Game 2: Atlanta Hawks at Orlando Magic Tues. April 19, 2011 7:30 p.m. EST

The Orlando Magic came into this series with the division rival Atlanta Hawks as the favorites to advance to the second round and continue their run at the NBA title. Despite the fact that Dwight Howard had the game of his life with 46 points and 19 rebounds, the Magic fell the Hawks and showed that they might not be good enough to get the best of their division rivals this time around.

There is no question that the Atlanta Hawks are a talented young team with potentially bright future in the Eastern Conference, but they just don’t seem to have that x-factor like some of the best teams in the league do. With All-Star Joe Johnson and Al Horford leading the way, the Atlanta Hawks will always have an opportunity to win basketball games and go deep into the playoffs, but I believe the Orlando Magic will come back to life in Game 2 and even up the series at one game apiece.

The key to the Orlando Magic’s resurgence in Game 2 will be the performance of players around Dwight Howard. In Game 1, Howard showed that he is arguably the best center in the game and ready to take this team to the next level, but with poor performance from the role players around him, this team is destine to fail.

As of right now, the Orlando Magic has been dubbed big favorites to avenge their Game 1 loss with a -8.5 point spread. Even though it has become apparent that the Atlanta Hawks will not be going down easy, Dwight Howard and company will almost certainly get back on track in Game 2 with a win in Orlando.

Take the Magic at -8.5

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