Glad to see everybody post on here, we need all the b'ball fans we can get, debate adds excitement. All are welcome.
Just keep tellling yourself that. I have my opinion and you have yours. As I have already stated, I'm not playing this yes you are, no I'm not game with you. See you Friday.
I felt that Orlando came out kind flat, weren't making shots mostly due to the intensity that Cleveland brought on the defensive side of the ball. I felt that Orlando just wasn't prepared for the matchup that they got. Dwight Howard came to play, but LeBron made some amazing plays defensively on Howard blocking a couple of his shots. Rashard Lewis was pretty much making everything he was throwing up. Hedo made a couple of nice shots, but LeBron has him pretty much kept from doing much. LeBron is great on defense. Definitely a strong showing by the MVP. Courtney Lee didn't contribute much for his little bit of playing time, although I like his confidence. Guy is going to become something special for Orlando. Mickael Pietrus did well coming off the bench. I think that's where Orlando made great adjustments. The guys on the bench got some nice amount of playing time and Pietrus made a lot of his time on the floor especially guarding LeBron. I think he was giving LJ some hard times. It's definitely going to be a great series. We have to limit Moe Williams and Delonte West. Those guys are critical to Cleveland's success. LeBron is going to do LeBron, we just have to limit his easy looks. Guy is just too good though, so what we did against him, we did well. Make him shoot the ball from outside and limit his time dominating the paint. I hate Verajao, as much as he flops, I'm glad they didn't give him a few calls tonight. I guess they see his cheap **** too. What did you think about tonight?
I just looked at the stats, and C. Lee played 27 minutes and had only 4 points. He needs to step it up.
I see your points, I feel like we ended this game like the last Celtics game in Orlando, where Baby smacked it in our face. They weren't having as good of a game, and just ended with a win, just like we did tonight. We got it done, and we'll have our hands full next game in Cleveland for sure, they'll be more than ready. I hope it's not a blowout.
There's no way that we come out into that big of a deficit once again. They learned why the Cav's went undefeated so far in the playoffs. Magic made the right adjustments and they had an unbelievable comeback. You're right, it is just like when the Celtics came back when Big Baby Davis made the game winning shot. Awesome that it happened in the Magic's favor this time. I feel that the Cav's are in for a long series.
I believe there was 1 clean blocked shot against Dwight the entire night, and it was from behind by Lebron. The two where he was straight up against howard and basically Tomahawk chopped him were absolutely astounding no calls by the officials. There's "ticky tack fouls", then there's "letting them play", and then there's what we saw in Game 1...seemingly one sided bull****. Thankfully we still came out on top, but I was sickened by the officiating tonight in LeGod's favor.
Yeah, and just the way that ended was awesome. Just a stab through the heart. Those Cavs fans' faces were speechless. I'm glad we got to see that, and I hope we don't see those kind of faces in Orlando.
It happened on both sides of the court tonight. I saw a few fouls that weren't called on the Magic in the 2nd half. It helped the momentum to tip in Orlando's favor. Definitely going to be a physical series. Dwight fouled out in critical last minutes of the 4th quarter. Luckily the Magic came out on top. I have much respect for the abilities of Gortat.
Yeah man, I'm sure Cleveland will be ready next game. We barely won tonight, and jeez, LeBron can hit from anywhere's, so I'm not concerned with it being an easy game for Orlando next time. We've got to have our full game on, but so does Cleveland, because otherwise, this will happen again.
I told you all... don't worry about the games we play when I work. I also work Friday so it should be 2-0 Magic.
What a joke. Doc Rivers was on the Radio making excuses for the Celtics... Yeah, I guess we should just ignore that many teams have injury problems this time of year. In particular, the Magic went into the playoffs without our All-Star PG, with a battered Hedo Turkolou & Rashard Lewis...and then had to deal with Courtney Lee fracturing his sinus during the first round.....3 of those 4 players have been battling through their injuries. Cry me a ****ing river, Coach Rivers.
Yeah, really. Doc, you're such a piece of **** going on a local radio station after the playoffs and discussing the state of your team as you head into the offseason. /Sarcasm You guys won the damn series (although by some of the comments in this thread, you sure as hell wouldn't know it), move on with some class. By the way, goodluck against Cleveland.
Lebron will get his, that's true. What the Magic need to worry about is getting good looks on their end. The Cavs have a good D. They need to move the ball and get good looks. I don't think anyone of their players can stop Lewis or Turk. That'll be key.
That's not even what I criticized him for. It was his whining about being injury depleted, including listing off his players who weren't named in his injury report. I won't condemn you for your refusal to actually read anything that was posted though... It's pretty damn funny seeing you tell Magic fans to "move on with class", considering its your fans running around ridiculing Orlando in the wake of Boston's defeat, constantly spewing garbage about the health status of your team, while ignoring Orlando's. I'm tired of seeing the hypotheticals coming from your fans, it's nauseating. Especially considering the reactions Boston fans had towards Laker fans any time the word injury was brought up when discussing last year's NBA finals. FACT: INJURIES HAPPEN, STOP CRYING AND MOVE ON
I listened to the actual interview on WEEI. Doc wasn't whining about anything, in fact Doc praised the Magic for the resiliency they showed during the series in an earlier interview. A fact that the article conviently left out. Nice generalization. Care to show me where I made excuses for Boston's play? The Celtics were beaten by a better basketball team, it happens. Again, what "hypotheticals" are you speaking of? Stuff you read on an ESPN message board? Way to paint an entire fanbase with a broad brush. I'm sure I can partake in a similar exercise by whining and complaining about the comments of idiot Magic fans, too. Also, I love the whole "stop crying and move on" statement coming from a fan whose team is up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, yet seems to be more concerned with the happenings of a Celtics organization that prepares for their offseason. Give me a break.
