Game 2 of this Eastern Conference Second round Playoffs series is scheduled for Monday, May 5th at 7:00 pm EDT live on Turner Sports, TNT. After a dominating performance, the Detroit Pistons will try to protect home court tonight, before traveling south to Orlando, Florida for game 3. SBGglobal.com has the home team Detroit Pistons favorite by – 6 (-110) as they host the Orlando Magic + 6 (-110) and the O/U set at a 185 combined total points.
The Pistons will try to duplicate what hey did last year against the Magic in the Playoffs… sweep them.
The deciding factor for Orlando to avoid a short series will continue to be the Magic’s ability to get Dwight Howard the ball deep (in the paint). But more important, it is imperative for the role players on the team to contribute with good productive minutes.
In game 1, Superman and the Magic look completely out of their element. Detroit’s signature defense never allowed them to get in any kind of rhythm offensively.
Detroit’s strategy was mainly to force the rest of the Magic players to take all the shots, as the Pistons dared Van Gundy and his team to beat them… and they didn’t. The Magic as a team shot just 40% from the field (30-74) and an atrocious 13% from 3-point range (2-15).
Keys for the Magic: They need to surround Howard with nothing but shooters, and play inside-out. Thus, once the double team on Dwight comes, kick it back out to the open man and drain the open shots. This will force Flip Saunders to stop doubling Howard and maybe switch to a zone defense, which then favors the Magic’s 3-point shooters.
Another key for the Magic is rebounding. If they can win the battle of boards -especially on the defensive glass- they can get out in transition and get some much-needed easy baskets. You do not want to play a half-court-set game against this good Pistons defense for an entire 48.
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