Photo: AP
A promising week for the Orlando Magic hasn’t included Mario Hezonja very often. Evan Fournier’s emergence has kept him on the bench. It continued last Wednesday against Houston, as Fournier exploded for 29 points. Hezonja was reduced to just 11 minutes and failed to get on the stat sheet. Orlando ended up losing 119-114 in overtime, which is already their second overtime loss of the season.
After another close loss, Orlando finally closed out a game against a quality opponent. They took over the fourth quarter by outscoring the undefeated Toronto Raptors by ten, which secured a 92-87 win. Hezonja played 22 minutes in a decent performance. While only shooting two for six from the field, the well-touted rookie played well defensively and didn’t back down from DeMar DeRozan.
Although Hezonja’s minutes continue to be inconsistent, Scott Skiles will begin to appreciate his contributions off the bench. In a 103-97 win against Philadelphia, Hezonja scored 11 points in just 12 minutes of action. The rookie was aggressive by going five for eleven from the field. With star shooting guard Victor Oladipo struggling with an ankle injury, Mario stepped up when called upon to help Orlando start their first winning streak of the season.
Hezonja shines against Philadelphia
Orlando will look to keep up their positive momentum against the Los Angeles Lakers tonight. They continue their home stand on Friday against Utah, which appears to be a clash of emerging young teams. A key divisional game against Washington on Saturday ends their week.
Photo: AP
As the Brooklyn Nets continue to struggle, Bojan Bogdanovic continues his strong start to the season. The new six-man scored 12 points on five of eleven shooting in Brooklyn’s 101-87 loss to Atlanta. It was the fifth straight playoff opponent that the Nets have played this season. This has proven to be a nightmare scenario for a rebuilding team. This was one of Bogdanovic’s better games of the season, as you can see through the highlights below.
Despite playing their first non-playoff team, Brooklyn still couldn’t win their first game of the season. An embarrassing 104-98 loss to the rebuilding Los Angeles Lakers will start raising serious questions in Brooklyn. Bogdanovic was limited to just five points in 22 minutes of action. It was another weak performance by the Nets, where they couldn’t get into a consistent offensive flow or get enough stops defensively.
The losing streak hit seven games in Milwaukee. Bojan scored 13 points on five of ten shooting in 24 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to stop Brooklyn’s bleeding. They lost 94-86 on Saturday in another winnable game. They simply can’t find offensive consistency based on poor play from Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack.
Bogdanovic continues to play major minutes.
Just when this situation couldn’t get more difficult, Brooklyn will be headed on a three-game road trip starting tonight against Houston. They face Sacramento on Friday, as both teams are searching for positives. A quick trip to Golden State on Saturday doesn’t look very promising. Brooklyn finishes their week on Tuesday in a playoff rematch against Atlanta.
Photo: USA Today
Andrew Bogut returned against the Detroit Pistons on Monday night after suffering a concussion earlier in the season. The Croatian-Australian came off the bench and finished with a solid stat sheet: 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 8 points on four of seven from the field. The Warriors will most likely continue to bring Bogut off the bench and eventually ease him into the starting lineup.
Warriors coach Luke Walton on Andrew Bogut after the game
Bogut “was great, absolutely great,” interim head coach Luke Walton said after the Warriors’ 109-95 victory. “He was huge in defending that monster they have over there. Bogut is brilliant on the basketball court with his passing and playmaking.”
Photo: NBA
Damjan Rudež played 2 minutes and 29 seconds against the Miami Heat on Thursday night. The Croatian international finished with one turnover and one foul with zeros across the board. Rudež looked on from the bench on against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday and against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Damjan managed to get off the bench against Charlotte on Tuesday night for seven minutes of action. Rudež made one out of two three point shots and finished with a rebound and an assist to go along with three points.
Photo: Fox Sports
Sacramento Kings undrafted rookie, Duje Dukan, made the Kings’ opening night roster but hasn’t been on the team’s active roster sheet during the first week of the 2015-16 NBA season. Duje will most likely be assigned to the D-League to further develop his game. The Split born forward moved to the United States when he was 10 months old and played college basketball for the University of Wisconsin.
Hey sportos and ball bouncer and kickers watchers, do yourself a favour and see why this blog should be more oriented towards political assassinations and maybe even massacring fifa scum asap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc
Grobar Hezonja will be fine. Nothing to worry about, at least not based on two weeks.
He’ll be fine.
Aaron Gordon is another big talent that Orlando has on the bench as well, and he also ended up seeing limited time in his rookie year last year and finished with something like 5ppg. His playing time this year is only minimally increased and he’s still coming off the bench.
Nevertheless, every Orlando fan and pundit will tell you that these two (Hezonja and Gordon) are the future starting 3 and 4 on this team (and not Fournier and Tobias).
Tobias Harris they re-signed because they don’t want to lose an asset for nothing, but they acknowledge that he only really has ‘okay’ potential and is always going to be a third fiddle type player at best. He seems to have already plateaued a bit.
Fournier has had a strong start to the season, and judging by the fact that they didn’t re-sign him to an extension, I am betting that they are showcasing him hoping to score something in a trade. Guy is playing almost 40 minutes per game!
Anyway, these two (Tobias and Fournier) are the reason Hezonja and Gordon are not starting right now, and I guess Orlando is hoping to see if this current team is good/deep enough for a late Eastern Conference playoff spot. If so, then they’ll choose to develop Gordon and Hezonja slowly, but if not, I can see these two getting a huge spike in minutes near the end of the season.
I’ve watched some hezonja and so far it’s been pretty disappointing
in the pre-season his game seemed perfect fit for the nba just to jack 3s
he’s seemed a bit more passive in the regular season
but perhaps most worrisome is his reluctance to get to the hoop and drive which was the major analytics knock on him coming in
i believe he shot more 3s than free throws in spain the year before
still got high hopes for him though!