The Orlando Magic quickly learned that defending a division title will be tougher than improving to win one like they did last season. They hope to apply that lesson learned Friday night in Memphis, where the young Grizzlies play their home opener.
Orlando, which went from 40-42 in 2006-07 to Southeast Division champions last season, was on the short end of a 99-85 home loss on Wednesday to Atlanta, arguably their primary rival in the division. Dwight Howard had 22 points and 15 rebounds, but the Magic shot 37 percent from the field and failed to show the kind of effort that produced 52 wins in 2007-08.
"They played the game like they really, really wanted to win it,"
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of the Hawks. "And we sort of showed up, I guess, thinking it would just happen if we walked out there. We didn't have one guy who can say he played well at both ends of the floor. And several guys were just abysmal at both ends."
Howard had 12 points in the fourth quarter as the Magic attempted to rally, but the Olympian and All-Star center noted the loss should have served notice on what the team has to do going forward.
"I just think it's eye-opening for us,"
he said. "You can't take anything for granted, you can't take any team for granted. We have to do it as a team to get better. We have to stay focused knowing that every team is going to play us as hard as the Hawks did."
The 22-year-old Howard has recorded four straight double-doubles against the Grizzlies, averaging 25.5 points and 16.0 rebounds while shooting 79 percent (34-for-43) in those games, and posting two 20-20 efforts.
Not much is expected from the Grizzlies, who are coming off a 22-60 season as they try to navigate the difficult Southwest Division. But they showed some grit in an 82-71 loss at Houston on Wednesday. Rudy Gay had 20 points while rookie Darrell Arthur added 11 and 15 rebounds off the bench for Memphis, which limited Houston to 37 percent shooting and outrebounded the Rockets 49-44.
"We took some big strides,"
Gay insisted. "We will learn from this. It was a little sloppy. We were scrappy and that is what we need to do to be successful."
The youthful starting backcourt of O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley will have to make the biggest strides if the Grizzlies are to be competitive. The two 20-year-olds were a combined 8-for-28 shooting, with Mayo -- the third overall pick -- missing all seven of his attempts from 3-point range and finishing 5 of 20 overall.
"It came down to execution and we made some turnovers down the stretch,"
said Conley, whose team was held to 14 fourth-quarter points and went 0-for-13 from beyond the arc for the game. "The big key was they made shots and we didn't. We just couldn't make our 3s, and if we had the game would have been different."
Gay scored 52 points and shot 62.5 percent (20-for-32) as Memphis split two games with Orlando last season. Hedo Turkoglu hit six 3-pointers and finished with 26 points in a 112-85 Magic rout at Memphis on Jan. 23 in the most recent game between the teams.
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