Tonight's match up between the Orlando Magic and the New York Knicks in the Amway Center in Orlando will be a good one, especially with the fact of Dwight Howard being a game time decision tonight. These two teams have met twice earlier this season, where in the first meeting in Orlando the Magic came out on top 102-93, behind a career best 30 points out of Ryan Anderson (who is lso listed as questionable for tonight's game) and the other match up being in New York, where the Knicks held the Magic starters to 42 points, 12 for Howard and 3 for Anderson, in a greatly defensively played game by the Knicks, where they came away with the win with no trouble at all, 108-86. Big problems for both teams? The Knick are 9-17 on the road, yet they hold onto the 8th spot in the playoffs over the Milwaukee Bucks by one game. Not only the dismal win percentage on the road, but they also are without stars Amare Stoudemire, out for a bulging disk in his back for a couple more weeks, and Jeremy Lin, who had surgery on a torn meniscus, who is out for the rest of the season and possibly the playoffs as well. Forward Jared Jeffries is also out for tonight, meaning that J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony will have to work much harder as they have been without those three for the past couple weeks. Without Lin and Stoudemire, the Knicks are 3-2. Also, that might give them trouble tonight against the league's best big man in the game, Dwight Howard, leaving Chandler one on one down low without help from Amare or Jeffries tonight. The Knicks held Dwight to 12 points 5 rebounds last time they played in New York, but they were not a depleted as they are tonight in the Amway Center. On the other side of the ball, the Magic are on a four game losing streak, trying to avoid their first five game losing streak in five years, and have been without Dwight Howard (back spasms) for the last two, and without point guard Jameer Nelson and Anderson last game against the Detroit Pistons, where they allowed 56 points in the paint, 19.1 more than their average when Dwight was on the court. The Magic also have more drama stirring up in their management, when earlier today coach Stan van Gundy commented saying Dwight wanted him fired. Howard defended himself, saying he said nothing and wants no part in the futures of anyone working on the team and that he only wants a ring this season with the organization and that's what he cares about right now. If Dwight does play tonight, we will see how things stir up between coach and player throughout the course of the game. Both teams have not played well at points in the season, where the Knicks now are coming off the loss of their coach Mike D'Antoni and with new interim head coach Mike Woodson they began his reign over the team by winning 6 straight games, and now they are trying to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Indiana Pacers, which they lost a late third quarter 17 point lead to lose 112-104. The Magic are on a 4 game losing streak, two without Dwight Howard, dropping from the third spot in the East to the fifth, but at times this season have played better ball than any other team, going on a hot streak in which they beat the team with the league's best record, the Chicago Bulls, at home and they also have split the season series with the Miami Heat, winning two games over them, the most recent in which was in overtime, where Howard had 24 points and 26 rebounds, where he announced he would stay with the Magic until the end of the season, signing with them the day after for next season as well. Tonight's match up will be physical, especially down low between Howard and Chandler if he plays, and both teams are looking to gain momentum heading towards the playoffs in order to make a championship run.
Prediction: 91-89 Knicks
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