As the 2015-16 NBA Regular Season gets underway with the 1st 3 games being on Tuesday the 27th of October we chose to preview a game in the 2nd day of the Season on Wednesday the 28th of October as 2 Eastern Conference teams face off as the Wizards of Washington play at the Magic of Orlando with the game being played at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida with tip-off scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.
For those that Bet on NBA and at an Offshore sportsbook the opening lines have the Wizards favorites at -4 with the Over/under in the game at 205 ½ and no Money Line available at this time. This is the 3rd year for the Wizards with head coach R. Wittman and each year they have shown improvement. While the young Magic team will debut their new head Coach S. Skiles as the team starts this season with high hopes.
If you a fan of the Wizards of Washington your team this season returns most of the starters with the exception of P. Pierce for a team that made it last season to the conference semifinals with a record of 46-36.
Losing a player of the caliber of Pierce is a big change, but their O. Porter showed the positive signs that he is ready to move into the starting role at the wing spot this season. Porter during this year’s post season in 36 minutes of play time averaged 11 points and 8 rebounds.
This season the Washington Wizards are switching to a new style of play that is faster that works well with their stars in J. Wall and B. Beal. Point guard Wall has become a top guard in the league who has averaged 17.8 points and 10 assists in each game during last season that put him in a double-double category. On the other hand Beal who had an injury that took him out of 19 games on the season still averaged some 16 points during the season, but in the playoffs averaged 24 points.
In the games the Wizards had with the Magic which amounted to 4, Wall scored on average 18.6 points and had 10.7 assists. He’s a playmaker whose penetration in the lane sets the style of the offense of the Wizards, and an offense that has performed well against the Magic as in 3 of the 4 games last season they shot near 50% from the field as last season the Wizards swept the series with the Magic. Thus, now they are 8-0 in the last 8 games with Orlando.
For the avid fans of the Magic of Orlando you team is very young and talented, while their future and present looks promising. They started out with bringing in a new Coach in S. Skiles to help the struggling defense that ended 2014-15 at 25-57 and ranked 25th in the efficiency on defense for that period.
Their new Coach Skiles has some interesting players now to work with on the defensive unit in the duo of V. Oladipo and D. Payton in the backcourt, as the 2 youthful are very vicious defensive players and have the ability to keep up with the dynamic duo of the Wizards.
The offense of the Magic last season also struggled as they ended the season ranked in offensive efficiency at 26th. Thus, they added to their roster a rookie in M. Hezonja who is a hot shooter who they hope provides some need shooting skills. Plus the new game scheme of Coach Skiles, along with the continued improvement in the performance from his young and talented roster in stepping up the offense for the Magic.
Last season the team’s leading scorers was their Center N. Vucevic with 19.4 points per game and Forward T. Harris with 17.2 points each game. In those 2 players in the games against the Wizards in 2014-15 both players shot 56 percent while Vucevic averaged some 18 points and Harris averaged 17 points in those 3 games.
Another big role player this season for the Magic who was a rookie last season in Payton, as he seeks to improve his scoring against the Wizards as last season he only averaged 7 points and 33% from the field and in assists he had 4.2 and those stats were the lowest for any team he faced 4 times in the season.
With their new Coach and another year of playing experience for their young players, the Orlando team is hoping to comeback from a terrible end to their season in 2014-15 as they lost their remaining 7 games at home for the season.
The sports betting prediction for this game is that the young Washington Wizards team will shine as the beat the Magic 95-88.