11/10/2009 - 14:38
Taking on the Magic
by Devon Jeffreys

Tyson Chandler and his Charlotte Bobcats' hope to continue their sparkling play at home (3-0) tonight, but they'll have a big obstacle in the house when Dwight Howard brings the Eastern Conference Champion Orlando Magic into Time Warner Cable Arena.

Tyson last played against the Magic on Christmas Day last year when the Magic routed TC's Hornets in Orlando. No. 6 recorded seven points, five rebounds and three blocks that day.

But Ty hopes to be able to corral Howard in a way former Charlotte center Emeka Okafor was unable to.

Howard had one of the best games of his career against Charlotte last season, posting 45 points and 19 rebounds in a 107-102 Magic victory last February.

Examiner.com's David Sentendrey points out the major differences between Tyson and Okafor:

"Chandler creates little offense for himself, but his defensive presence is a step-up from Emeka Okafor, who Dwight Howard consistently dominated when facing Charlotte.

Chandler, who stands at 7'1, will have more height to match up against the 6'11 Howard, compared to the 6'10 Okafor."

At Rufus on Fire, David Arnott believes the key to the game will be on the glass:

"Last year, Orlando was tremendous on the defensive boards, but spreading the floor left them extremely thin on the offensive boards. Thus far this year, they're not quite as good at defensive rebounding, but they're improved on the offensive glass, probably because of the changed style.

They were content to let opponents get lots of rebounds as long as they were making lots of threes, too, but now that the three isn't such a potent weapon for them, they can't afford to allow so many boards off their misses and continue to be successful."

With that in mind, Tyson's rebounding ability could prove to be an enormous difference, as noted by Bobcats Break:

Tyson Chandler comes into tomorrow night's game with Orlando with two solid performances in his pocket from Friday and Saturday night. Against the Hawks and Bulls combined, Chandler went 10 of 13 from the field and averaged 11.5 points. He pulled down 17 rebounds in two games, seven of them offensive, and blocked six shots.

Head Coach Larry Brown has talked about opening Chandler's game up a little bit. Before you start thinking about Chandler putting the ball on the floor and driving to the basket, Tyson reminded me that those improvements will come out of his post-up game.

Chandler says his big goal is to keep his defensive man occupied to the point where he won't leave Chandler to help defensively on Boris Diaw and Gerald Wallace. So far, defenders that have been evacuating Chandler are finding it hard to avoid being “posterized” on one of his dunks.

Tip-off between the Magic and Hornets is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST and all the action can be seen regionally on Fox Sports Carolinas.

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