So he didn't whine about injuries? The facts dispute this... Nice reading. Show me where I accused you of making excuses. What I did was mention "your fans"....and now you take that as some kind of personal prod against you? The hypotheticals are referring to every time a Boston fan brings up the whole "if we were healthy, celtics in 4/5" nonsense that I have been having to hear all over the place. Half my family lives in Mass, and I have already heard it from a couple of them as well. It's more than just a few fans spewing this, and the ones who aren't saying these things are not taking any criticism from me. That's what I don't seem to understand here, is how you can take offense to my condemning the fans whining about hypotheticals, when at no point had you been part of that criticism. You are being overly defensive for no reason. FACT: Both teams had injury issues, Doc was merely playing the sympathy card in the media- which deserves criticism & ridicule.
Not sure how else to take it. There's idiot fans in every fanbase, I'm not sure why you would concern yourself with them. EDIT: Regarding Doc, I listened to the interview again... and I just don't feel as though he's making excuses, especially considering his comments in the wake of Game 7.
You are a Boston fan no? Boston fans telling the Magic to "move on with class", when you should have been telling that to some in your own fanbase. I can agree on this without a doubt, but I would like to point out that my criticism was only lobbied at specific fans- largely stemming from conversations with my own family & random Boston fans on message boards. While I see how anyone can get defensive over their team/coach - I still feel more than justified in lobbying such remarks against anyone who conjures up hypothetical match-ups. The part that bothers me the most about that, is the notion that Boston was the only team in that series who were battered.
There's hardly any Celtic fans on the board, and the ones that are here have not behaved in the manner which you speak. So in an effort to not derail this thread, best of luck in throughout the remainder of the playoffs. It was not my intention to get into a pissing match with you, but sometimes I get defensive with all the anti-Boston drivel around here and for that, I apologize.
I didn't mean this board. Both the ESPN board & the Celtics Inside Hoops board are ones I have noticed the snide remarks from. I really don't intend to blanket the entire Boston fan base, but it was blanket criticism against a certain part of the fan base.
Truthfully speaking, when all teams are healthy in the East, Boston is the team to beat. They bring it on both sides of the court better than any team in the league, and I feel Doc's frustration as much as I hate Boston sports. Sure, Orlando has gone through a few key injuries as well, but no one has suffered a bigger injury than what Boston suffered by losing Kevin Garnett. I think they're easily the best team in basketball when healthy, but there's no way to prove it when you're not... which is why Doc further went onto congratulate Orlando. I don't have any issues with his comments. I'm sure most people aside from Magic fans agree without any doubt.
That's because you didn't even pay attention to what he said. He started listing almost every player on his team, most who were not on the injury report - and said they were all playing hurt for various reasons. This is where the criticism stemmed from, not from the fact they are without KG. To that point anyways, I thinkt he only reason that anyone has such an opinion is from complete hype & star persona. Numbers-wise, KG and Jameer Nelson bring about the same to the table. They are both outstanding defensive players per their position as well. However, Jameer Nelson not only handles the ball during every offensive possession...but he gashes defenses & creates players for others along with shooting 45% from behind the 3 pt line & being overall the most consistent shooter that we have. Now, when you factor in as well the injuries to Po on Boston to the magic losing Courtney Lee's healthy status along with Hedo & Rashard coming off injuries at the tail end of the season(they didnt even play in the final reg season games because of this concern) - Orlando and Boston were about on equal playing fields when it comes to how healthy they were. The key difference was where the injuries existed & what kind of strengths each team still possessed. -Both teams took extreme hits on the defensive end, KG was a little worse off there though. -Boston's frontcourt was severely hurt by losing KG & Po, but they still had big body Centers to use against Dwight who played very well. So we can't act as if they simply didn't have any size or talent in their FC. -Orlando's Backcourt was decimated. We had to make a desperate trade right at the deadline just to maintain survivability. Not only losing our All-Star PG/"Best Shooter", but Courtney Lee became our Starting SG and was a major part of our success this season. The fact that Game 1-CLE was his first start since his injury says alot, as well as just looking at his limited minutes. Now all that said, Boston's strengths were then relegated to soley Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, & Rondo taking over, with some help from their solid bench. Unfortunately for Boston, this didn't happen enough to take 4 games. Orlando still had a healthy Dwight Howard & still had enough shooters to "load the breach" against the Celtics. So even though I still feel that both teams were technically equally hindered by Injuries- the match up became more of a problem for the C's in the end because of Orlando's style of play.
Very good read here. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playo...?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090521
Apparently Jameer Nelson may be available to play if the Magic appear in the finals. Also here's links to audio from Thursday's post practice interviews. STAN VAN GUNDY RASHARD LEWIS DWIGHT HOWARD JAMEER NELSON
I can't find the link, but I watched a video where he was being interviewed today and that there's a possibility of him coming back if the Magic beat the Cavaliers. If this happens I might do a Martin Gramatica. EDIT: FOUND IT.
Well you sure missed probably the best comeback ever in the EFC. AMAZING game for both teams, and I'm glad Orlando came out on top. BY 1 POINT EVEN. This is one helluva matchup and I hope Orlando can pull out another tough win tomorrow night.
LOL... did you guys see Dwight Howard's LBJ impersonation during his halftime interview tonight? I laughed out loud.
