Orlando Magic: Okay, let me get this straight. The Magic broke out of the gates at 16-4 -- which included an astounding road record of 11-2 -- then lost back-to-back home games to the Pacers and Hawks? Stunning. And make no mistake about it, this was a team loss. As a unit, the Magic shot 39 percent from the field (29-73), missed 20 three-pointers, bricked 12 freethrows, and had more turnovers (19) than assists (18). Jameer Nelson shot 2-for-8; Dwight Howard hit only 6 of his 14 foul shots and committed 5 turnovers; 10 of Rashard Lewis' 13 shots were three-pointers, and he missed 7 of them; Brian Cook submitted a stat line of 4 minutes, 1 turnover, and 2 personal fouls; and finally, Pat Garrity and J.J. Redick didn't get off the bench. Only Hedo Turkoglu -- 22 points (7-15), 7 rebounds, 5 assists -- gets a free pass tonight. To top it off, Rashard Lewis showed the kind of fighting spirit for which he was infamous in Seattle when he said: "It's frustrating, of course, but it's not the end of the world." Mind you, this is the same guy that sat out three and a half games of the 2005 Western Conference Semifinals with a sprained left big toe (as Craig over at The Association likes to point out).

Fun fact: The Magic are 11-2 on the road but only 5-4 at home. Fortunately for them, their next two games are on the road against the Bucks (8-11) and Bobcats (7-12).

Houston Rockets: Hold on, let me check the Official Tracy McGrady Injury Chart. Okay, it's mid-December, so it should be about time for an ankle injury...hey, right on schedule! Once again, the Rockets looked absolutely helpless without T-Mac, and were down 26 to the Sixers (9-13) going into the fourth quarter before garbage time ensued. Two fourth quarter minutes for Louis Amundson? That's a little thing we like to call The Human Victory Cigar.

Fun fact: Yao is having himself a season, scoring 22 PPG (on 51 percent shooting), grabbing 10 RPG, and blocking a couple shots per game. But it feels like those are just numbers, you know? He never really dominates a game or leads the team, which is why the Rockets are usually better off with Yao missing time than McGrady.

New York Knicks: Another loss (their third in a row) and another night of getting the business from a home crowd that hates them. On the bright side, they actually lost to a winning team this time, which is a step up from their back-to-back losses to the 76ers. For the record, Eddy Curry (who shot 3-11 and had only 3 boards) got outrebounded by Zach Randolph, Fred Jones, Quentin Richardson, David Lee, Dirk Nowitzki, Erick Dampier, Jason Terry, and Josh Howard. Eddy's about 7-feet, 280 you know. The bigger problem, though, was the Knicks non-existant defense: They "held" the Mavs to 54 percent shooting and forced only 9 turnovers, including 4 steals and zero blocked shots.

Fun fact: Another night with zero blocks for Zach Randolph. That's a fat two on the season for the East's littlest big man. Speaking of which, for the last several weeks we've had a running gag going about Zach Randolph's prolific shot blocking abilities relative to other players around the league, particularly guards (for instance, see here, here, here, and here). Guess somebody else noticed too.

Dallas Mavericks: They let a 23-point lead dwindle to seven before closing the game out. That wouldn't have been so bad except that the team who did the coming back was the Knicks. Should the Knicks ever come back against a good team? Probably not. And Avery Johnson was not happy about it: "We had a big enough lead and we should have kept it. The last two minutes or three minutes of the third quarter was absolutely pathetic. The guys who were in there let the whole team down." Sounds like the Little General is a little stressed out about his team's lackadaisical defensive efforts.

Fun fact: Dallas ($93,628,1768) and New York ($88,877,161) have the highest payrolls in the league by a lot. The next closest team is Denver ($80,253,547). For the record, I think Mavericks spent their money a little more wisely than the Knicks.

Phoenix Suns: I'm not ready to hit the panic button just yet, but the consecutive losses to Minnesota (3-15) and Miami (6-15) are a little disheartening. As for their latest embarrassment, well, I'll put it this way: 40 points is usually a good half for the Heat, but they had 40 in the first quarter against the Suns. Furthermore, Miami averages 92 PPG on 45 percent shooting this season, but those numbers inflated to 117 points on 58 percent shooting against Phoenix. Worse, it was the second of back-to-back road games and the final stop in a six-game road trip for the Heat. There's no excuse whatsoever for the Suns to have lost this game. I'm going to put on my Bill Walton mask and state that their defensive performance was a disgrace to the sport of basketball and everything James Naismith ever stood for.

Not so fun fact: Another rotten game for Boris Diaw: 2 points (1-3), 1 steal, and 1 turnover in 16 minutes. I think Brian Skinner has officially stolen Diaw's spot in coach D'Antoni's rotation. No, seriously.

Milwaukee Bucks: The poor Bucks lost their fourth game in a row, and their eigth in 10 tries, to fall to 8-12 on the year. Remember when this team was 7-4 and the talk of the league? The Bucks have just been finding new and crushing ways to lose since their giddy start. This one was a classic come-from-ahead loss, as they got outscored 30-19 in the fourth quarter and lost by 3.

Fun fact: Have you ever heard of Royal Ivey? He plays about 12 MPG for the Bucks, believe it or not. One of Royal's official Yahoo pictures is an image of him getting schooled by Austin Croshere. Anyway, he used to play for Atlanta, where he got the nickname "Cheese", in reference to the Royale with Cheese exchange in Pulp Fiction.

Labels: Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns