The Atlanta Hawks surrendered the best record in the East to the Orlando Magic on Thanksgiving with a 76-93 home loss. The Hawks dropped to 7-1 at home, and rightly so, wearing red alternate uniforms more suitable for the road.
The Magic were sparked in the second half by Dwight Howard and Anthony Johnson, highlighted by a large alley-oop dunk by Howard from a Johnson lob.
I was keen to see both these teams after catching them both during One HD’s coverage of the 2009 NBA playoffs. The Magic didn’t look as good as the team that beat the Cavaliers, and the Hawks didn’t look as good as the team that beat Dwyane Wade. Having said that, the Hawks looked a lot closer to their ceiling (2nd half FG% aside) than the Magic. I won’t be surprised to see these two teams meet in the playoffs this season.
The game also wrapped up the November schedule on One HD. Be sure to check out the December schedule and then follow all the action with the NBA Scoreboard addon for Firefox.