by Charley Rosen

Comment

It's strictly a two-team race for supremacy in the Southeast Division, with Atlanta looking to demonstrate that it can play on at least even terms with Orlando. While the Magic held on to win this one, stretching their lead over Atlanta to five games, Wednesday's fiercely contested battle indicates that these two teams will go at each other full blast for the next three months.

Here's how these two outfits match up:

Point Guards

Mike Bibby is strong and willing enough to set screens on bigger opponents, and he remains a dangerous if erratic long-range shooter. Except for a tendency to force too many cross-court passes, Bibby's passwork is admirable. But Bibby no longer has the quickness to get himself to the hoop in anything except open-court situations — even so, he missed an open breakaway layup in the waning minutes that would have sliced Orlando's lead to a deuce.

On defense Bibby has trouble navigating his way around screens.

Behind Bibby is Flip Murray, a professional scorer. If he lacks Bibby's range and isn't quite as sharp a passer, Murray does everything else better than Bibby. Neither of these guys plays much defense.

Bibby had trouble finding the range against the Magic, but Murray's high-octane performance off the bench was a major factor in the Hawks being able to reduce a 21-point deficit and make the endgame competitive.

For the Magic, Jameer Nelson started out like a house on fire — and his early hot shooting bailed out his team's lethargic offense — but couldn't sustain his effectiveness as the game progressed. Part of the blame for his late-game blues falls on his taking too many ill-advised bombs. He did throw a pair of super-duper lob passes that Dwight Howard turned into dramatic dunks.

Like Bibby, Nelson isn't quick enough to get to the hoop on a regular basis — but Jameer can penetrate deeper into the paint, draw more defensive attention and execute kick-out passes better than his counterpart. And like Bibby, Nelson's defense consists of successful gambles that result in steals.

Anthony Johnson is Nelson's backup, and was the only point guard on the floor who could play at least a modicum of defense. At age 34, AJ is no longer much of a threat to score off his bounce, but he can (and did) hit open treys, and he ran the offense with efficiency.

Advantage: Atlanta because of Murray's scoring prowess.

Shooting Guards

Joe Johnson is one of the best in the business at this position — but the Magic took great pains to double JJ and take him out of the game — which they did as he shot 5-17 and scored only 13 points. In fact, the only relatively easy shots that Johnson could find occurred in early offense sequences. To his credit, Johnson avoided forced shots and sought to make the Magic pay dearly for two-timing him with some deft passing — he had nine assists.

Mo Evans backed up both wing slots, hit a brace of treys and was the best defender on the floor.

Young Courtney Lee started for Orlando and was a positive presence at both ends of the court — dropping smooth jumpers and making a critical last-minute block on a pull-up jumper by Johnson.

J.J. Redick played what was clearly the best game of his pro career in support of Lee. He knocked down several jumpers, hit a splendid running 15-footer, made a driving lefty layup and a sweet floater. All told, Reddick was 5-7, with two assists and 11 points in 19 minutes.

He also managed to stay hidden on defense, except when Murray attacked him and wound up with a surprisingly uncontested layup.

Advantage: The Magic's duo outplayed the Hawks' shooting guards in the game at hand, but Joe Johnson remains a standard of excellence at the position.

Small Forward

Marvin Williams had a nice game — scoring on several acrobatic drives and hitting his share of rhythm jumpers. If only he could play at this level night after night, the Hawks would be a much better team.

Evans did some yeoman's work here, too.

Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis are just about interchangeable, but for argument's sake, let's say that the former was the small forward.

That said, Hedo has the smoothest jumper on his team — and he likewise has the greatest effective range. He may be slow afoot, but his tricky drive and long first step can usually get him deep enough into the paint (like Bibby and Nelson) where he can attract defensive attention and make clever kick-out passes — he led the Magic with eight assists.

Turkoglu is also one of the three Magic players who can score in the low post — he does his damage there mostly with a step-back jumper.

Lewis was Turkoglu's primary backup.

Advantage: Magic because of Turkoglu's versatility and Lewis' dynamic scoring.

Power Forward

Josh Smith is a supremely talented individual. When he attacks the rim, he's virtually unstoppable — making complicated layups, rousing dunks or slick passes to open teammates. Trouble is that Smith is in love with his jumper — a high-arcing shot that's extremely erratic.

Except for one or two outstanding efforts, Smith was totally incapable of adequately defending Lewis.

Was that Randolph Morris subbing for Smith? If so, he did a wonderful Claude Raines impersonation.

And it was Lewis in the low post who provided the go-to scoring that Orlando needed to ice the game. Indeed, most of his points came on either isos or open jumpers that resulted from kick-out passes from either Nelson or Turkoglu.

If Smith couldn't guard Lewis, Rashard returned the favor.

Tony Battie contributed zilch as Lewis' substitute.

Advantage: Smith has the tools to someday leave Lewis in the dust, but that may never happen. For now, this position is a wash.

