#3 Indiana Pacers vs #6 Orlando Magic

Indiana Pacers: 42-24, 23-10 at home, 19-14 on the road

Orlando Magic:- 37-29, 21-12 at home,16-17 on the road

BballBreakdown Chat with Evin Dunlap of Orlando Pinstripe Post and Tom Lewis of Indy Cornrows-

Playoff Series Outlook

In the regular season, the Magic beat the Pacers three out of four times. These results won’t give fans a good preview of what to expect since the Magic had Dwight Howard in these games.

There were large disparities in free-throw attempts, 3-pointers, assists & personal fouls in favor of the Magic. Much of this can likely be attributed to Dwight Howard commanding so much attention and getting fouled or passing out to 3-point shooters.

Without Howard the Magic are even more of a perimeter oriented team that relies on the 3-pointer. Indiana has athletes at wing and perimeter positions so it will be hard for Orlando to get open looks.

Indiana’s size will be too much to overcome for Orlando. The Pacers have at least four interior players- Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough, David West & Louis Amundson- that will combine to give Orlando major problems. The Magic’s frontline features Ryan Anderson, Glen Davis (who just got injured) and Daniel Orton. Orton is in his second season out of Kentucky and played only sparingly until Howard got injured. Look for the Magic to go small and play Hedo Turkoglu at power-forward, however Turkoglu has missed games and is still adjusting to a mask to protect his surgically repaired right cheekbone.

Written by Arun and Coach Nick

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