After winning their first two games of the season, the Magic suffered their first loss which came at the hands of the Bulls to the score of 99-93. Arron Afflalo scored a game-high 28 points on 10 of 17 shooting, while E’Twaun Moore filled in for the injured Jameer Nelson and scored 17 points, but the the Magic allowed the Bulls to score 31 points in the fourth quarter and earn the comeback win. On a side note, Glen Davis had his worst game so far, scoring 16 points on seven of 22 shooting before fouling out.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves were on the right end of a comeback victory as they fought back from 22 points down to beat the Nets by 107-96. Nikola Pekovic had his best game of the season, scoring a team-high 21 points, while Andrei Kirilenko had 16 points, but it was the combined efforts of Chase Budinger and Alexey Shved that sparked the Wolves’ winning run to snatch the victory. On the defensive end, the Wolves were perhaps even more impressive, as they allowed just 34 points in the second half after giving up 62 in the first.

Head to head, the Magic are 6-1 ATS in the last seven meetings overall and 5-0 ATS in the last five meetings in Minnesota.

Although we’re only a few games into the season, I’m already impressed by this Magic outfit. On paper they have a pretty average team, but their attitude is great and they showed they were good enough to push the Bulls to the brink in their last outing. The Wolves have an extra days rest and will be playing in front of their home crowd, but I’d rather take the Magic with the points in this meeting. Go Magic.

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