Center

As expected, Dwight Howard dominated the interior — 23 points and 19 rebounds. He showed a nifty running hook, but his baseline spins were too loose. When he was doubled on the catch, Howard made some accurate out-passes. But when he was doubled on the move, he had tremendous difficulty picking his dribble and executing even the simplest passes. Howard is also loose with the ball when he can't catch and go.

Too bad Howard still lacks maximum effort on defense. His help was routinely late, he failed to challenge as many shots as he could have, and he showed remarkably little presence on defense.

Marcin Gortat hustles — he blocked a fast-break layup — works hard at both ends, but can't handle and can't shoot when facing the basket.

Al Horford is a natural power forward. He had a better percentage shooting jumpers than he did shooting layups. Horford posted-up three times and produced a turnover and a pair of stumbling moves that were almost embarrassing. But he climbed the glass and labored mightily on every play.

Solomon Jones rebounded, hit a jumper and got called for cheap fouls on defense.

Advantage: Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Team Offense

Orlando ran a few screen/rolls, otherwise they either pounded the ball inside or ran some perfunctory plays that ended up in isolations. Mostly they depended on the individual efforts of Howard, Nelson, Turkoglu and Lewis to create their scoring opportunities. They're not a terrific ball-handling team, but perimeter shooting is their specialty — and because they can field so many outstanding scorers, their offense is explosive.

Atlanta ran several sets that involved high-, weak-side and baseline screens, and handoffs as well. With no reliable post-up scorer, most of their points came on swing passes after JJ was doubled, individual efforts, or drives-and-kicks. When they were patient and moved the ball from side to side, they generated plenty of open looks — but patience isn't one of their virtues.

Advantage: Orlando.

Defense

Orlando was slow to rotate on the perimeter, and only want to play tough defense on the strong side.

Atlanta plays a sniping defense that attacks wing-entry passes and ambushes passing lanes.

Advantage: Orlando by a slight margin.

Until the Hawks can find a big man who can bump and bang with Howard in the middle, and make him play serious post-up defense, then Orlando will remain the superior team.

Straight Shooting

There's always constant chatter about which NBA players are the league's best. LeBron vs. Kobe vs. D-Wade vs. KG vs. TD and so on.

But let's turn the argument upside down and list (!) in alphabetic order the worst players in the NBA.

It should be noted, however, that all of these guys are far superior to just about every player who participates at some lesser level of competition. Some of the players listed below are young and developing, some have never developed, some have limited specialties, and many of them are 7-footers.

JOEY DORSEY (Rockets) is strong, tough and willing enough, but his lack of sophisticated skills makes him unable to earn much playing time. Perhaps if he was 7-feet tall instead of 6-9, and his shoulder were squared off instead of sloping (to increase his reach), Dorsey might have a viable future in the NBA.

HAMAD HADDADI (Grizzlies) is a clumsy 7-2, but the best thing about him is that he won't be getting any shorter in the near future.

JEROME JAMES (Knicks) is perpetually injured and/or out of shape and at 7-1 occupies one-and-a-half seats at the end of the bench.

MARK MADSEN (T-Wolves) is an experienced hustler, cheerleader and fouler.

PATRICK O'BRYANT (Celtics) is still another 7-footer who does little more than take up lots of space.

CHEIKH SAMB (Clippers) is a leansome 7-1 and 195 pounds. When he walks past a light, passersby can see his heart beating.

Vox Populi

If you have a question or comment for Charley Rosen, submit it below and Charley may just respond. Subject: Comment/Question: Name:  Email:  Hometown:

In a recent column, you mentioned that Phil Jackson (he of 9 NBA championships as a coach) got fired from a Puerto Rican summer league team. How did that happen? — Rob Skimmyhorn, Portland, OR

Teams in the Superior League play every other night before some of the most passionate fans in the world. The gyms are small, the air is hot and humid, and since each team represents a town, the competition is fierce. Gunshots are frequently fired during and after ball games.

Doug Moe, Chuck Daly and Red Holzman are among dozens of NBA coaches who picked up a few extra bucks coaching there in the summer.

Also, before the NBA declared the practice verboten, several NBA refs also spent working summer vacations in Puerto Rico.

Many of the players were born in New York and are called New Yoricans, and many have played college ball on the mainland. But several are islanders and speak very little English. During Phil's first summer, he needed a translator in order to communicate with most of his team. This proved to be a difficult obstacle to surmount.

Also, virtually all of the players have an aversion to practicing and to arriving at games on time. And if an imported coach tries to fine these players into obedience, the sympathetic owners invariably rescind the fines.

Moreover, the referees there are among the most egregious homers anywhere.

But the bottom line that led to Jackson's being canned was that he simply didn't win enough games. However, the owner of the team realized that PJ was still an excellent coach, so he arranged for Phil to coach another team in the league.

In all, Jackson coached in Puerto Rico for three seasons and admits to learning a lot about non-verbal communication.