{"id":2583,"date":"2016-11-19T14:05:18","date_gmt":"2016-11-19T19:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2016-11-19T14:05:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-19T19:05:18","slug":"dallas-mavericks-vs-orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2016\/11\/19\/dallas-mavericks-vs-orlando-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks vs. Orlando Magic – Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

A greatly-improved Orlando Magic<\/strong> take on a depleted Dallas Mavericks<\/strong>\u00a0team bereft of confidence tonight, in a cross-conference NBA<\/strong> match-up at the Amway Center<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Dallas Mavericks vs. Orlando Magic – Preview<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Orlando Magic<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Magic currently sit 11th\u00a0in the Eastern Conference<\/strong>, and with Orlando securing an ugly, gritty victory in its last game against the New Orleans Pelicans<\/strong>,<\/a> in which\u00a0an explosive second\u00a0quarter proved enough to seal the result, they\u2019re hungry for more success. They came out eventual 89-82 winners, and despite picking up the victory, it was the furthest thing from a ‘routine win’.<\/p>\n

Missed opportunities and poor looks were the recurrent themes of Wednesday night’s action for the Magic. Truth be told, they were extremely fortunate to come away with the W. Had the Pelicans not rested their uber-star Anthony Davis<\/a><\/strong>, the score may have been very different. “A win is a win in the NBA, but we have to clean up a lot of things on defense and offense,” Magic power forward Serge Ibaka<\/a><\/strong> said in a post-game interview, as he finished tied for a team-high 16 points. The Magic will have to show a great deal of improvement if they wish to fight\u00a0for a playoff spot this year.<\/p>\n

Offensive Woes<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Orlando\u2019s offense in recent games has been an alarming issue. This was exemplified superbly in their low-scoring win against the Pelicans. Starting small forward Jeff Green<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s failure to score a single point in 20 minutes acted as a poignant linchpin \u2013 he was 0-9 from the field.<\/p>\n

Despite their offensive woes, the Magic look like a far more well-rounded team this season than years prior. The off-season acquisitions of Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo<\/a><\/strong>, Green, and D.J. Augustin<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0have proved fruitfully successful, with the bench gaining significant strength. The Magic’s defense has improved as a result. If Orlando can get Ibaka firing, there aren\u2019t many players who will be able to stop him. However, the power forward has been inconsistent thus far. That problem\u00a0desperately needs to be ironed out before the Magic can really get going.<\/p>\n

The Dallas Mavericks<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Mavericks will play their second game in as many days tonight as their schedule becomes relatively congested, meaning that fatigue may be an issue during\u00a0the trip to Orlando. This is a factor that the Magic needn\u2019t worry about, as they\u2019ve enjoyed a suitable three-day break. Despite boasting a former All-Star<\/strong>\u00a0in Dirk Nowitzki<\/a><\/strong> and a previous member of the record-breaking Golden State Warriors<\/strong>\u00a0in Harrison Barnes<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0the shots just haven\u2019t been falling<\/a> for Dallas thus far this season.<\/p>\n

Their last back-to-back match-up saw them travel to Los Angeles to take on a young Lakers<\/strong> team, where they snatched a deserved victory after shooting 52.4\u00a0percent from the field. They then visited the Warriors\u2019 super-team the following day, and Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle<\/a><\/strong> decided to rest a number of starters. Dallas was\u00a0duly blown out.\u00a0 And with injuries now plaguing the Mavericks’ backcourt, Seth Curry<\/a><\/strong> stands alone as the only recognizable point guard, presenting numerous issues for Carlisle.<\/p>\n

Nick Angstadt<\/strong>, a Mavericks expert and writer at MavsFanatic.com<\/strong>, believes that fans should prepare for more of the same in\u00a0Orlando. This is especially so, as the proceeding game was far more important (a 64-80 loss against the Memphis Grizzlies<\/strong>). “It wouldn’t be surprising if Carlisle takes the same approach to this game [against the Magic], leaving the outcome in the hands of Barnes, Anderson, Seth Curry, and Dwight Powell<\/a><\/strong>,”Angstadt explained in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n

Misfiring Mavericks?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Mavericks have struggled to contain jump-shooting big men for the entirety of the season. They’re allowing their opponents to shoot 41 percent from three \u2013 a worrying statistic. Defensively, they\u2019ve had a torrid time, accentuated by the struggles\u00a0that Nowitzki has faced in maintaining full health. And with the injury list ever growing, it looks like Dallas could be in for a long year.<\/p>\n

But with every cloud comes a silver lining. “To put it lightly, several Dallas Therapists lost money because of how good Harrison Barnes has been. He’s been better than expected, especially on offense. He’s one of the few bright spots on this team,” Angstadt said, echoing the thoughts of the majority of Mavericks fans, who are pleasantly surprised by Barnes\u2019 commanding performances. In addition to Barnes, Andrew Bogut<\/a><\/strong> has been a solid acquisition, providing some stellar defensive displays to go with Barnes\u2019 offensive dominance. These two are the keys to success for the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

Orlando will be looking to improve on its mediocre 3-3 home record. Meanwhile, the Mavericks will be hoping to halt their decline and attempt to\u00a0drag themselves out of the cesspool that is the bottom of the Western Conference<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Nick Angstadt for his time and his words. You can visit his site at MavsFanatic.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo:<\/p>\n

March 17, 2014: Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle during an NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX Dallas defeated Boston 94-89 (Photo by Albert Pena\/Icon SMI\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dallas Mavericks vs. Orlando Magic preview: A greatly-improved Magic take on a depleted and struggling Mavs team tonight in a cross-conference match-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1748,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,62,17],"tags":[65,175,141,96,136,128,585],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-magic","tag-basketball","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-harrison-barnes","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic","tag-serge-ibaka","tag-seth-curry"],"modified_by":"Lior Kozai (Managing Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1748"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}