Full Court Press: Magically Atrocious

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Collegian Staff
on November 4, 2009 10:33 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey all you hoops fans out there, Tom Kinslow here, back with another installment of Full Court Press. If you missed any of last night's action, here's some of the highlights.

Oh, oh It's Magic: ...for the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons, who were without Rip Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince, (snapping his streak of 496 consecutive games played) defeated the Magic 85-80 at the Palace last night.

The Pistons were led by Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum who finished with 23, 20 and 20 points respectively.

Dwight Howard finished with eight points, five boards, three blocks and six fouls. To say this is poor performance is an understatement. The Pistons ran with a frontcourt of Ben Wallace, Charlie Villanueva and Jonas Jerebko. Howard should have been in full on Superman Mode from the jump but was stifled somehow by the Detroit bigs.

This is why Dwight Howard has not taken the full leap to the next level yet. He disappears in games, he has no post move or a jumpshot in his arsenal and can be taken out of games with the right strategy. Howard and the Magic get the Pistons at home on Friday night, let's see how they respond.

From the Land of Three: Note to the Philadelphia 76ers. GUARD THE PERIMETER! The Sixers gave up 14, that's right, 14 three pointers to the Boston Celtics last night as new look Celtics ran Philly out of their own gym 105-74. New addition Rasheed Wallace had six of those 14 as Boston ran away with this one in the second half.

This performance comes after the Sixers gave up 16 treys to Orlando in the season opener. It's going to be a bumpy road for the Sixers and their fans to start this season (maybe the whole season). Elton Brand looks lost in Eddie Jordan's Princeton offense and they clearly can't defend the arc. This could get ugly fast. The Sixers had just two players reach double figures last night. Show me some sign of life Philly. Please?


Performance of the Night: Dirk Nowitzki - 40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, five blocks. Not only is that stat line impressive, but 29 of those 40 came in the fourth quarter as Dallas scored 44, no that's not a misprint, 44 fourth quarter points to defeat Utah 95-86. That's what great players do, they take over games and will their teams to victory. Good night to have Dirk on your fantasy team.

Coming Soon to a Poster Near You: I figured I'd find my favorite play from the first week of the NBA season and share it with you. Here Carmelo Anthony puts Paul Millsap all over the highlight reel with this facial. Not even a hot shower will wash that shame off you.

- Tom Kinslow

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Dave Miniaci is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian's sports chief. He has previously been sports night chief and a sports copy editor. He has also covered men's rugby, men's track and field and field hockey. He is from New Jersey and is a big Devils fan and proud of both, and he doesn't care if you hold that against him.


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Adam Clark is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian's sports editor. He previously covered fraternity and sorority life, crime and courts and was the Collegian's summer 2009 news/sports editor. His favorite athlete died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 and his favorite football team is coming off the worst six-year stretch in NFL history. He does hold it against Dave Miniaci that he's from New Jersey.


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Dan Rorabaugh is a senior majoring in sports journalism and minoring in English. He is the sports copy desk chief, and was previously a reporter for the men's rugby, men's cross country, men's volleyball, women's soccer, women's basketball and men's lacrosse teams. Last year, the impossible dream happened - one of his favorite teams, the Phillies, won a championship. Now if only the Eagles could catch some of that magic, he might be able to actually find peace with sports.


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Michael Oplinger is a junior majoring in media studies and political science and the Collegian's assistant sports copy desk chief. He previously covered the men's tennis and men's volleyball teams. Even though he enjoyed the Phillies' World Series victory, he misses the days of Jose Mesa and David Bell.


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Eddie Gentile is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in history. He works on the sports copy desk and previously has covered the women's tennis team, the Lady Icers and the Penn State baseball team. Gentile is your stereotypical Philly fan - he considers every game a loss until they actually win... and even then he'll probably still be moaning. Go birds.


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David Rung is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in kinesiology. He works on the sports copy desk and previously has covered the women's swimming team and the men's rugby team. Rung isn't as die hard about pro sports as his sports staff brethren from Philly and Pittsburgh, but he does take pride in being a Red Sox fan before the bandwagon started.