Magic vs. Hawks NBA Playoffs Game 6 Line Orlando -2
The Magic vs. Hawks NBA Playoffs Game 6 line was listed at -2 with a total of 178. All odds courtesy of Sportsbook.com
The last one is always the toughest one. Thursday night the Atlanta Hawks will try and close out the Orlando Magic in Philips Arena in Game 6 of its quarterfinal series. The Magic recovered their swagger Tuesday in Orlando with a 101-76 victory over the Hawks. You might have felt that with a chance to end the series the Hawks may have put forth a stronger effort, but this game was pretty much over by halftime when Atlanta entered intermission trailing by 23. Sometimes teams leading 3-1 facing a Game 5 on the road will lack that sense of urgency, knowing that they have the buffer of another home game to clinch matters. But the longer a series goes on the longer for the unexpected and unforeseen circumstances to play a role. Now that this series has reached a Game 6, simple math dictates that Thursday night means entirely different things to each squad. Yet in reality, Game 6 is a must win for both teams, because Orlando does not want its season to end, while Atlanta does not want this series to extend.
Larry Drew’s Hawks had two players show up Tuesday in Orlando, Josh Smith and Marvin Williams, who scored 22 and 12 points respectively. No other player scored in double figures. Reserve guard Jamal Crawford who has averaged 20.8 PPG in the series could only tally eight points on 2-for-8 shooting. Joe Johnson is averaging 17.0 PPG in the series, but was a miserable 2-for-12 from the field with just five points. Nothing that Atlanta did offensively was particularly impressive, as it shot 36% from the floor, 25% from beyond the arc, and 69% from the FT line. "They had a good run," Crawford said. "They were making shots. They came out with a nothing-to-lose-type attitude. You could sense it and you have to tip your hat to them." Now Atlanta must hope for the power of the home court, where it was a respectable, but far from intimidating, 24-17 at home in the regular season, to quench its thirst for a series-clinching win. "We're in a situation where we still feel good about ourselves," Drew said. "We'll go back home. We still have an opportunity. Our fans are gonna be behind us, just as their fans were behind them. So we're gonna put this game behind us as fast as we can."
If there is one good sign for the Magic to take into Thursday, it is the knowledge that the rest of the team came through in a must-win situation on a night that leading scorer and rebounder Dwight Howard (27.4 PPG, 15.6 RPG in the postseason) only mustered eight points and eight boards. The Magic only had three players in double figures, compared to the Hawks two, but Orlando had greater balance, and finally began to hit some shots. Despite a 41% FG mark for the game, Orlando’s 42.3% from beyond the arc (11-for-26) was in stark contrast to the 2-for-23 effort they displayed in Game 4. Jason Richardson bounced back from his Game 4 suspension to score a team-high 17 points. Meanwhile J.J. Redick bounced back from his 0-for-9, two-point performance in Game 4 to add 14 points of his own. "The law of averages is eventually going to even out," Redick said. "We didn't shoot amazing tonight, but we shot very well."
What kind of team would it take to win a Game 6 elimination game on the road? Probably a team that was above .500 on the road during the regular season. Orlando was 23-18. What kind of team might be vulnerable at home? Maybe a squad that was 24-17 during the regular season, which is what Atlanta was. Long story short, the closest games in this series have been in Atlanta, and if Orlando has gotten all of its 2-for-23 three-point shooting nights out of its system, Van Gundy’s team has an excellent shot at forcing a Game 7.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
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