Heels in the League (NBA) Hawks vs Magic (Game 1)
Hawks vs Magic
Another game in the Eastern Conference playoffs and once again another head to head match up between teams that have a touch of Carolina Blue on them. It’s the first game (of a best of seven series) btween the home town Orlando Magic and the visiting Atlanta Hawks, played in front of a crowd that numbered 17,461 at the Amway Arena. On this side of the playoff brackets all four teams (Atlanta (1), Boston (1), Cleveland (3) and Orlando (1)) have at least one ex UNC player on their roster. This means, that whomever wins the semis and the finals for the East an ex Tar Heel will be playing for the NBA Title this season. Which is a good thing, since the two teams in the West that has ex players from Chapel Hill (Dallas and Denver) were both eliminated in the first round.
In this one, for the visiting team from the Gate City of the South it’s small forward Marvin Williams, who got the start for the Hawks and played a total of 35 minutes in this one. In that time the fourth year veteran scored eight points (4 for 10 ~ 0 for 0 ~ 0 for 0), four rebounds, an assist, and had a -29 pts differential. Williams has played eight games so far in the playoffs, having had three double digit games while also having a game scoring just 2 or 4 points. On the other side, for the home town team, it’s veteran shooting guard Vince Carter, who starts for the Magic. The ex pupil of Dean Smith played 28 minutes in this one, scoring 20 points (7 for 16 ~ 1 for 2 ~ 5 for 5) to go along with six rebounds, three assists and a turnover while having a pts differential of +28. Carter has scored in double figure in all of the five post season games this season, with the last two games scoring 20+ in each.
The game began as a close one, with Orlando going up by two at the end of the first quarter (25 to 23). However that was the last time this game was close as the Magic outscored the Hawks by 18, 28 to 10, in the second quarter, ending the half 53 to 33. Then going off on them again 32 to 11, with Orlando being up 85 to 44 with twelve minutes to go. The last quarter was yet again close, especially since the game was out of reach, with the final score being 114 to 71 for the home team. If Atlanta does not find an aswer to what happened yesterday this is going to be a four game series and it will be an ugly one for the Hawks’ fan base. We shall see if Game 2, Thursday, May 7 (8 p.m. EST – ESPN), can be a rebound game for Atlanta or if Orlando will keep pounding them.
Main Stream Media:
ESPN ~ NBA.com ~ The Sporting News ~ CBS Sports
Blogs:
Magic Basketball Net (TrueHoop Network) by Eddy Rivera
Hoopinion (TrueHoop Network) by Brett Lagree
Orlando Pinstriped Post (SB Nation) by Ben Q Rock
Peachtree Hoops (SB Nation) by hawksdawgs
Slam Dunk Central by Stephen Rhodes
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