Sixers, Magic tied at half

Philadelphia, PA (The Phanatic Magazine) - The Sixers and Magic are tied, 36-36, at halftime.

Sensing its season was on the line Orlando raced out of the blocks, making six of its first seven shots in the game and taking a quick 14-8 edge before Tony DiLeo called his first timeout.

The Sixers responded with four consecutive buckets out of the stoppage, capped by a Willie Green three, his second of the quarter, to forge back in front 17-14, and force Stan Van Gundy to stop things.

This time the Magic settled down after the timeout and answered with consecutive hoops to take back the edge on the see-saw.

Things remained tight for the rest of the frame and Orlando took a 24-22 edge into the second after Donyell Marshall came up empty on a wide-open three from the right wing.

Dwight Howard went to work early in the second quarter, drawing fouls on Theo Ratliff and
Samuel Dalembert, the second for both, in a 10-second span. That forced DiLeo to go
small and use Reggie Evans in the pivot.

The Magic actually didn't take advantage until Howard left the floor and Hedo Turkoglu figured he could drive to the basket with little duress.

Nonetheless, the Sixers kept it tight and the game was deadlocked at 34 when Orlando's big man returned to the floor with a little under five minutes to go until the half.

Both teams went ice cold from there and the game was even at 36 heading to the locker room.

Game Notes: JB Smoove (Leon Black from Curb Your Enthusiasm, the best show on
television) is in the house...Sixers fan and Philly native Kevin Eubanks of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno played the National Anthem on his guitar...The
Magic shot 66.7 percent from the floor in the first quarter...The Sixers were actually 5-of-10 from long range in the first half versus 1-of-8 for Orlando but were a miserable 10-of-34 from inside the arc. The bench was the main culprit, combining to shoot 2-of-13 in the half.

Sixers Spin: After a solid Game 1 Lou Williams has been awful, shooting 6-for-22 from the floor. He was 1-of-5 in the first half.

***Sixers only went to the foul line twice in the first half. veteran officials (see Steve Javie in Game 2) are the ones using the "Jordan Rules" for the stars. It's Dick Bavetta tonight although the Sixers are settling for way too many jumpers.