{"id":12509,"date":"2011-01-15T16:11:39","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T21:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12509"},"modified":"2011-01-15T16:11:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-15T21:11:39","slug":"battle-up-north-orlando-magic-at-minnesota-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/battle-up-north-orlando-magic-at-minnesota-timberwolves-12509\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle up North: Orlando Magic at Minnesota Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic AT Minnesota Timberwolves
\nJanuary 15th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 Orlando -7
\nCurrent Line: Orlando -7.5
\nOpening Total: 209
\nCurrent Total: 209.5
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -350 \/ Minn. +290
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -350 \/ Minn. +270<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kevin Love will probably have another big game tonight, but will it be enough?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After winning nine straight, suddenly Orlando is looking to stop a losing streak.\u00a0 They dropped back to back games against New Orleans (by 3 in overtime) and another heartbreaker the next night to Kevin Durant and the Thunder, a one point nailbiter that could have been the Magic’s if not for Mr. Durant nailing down some key free throws in the waning moments of the game.<\/p>\n

Things might be easier against the Timberwolves who sit at 10-30 with a .250 win perecentage.\u00a0 They are a decent and respectable 8-11 at home.\u00a0 The Magic will have to avoid the slow starts that have plagued them recently.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t like that trend,\u201d Van Gundy said. \u201cWhether we have to make changes in that lineup or something, but those guys – we\u2019re just always in a hole now and that\u2019s not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last game against Minnesota there was no concern of a slow start on November 3rd as the Magic shot over 60% from the floor and blew the Wolves out by a ridiculous 42 points.\u00a0 Van Gundy hopes for similar success tonight, against a Wolves team that really only has two legitimate starter caliber players in Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, who have played superb basketball.\u00a0 They just haven’t received enough help and if Love doesn’t see a chance to play with a winning basketball team he may bolt in free agency this summer, putting an end to one of the few positive things in Minnesota’s recent years.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Orlando is 9-2 SU in their last 11 games and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 5 on the road, however, and they are 6-14 ATS in their last 20 road games.\u00a0 They are 5-0 SU in their last 5 against the Wolves and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 games against Minnesota.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 8 of the last 12, however, and the total has gone OVER in 4 of the last 5 road games against Minnesota.\u00a0 They are 5-1 SU in their last 6 on the road against the Wolves.<\/p>\n

Minnesota is 1-5 SU over their last 6 games and the total has gone OVER In 6 of their last 9 at home.\u00a0 They are 2-4 SU in their last 6 at home and also 2-4 ATS in their last 6 at home.\u00a0 They are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 against the Magic.<\/p>\n

Key matchups:<\/p>\n

Brandon Bass & Ryan Anderson vs.\u00a0 Kevin Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both Bass and Anderson are decent rebounders, but they are against the very best rebounder in the league this year and will have their problems keeping Love off the glass where he is averaging 15.7 boards a night.\u00a0 Failing to box out could spell disaster and leave Dwight Howard with fits trying to out leap Love’s good positioning.\u00a0 Minnesota is the best rebounding team in the entire league, even if they are horrible at everything else.\u00a0 Love will also stretch the floor, dragging Bass and Anderson away from the offensive boards where Milicic will do his fair share of rebounding as well.\u00a0 This is the key matchup of the game for the Magic as it pits their weakest starting position against Minnesota’s best.\u00a0 However, even if Love is able to exploit this matchup, it probably won’t be enough for the Wolves, as evidenced by the drubbing they took last time they faced the Magic.<\/p>\n

Hedo Turkoglu vs. Michael Beasley<\/strong><\/p>\n

As mentioned, Beasley is the only other player than Love to put together much of a season.\u00a0 Unmotivated and lazy, he was called a “lazy pothead” by his former GM in Miami, which drew criticism and a fine for the comment.\u00a0 Beasley has went on to prove him drastically wrong as he has emerged as a fine player this season, averaging better than 20 points per game and teaming up with Love and Milicic to give Minnesota a promising front court.\u00a0 If they can retain that core and add Ricky Rubio to the mix next year along with a couple of players signed for depth, they might have a decent team.\u00a0 Beasley has a unique combination of inside-outside play, but Hedo’s length should give Beasley some problems, given the fact that Beasley is much closer to 6’7″ than his listed 6’10”<\/p>\n

Minnesota has played better ball recently, winning 4 of their last 10, but NBA oddsmakers have made them 7 point underdogs for tonight.\u00a0 While they are decent at home, Orlando was 10-7 on the road before the last two games and seldom have trouble with sub par opponents on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orlando Magic AT Minnesota Timberwolves January 15th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 Orlando -7 Current Line: Orlando -7.5 Opening Total: 209 Current Total: 209.5 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -350 \/ Minn. +290 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Orlando -350 \/ Minn. +270 After winning nine straight, suddenly Orlando is looking to stop a losing streak.\u00a0 They dropped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[833,910,12,44,677,659],"class_list":["post-12509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-dwight-howard","tag-hedo-turkoglu","tag-kevin-love","tag-michael-beasley","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-orlando-magic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12510,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12509\/revisions\/12510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}