damn, my boys whooped up on Orlando tonight...in an effort to take over when D-Menace is gettin tilted, i bring ya'll some interviews, stats, and other shit...
They held McGrady to a season low 13 pts..."Defensively, that's been our thing the whole season," said coach Isiah Thomas. "We want to be solid. We want to contest every shot. With McGrady, sometimes you catch him on a night when he's not having one of his better games. Fortunately for us, one of those nights was tonight. But he's a guy you're never really going to totally shut down. Next time we play, it wouldn't surprise me if he went for 40." ...Artest has proven his defense, holdin some of the finest players to career lows...don't forget last season when he held Jordan to his lowest point total since 86' or some shit (6pts.)...The tone was set right away, when Artest - aggressively bodying McGrady whenever he stopped moving or picked up his dribble - muffled the Orlando star. McGrady was 2-of-8 with three turnovers in the first period. The Pacers consequently seized control immediately, scoring the first 10 points of the game as the Magic missed its first 11 shots, and then rolling out to a 27-8 lead.
Artest became so firmly ingrained in his opponent's conscience that, on one of the rare occasions McGrady broke free for a short jumper, he looked over his shoulder rather than at the bucket and missed the shot.
"He did that?" Artest said. "Man, he's got to be more focused."
McGrady was 4-of-16 with eight points in the first half, and the Pacers held a 51-29 lead at the break. So thorough was the home team's dominance that a lead as large as 22 points was built before leading scorer Jermaine O'Neal made his first basket late in the second period.
There would be no comeback from the visitors. Playing its sixth consecutive road game and doing so without Grant Hill, Orlando got no closer than 21 in the second half.
"They were tired, for one, but you've got to give our defense some credit," said Harrington. "We didn't want to give them anything easy and, for the first time, we didn't give up a big lead, which was good."
next up...tommorow Detroit comes to town
They held McGrady to a season low 13 pts..."Defensively, that's been our thing the whole season," said coach Isiah Thomas. "We want to be solid. We want to contest every shot. With McGrady, sometimes you catch him on a night when he's not having one of his better games. Fortunately for us, one of those nights was tonight. But he's a guy you're never really going to totally shut down. Next time we play, it wouldn't surprise me if he went for 40." ...Artest has proven his defense, holdin some of the finest players to career lows...don't forget last season when he held Jordan to his lowest point total since 86' or some shit (6pts.)...The tone was set right away, when Artest - aggressively bodying McGrady whenever he stopped moving or picked up his dribble - muffled the Orlando star. McGrady was 2-of-8 with three turnovers in the first period. The Pacers consequently seized control immediately, scoring the first 10 points of the game as the Magic missed its first 11 shots, and then rolling out to a 27-8 lead.
Artest became so firmly ingrained in his opponent's conscience that, on one of the rare occasions McGrady broke free for a short jumper, he looked over his shoulder rather than at the bucket and missed the shot.
"He did that?" Artest said. "Man, he's got to be more focused."
McGrady was 4-of-16 with eight points in the first half, and the Pacers held a 51-29 lead at the break. So thorough was the home team's dominance that a lead as large as 22 points was built before leading scorer Jermaine O'Neal made his first basket late in the second period.
There would be no comeback from the visitors. Playing its sixth consecutive road game and doing so without Grant Hill, Orlando got no closer than 21 in the second half.
"They were tired, for one, but you've got to give our defense some credit," said Harrington. "We didn't want to give them anything easy and, for the first time, we didn't give up a big lead, which was good."
next up...tommorow Detroit comes to town
