MVN - Most Valuable Network

Calling Mo Evans

91-72 isn’t the way Orlando wanted to make a statement against the Detroit Pistons, but it is what it is and the team needs to pick it up for Game 2 on Monday. Dwight Howard sat a lot more than usual and played with a bad thumb that could affect his play later on, but he was solid in the first half. Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson also were good in the first half and Hedo Turkoglu played well also, but it trails off after that. Aside from the atrocious three-point shooting (18%) and foul-shooting (50%), I have beef with one more statistic…four. That was the amount of points Maurice Evans put up against the Pistons in Game 1.

It’s not that Evans scored just four points, but it was his three turnovers and uninspired played that got me. And it wasn’t just this one game that Evans played poorly in, it has been the entire playoffs aside from Game 1 and 5 against Toronto. In Game 3, he had zero points and three turnovers and while his three turnovers were the only of the series, I really can’t get over his poor play.

Against the Pistons, Evans looked tentative and consistently bobbled the ball, got caught behind screens and just looked confused. Against Toronto, he appeared that way through most of the series as well.

What’s disturbing about this is that Evans is regarded as a high energy player who scraps constantly. Not only has he looked lost on the court, but his willingness to go all out seems to have disappeared. Turkoglu’s up and down play is understandable given that he is banged up, but is Evans? I don’t recall an injury, so hopefully this isn’t mental.

While Evans’ poor play was a small reason for Orlando’s game one loss to Detroit, it also doesn’t bode well for him, as he’s in a contract year and is looking to impress teams. Perhaps that has him distracted, but Evans needs to turn it up a notch, both on offense and defense.

Perhaps Evans isn’t vital to Orlando’s playoff success, but he certainly factors into it. The Magic rely on him to provide energy, defense and to hit open shots, and he isn’t consistently bringing that. Game 2 is on Monday, and Orlando can overcome a poor shooting performance if they can start making shots. However, if Evans doesn’t pick up his play, Detroit will have a huge advantage in the backcourt for the rest of the series.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 8:13 am and is filed under Orlando Magic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.