vs
(From the Associated Press) - The Vince Carter(notes)-Dwight Howard duo again wasn’t so dynamic — just good enough to win.For now, that’s all the Orlando Magic need.
Carter finished with 19 points, Howard scored 15 and the Magic took a 2-0 series lead with a 92-77 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night.
“Fortunate thing for us,” Carter said, “is we have a lot of weapons.”
The Magic’s star combo was less than stellar, but took over when it counted most. They combined for 21 second-half points to help Orlando build a 20-point lead and hold on late.
Still, they know they’ll have to be better to compete for a title.
“I can’t allow it to frustrate me,” Howard said. “Really just trying to keep my head. It’s bigger than myself. We’re playing for something bigger.”
Charlotte is simply playing for a win.
Stephen Jackson(notes) showed no effects from his hyperextended left knee to score 27 points, and Gerald Wallace(notes) had 15 points for the Bobcats. But their 21 turnovers are a big reason why they’re heading home still searching for the franchise’s first playoff win.
Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in Charlotte.
“They’re being more aggressive,” Jackson said. “They’re being the more physical team. They’re making the first hit. They’re just out there playing like they want to win more than we do. We’re waiting until they hit to respond, and then it’s too late.”
This one wasn’t the prettiest playoff basketball.
The Bobcats went more than eight minutes to start the game with only three points, and had just one field goal with six turnovers during the stretch. The goods news for them: The Magic were almost as bad early.
The first half was a turnoverfest for both teams, and nobody could consistently hit a shot. Things were so out of sorts that the normally sharpshooting J.J. Redick(notes) even badly missed the free throw from Charlotte coach Larry Brown’s technical foul in the second quarter.
The Magic were 24 for 35 on free throws, while the Bobcats were 13 for 18. That wasn’t enough for Brown.
“We had three players that played tonight that got to the foul line, and one of them took one shot, one free throw,” he said. “Can’t play that way. Maybe we’ve got to get more respect, I don’t know.”
The Magic put together the closest thing to a run, and they slowly went ahead 41-30 at the half on Ryan Anderson’s(notes) 3-pointer. With Charlotte’s 14 first-half turnovers, though, they could’ve been up more.
Eventually, they would. The Magic’s star pairing finally showed up.
Howard used a drop step, spun right and hammered home a rim-rocking dunk over Tyson Chandler(notes) that started a big Magic push. He had nine points in the first five-plus minutes of the third before picking up his fourth foul, again relegating him to the bench.
Then, Carter took the reins.
Orlando’s biggest offseason acquisition, Carter sliced his way through the lane for several layups late in the third quarter. He anchored a run that put the Magic ahead 75-55 after three quarters with their entire bench standing, waving towels, shouting and smiling as they pulled ahead big.
After Charlotte trimmed the lead to eight with 3:16, Carter followed with a jumper. Then Jackson missed a layup, and Jameer Nelson(notes) raced down court to convert a three-point play that sealed Orlando’s win.
Jackson stood with his head band knocked sideways, pleading with official Bennett Salvatore for a whistle. It wouldn’t come.
“I knew my headband didn’t get knocked off by itself,” Jackson said.
The Magic now find themselves in a position that was unfamiliar in last year’s NBA finals run: a little series cushion.
They were down 2-1 to Philadelphia, trailed Boston 3-2 and went down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals. Beating Cleveland in the conference finals in six games was the only series Orlando didn’t trail in last season.
vs
(From the Associated Press) - Tony Parker(notes) saw the crowd gathered around Richard Jefferson(notes) and couldn’t resist teasing him.“Man, one big game,” Parker said, smiling. “Look at all this.”
Jefferson took it in stride. After all, he was probably glad Parker didn’t woof or bark.
Knowing he was among the guys Spurs coach Gregg Popovich thought “played like dogs” in the opener, Jefferson bounced back by scoring 17 of his 19 points in the first half to help San Antonio beat the Dallas Mavericks 102-88 in Game 2 on Wednesday night. The win ties their first-round series at a game apiece, with the next two games in the Alamo City.
“You could see it in his eyes that he was motivated,” Parker said. “Nobody likes to play bad and he knew he didn’t have a good first game. Knowing his mentality, we knew he was going to come back.”
Jefferson matched the measly four points he had in Game 1 points before some fans were even settled into their seats. He was 7 of 9 by halftime, and was at his best during a 12-1 run late in the second quarter that broke the game open for good. He got it started with a fadeaway jumper and a finger roll, then added a reverse layup after the Mavericks somehow lost track of him.
“My teammates were looking for me, coming off the pick-and-roll and throwing it back to me,” Jefferson said. “That’s pretty much my game. After I struggled the last game, I think there was a concerted effort to get me involved.”
Tim Duncan(notes) was San Antonio’s second-half star, scoring 17 of his 25 points then, often just in time to douse Dallas rallies. He also had 17 rebounds.
“We went to Tim just about every other time down the stretch,” Popovich said. “He came through by scoring and rebounding at the other end.”
Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki(notes) went from hardly missing in Game 1 to hardly making. The Spurs didn’t even smother him; merely knowing they were creeping his way threw Nowitzki out of whack. He missed six of his first seven shots, and even missed a free throw after having made 88 in a row.
“If they give me those same looks on Friday, I’ll take them,” said Nowitzki, who finished with 24 points, down from 36 in the opener.
The Mavericks played their best only after they seemed to have buried themselves—down 16-5 early, they got within one by the end of the quarter; down 80-60 late in the third quarter they scored 12 straight points; back down 13 early in the fourth, they clawed within five. However, they never led and have now given away home-court advantage.
Game 3 is in San Antonio on Friday night, and the folks down there are probably especially looking forward to seeing Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who fanned the flames of the rivalry in recent days by repeatedly saying, “I hate the Spurs.”
“We’ve lost at home to them many times, so we’ve just got to stay humble, keep working hard, knowing full well that it’s going to be a long series,” Manu Ginobili(notes) said.
San Antonio built its leads by playing smart.
The Spurs held onto the ball (only nine turnovers, down from 17 in Game 1), forced their way to the rim, then took advantage of the space that opened up for longer-range jumpers. In the game-breaking second quarter, their inside-out attack produced 34 points on 68 percent shooting.
“They were a hot-shooting team and we were unable to keep them from being a hot-shooting team,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “When the ball’s in the air, it’s anybody’s ball. They came up with all those plays. They got the loose balls and they were more opportunistic.”
Ginobili had 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:48 left that he punctuated with a celebratory punch as fans began rushing toward the exits.
Parker, still coming off the bench, had 16 points and eight assists.
None of the other “dogs” made a big dent in the stat sheet, but they didn’t have to. Jefferson filled the scoring void and everyone else filled their roles.
“We just played sharper than we did the other night, by that I mean not fouling and taking care of the ball,” Popovich said. “We were focused.”
Jason Terry(notes) was a non-factor most of Game 1 for Dallas, but he hit his first two shots and kept looking for his shot all night. He finished with 27 points. Caron Butler(notes) scored 17.
The Mavs got only five points from their center tandem of Erick Dampier(notes) and Brendan Haywood(notes), all from Haywood. Jason Kidd(notes) was 1 of 7 for five points and Shawn Marion(notes) had just six.
“When we’re cold on the offensive end we’ve got to dig in defensively a little bit better,” Haywood said. “We’ve got to lock up a little better and we didn’t do that tonight. They had way too many offensive rebound opportunities and they scored almost every time they got an offensive rebound.”
Sure enough, San Antonio scored 23 second-chance points, Dallas just nine. That 14-point difference matched the final margin.
