ATLANTA vs. ORLANDO NBA FREE ANALYZED PICK OF THE DAY:
Dwight Howard,one of the most feared players in the NBA and the Orlando Magic look to get off to a strong start to the season in tonights opener against the visiting Atlanta Hawks who will try to build from their strong finish last season. Orlando went 52-30 last season to win the division title and eliminated Toronto in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to win its first postseason series since 1996 before losing to Detroit in five games in the semifinals. The Magic had its best season in a decade in which Howard was responsible for most of the success as he earned first-team All-NBA, second-team All-Defense honors and finished fifth in MVP voting avering 21.0 points, a league-high 14.2 rebounds and led the NBA in double doubles with 69. In four games against the Hawks last season, Howard averaged 16.5 points and 13.8 rebounds leading the Magic to two victories. Orlando lost guards Keyon Dooling, Carlos Arroyo and Maurice Evans but return a strong scoring core with Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. Turkoglu averaged 19.5 points and shot 40.0 percent from 3-point range while Lewis averaged 18.2 points and made 40.9 percent of his shots from beyond the arc last season. The Magic led the East in scoring with 104.5 points per game and finished second in the conference in shooting percentage with 47.4% and led the league with 801 3-pointers. This year the Orlando Majic are in position to contend for an NBA championship. The Hawks on the other hand are probably a few years away from contending for a championship as they try to improve on last season's finish. Atlanta went 37-45 to earn the East's final playoff spot and made its first postseason appearance since 1998-99. The Hawks faced Boston in the first round and took the eventual NBA champion Celtics to seven games. Atlanta won all three games at Philips Arena but lost by at least 19 points in each game in Boston. The Hawks return leading scorer Joe Johnson, who averaged 21.7 points and Josh Smith, who averaged 17.2 points and 8.2 rebounds but lost valuable sixth-man Josh Childress to a team in Greece. Atlanta will count on two players who made their Hawks debuts last season to make bigger impacts in 2008-09. As a rookie last year, center Al Horford averaged 10.1 points, a team-high 9.7 rebounds and was named the runner-up for the NBA rookie of the year award. Point guard Mike Bibby was acquired at last season's trade deadline to direct the offense and he averaged 14.1 points and 6.5 assists in 33 games for Atlanta.With a full season to play together, the Hawks should continue their succcess from the end of last season. The Hawks are one of those teams that can win any game this season as they will be ready for Orlando in tonight's opener.
TAKE ATLANTA+8
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UNDER 188 Indiana/Detroit
GOLDEN ST.+6 vs. New Orleans
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