And on the third day of the NBA regular season, Orlando officially opened the new Amway Center with a dominating 112-83 win against Washington in front of an announced crowd of 18,918 fans Thursday night.
This is what the “War on I-4” is really all about. On Saturday at St. Pete Times Forum the Orlando Predators and Tampa Bay Storm battle for the American Conference Championship and the right to advance to the ArenaBowl. The Predators hold a slim 23-22 lead in the series.
It seems every week the Orlando Predators are fighting for their playoff lives. It’ll be that way once again this Friday, just as it was in a heartbreaking shootout this past weekend, when South Division foe Alabama comes to town. The Preds lost 77-70 in OT on Saturday.
A week after suffering a gut-wrenching loss at home, the Orlando Predators bounced back with their best performance of the season. The Preds blew out the league’s best team, the Jacksonville Sharks, 70-48 in front of a season-high 14,010 at Amway Arena.
The Orlando Predators started the 2010 season ranked No. 5 according to the Arena Football League Writers Association. But then they dropped the first three games of the season and suffered losses to the rival Tampa Bay Storm and newly-formed Jacksonville Sharks.
It was a tough Friday night for local sports fans in Orlando. The NBA’s Magic and AFL’s Predators each suffered big losses to rival teams. Football spectators at Amway Arena were treated to a double dose of heartache as the NBA game was shown on the arena jumbotron.
By the end of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday at Amway Arena, the Orlando Magic had disposed of four opposing players en route to a 113-92 win over the Boston Celtics. The series picks back up with Game 6 in Boston on Friday at 8:30 p.m.
A Kissimmee native leads the hometown arena football team… A former FCSL player becomes the first to get a call from the majors… A former Bishop Moore lax standout plays for a title in his last game… and several student-athletes signed college papers last week.
With the basketball world having already left them for dead, the Orlando Magic gutted out a 96-92 overtime win in Game 4 on the road in Boston. That effort returns the Eastern Conference Finals to Amway Arena on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
When the Orlando Magic need a clutch shot in the final moments of a big game they turn to Rashard Lewis, the $118-million dollar man the team signed in 2007. Though in the Eastern Conference Finals it’s as if Lewis is nowhere to be found.