Suns at Magic 3/3

[FArting]

Once the center of the Magic Kingdom, Shaquille O'Neal returns to Orlando to face the player many consider the NBA's best center: Dwight Howard.
O'Neal, though, is not ready to pass the torch to the Magic big man. Especially with how the Phoenix center has been playing the past two games.

The two former No. 1 overall draft picks meet for the first time this season Tuesday night at Amway Arena as O'Neal and the Suns (34-25) look for their seventh straight victory against Orlando.The often-injured O'Neal has missed nine of his team's 15 meetings with Orlando since Howard was taken first overall by the Magic in 2004. O'Neal won the first three matchups, but Howard has won the last three.

Howard leads the NBA in blocks (2.9) and rebounds per game (14.1) and is among the league leaders in double-doubles this season with 47. Yet O'Neal didn't seem impressed earlier this season as Howard became the highest vote getter in All-Star Game history."He's a good player, but everything he's done I've invented, so I'm not impressed," O'Neal said. "For me to get my eyes wide open about another big man, he'll have to do something that I haven't seen before or something that I haven't invented. Everything that he's done, I've invented it."

O'Neal missed the Suns' 113-112 win over Orlando (43-16) on Dec. 12 while attending his great-grandmother's funeral. Howard was limited to 19 points and seven rebounds.O'Neal enters playing possibly his best basketball in years. He had 33 points and seven rebounds in Sunday's 118-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers after he had 45 and 11 in Friday's 133-113 win over Toronto.It's the first time he has posted back-to-back 30-plus point games since March 5-7, 2004, with the Lakers. The last time O'Neal had three straight 30-plus point games was March 30-April 4, 2003, when he had four in a row.

"I've been doing it since 1992," said O'Neal, who averaged 27.2 points and 12.5 rebounds for Orlando from 1992-96. "If you don't believe it, Google me."Howard, meanwhile, had his string of double-doubles snapped at five with 12 points and eight boards in Saturday's 106-100 win over Philadelphia.With Howard having a subpar game, Orlando turned to its outside shooting to secure its second straight road win. The Magic -- one of the NBA's most accurate 3-point shooting teams at 39.2 percent -- tied a franchise high with 37 attempts from long range, hitting 15. Rashard Lewis made five, rookie Courtney Lee nailed four and Hedo Turkoglu hit three."We decided to stick with it," Turkoglu said. "We're glad our shots went down."The Suns will likely get Steve Nash back Tuesday after the two-time MVP missed the last three games with a sprained right ankle. Nash has double-doubles in seven of his last eight games versus the Magic.

Phoenix is beginning a four-game road trip after improving to 6-2 under coach Alvin Gentry with the win over the Lakers."Obviously a great win for us," Gentry said, "against what I think is still the best team in the league."The Magic's last win over Phoenix was 111-102 in Orlando on Jan. 24, 2006.

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=290303019

 

[lou_skywalker]

GO SUNS!!!
Shaq will not let this one go ;D
btw, rumors saying that Stro could play as soon as Wednesday in Miami. That would be great

 

[Mainstreet]

btw, rumors saying that Stro could play as soon as Wednesday in Miami. That would be great

Do you have a link to your rumor?

 

[lou_skywalker]

Do you have a link to your rumor?

I saw it somewhere as a blog post from a Nets "insider"
I guess it is not definite yet.

 

[mjb21aztd]

Should be a great game tonight vs the magic i'm sure shaq will do a good job against Dwight Howard, but we really must stop Rashard Lewis from hitting 3's all day on us. By the way does anyone know if Nash is playing tonight I really hope he is... Also is it true we signed Stromile Swift if we did good signing for depth.

 

[TJ]

Nash is starting...just got text alert from KTAR

 

[Mainstreet]

Should be a great game tonight vs the magic i'm sure shaq will do a good job against Dwight Howard, but we really must stop Rashard Lewis from hitting 3's all day on us. By the way does anyone know if Nash is playing tonight I really hope he is... Also is it true we signed Stromile Swift if we did good signing for depth.

Can't until Wednesday from what I've read. It takes 48 hours to clear waivers.

 

[AfroSuns]

Keep the streak going.
Go Suns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ronin]

Go Suns!

 

[mjb21aztd]

nice thanks for the information tj I like our chances much better with nash still will defintally be hard to win though

 

[Shzm13]

The easts elite always flop against the west. I see tonight being no different.

Suns by 10!

 

[PhoenixMaverick]

Nash is starting...just got text alert from KTAR

SWEET !! ... GO SUNS !!!!
Bring on the kryptonite !!!!

 

[TheKid_1]

SWEET !! ... GO SUNS !!!!
Bring on the kryptonite !!!!

When did we acquire Nate Robinson?......again

 

[PhoenixMaverick]

When did we acquire Nate Robinson?......again

We have our Own kryptonite,

I just don't know who it will be tonight.

Will it be ?
Shaq?
Barnes?
Barbosa?
Jrich?
Nash?

take your pick ! ... imma say tonights kryptonite will be .....(drum rolll) ... SHAQ !!
and number 2 pick is BARBOSA !!

 

[Shzm13]

You just bent over and accepted that Dwight is superman over Shaq???

No no no!!


SHAQ = THE REAL Superman

 

[Shzm13]

Bahaha, foul on Dwight the first 11 seconds of the game

 

[Shzm13]

Shaq stickin it to Dwight.. Dwight cant do a damn thing but sit back and take it!

 

[PhoenixMaverick]

3 Turnovers already !!

 

[95pro]

nash back in, things not running smoothly. does he already have 2 turnovers??

atleast he made his jumper.

 

[PhoenixMaverick]

lol, orlando thinks they can run with us, we scored in 3 seconds again with lb's pass to hill layup

 

[Andrew]

decent start

 

[Shzm13]

Dwight fears Shaq

 

[Shzm13]

This is dwights chance to score, now that Shaq is on the bench

 

[PhoenixMaverick]

2 fouls on howard !! he wasted it on lou

lou is TERRIBLE in free throws

 

[95pro]

huge block by LB!!