, thanks to Howard and a late flurry of help that no one can realistically expect to count on going forward.
The Magic are officially Dwight and whoever shows up to play on that given night. That might be enough to beat the Hawks, but unless that drastically changes, won't hold up against anyone else.
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