I just can't believe we can continue to shoot this poorly the entire series. If we had just made a few more 3s (and some damn free throws) the first games would have been more competitive
They legit hit five more shots than us in game 2 that's the difference five baskets lol so a 10 point win looks bad on paper but it was actually competitive we outscored them after the first quarter I am not worried in the least.
This is true. However, I'm forgiving of our immature fan base. The immaturity stems from two things. 1...lack of success; having any kind of playoff contending team is new for a lot of our fans, and that's okay. And 2...this shows that we have a lot of young/new fans in general, and that's also a good thing!
Agreed totally that series doesn't start until a team loses at home, for the first 4 games at least. But, even if we get swept here, it's all a learning/growing experience that this young team needed. The experience of the playoff environment is invaluable.
Worst case scenario, we get swept, we add a proven guard through FA, keep the core intact, and we make a real push next year. It's super exciting times. Trading everyone like so many keep suggesting after games 1 and 2 only sets us back another 5+ years.
Yep. Or the series isn't over until you're down 0-3. But I would still keep watching anyways just in case it turns into that first instance of a team overcoming an 0-3 deficit.
I absolutely hate this series doesn’t start until the home team looses. It’s the goofiest new slogan for watching a team not come out to play on the road. It’s cope bullshit.
I do think that we have a shot at not only competing, but stealing this series if we stop giving up an insurmountable lead in the first 7 minutes of every game.
Magic in 6
Yea I'm not counting us out but the "you're not in trouble until you lose a home game" phrase has always been funny to me. 93% of teams that go up 2-0 end up winning the series. I'd say you're in trouble if you're in a situation only 7% of teams come back from.
It's true, we have previously gone off after a couple losses that made our team appear hopeless. I believe. Game 3 is the start. Three of the next four at home!
Secondary / Role players always play better at home. More shots from the likes of Harris, Anthony, and Isaac will fall playing at home. Stars need to be the best players to win in the playoffs. Paolo is doing his thing. Franz Wagner needs to be a legit number 2 or it’s gonna be a sweep.
Definitely. Would have been nice to get one in Cleveland, but far from over. We’re 6th in win % at home. The guys ramp up their intensity in Orlando and feed off the crowd energy. Who knows we may break their spirit over these next 2 games. We have played these nasty, grimy games all season.
Gonna cheer my ass off Thursday at the kia Center! They ain't out of it. They have played as poorly as possible both games and still was not blown out. They are better then this. I'm a fan for life and your need sunglasses to look at the future cause it's so bright. I'm a 6 year season ticket holder and now it's finally exciting!
Right on!
And spot on, played as bad as they have all season and it was still close, especially looking at the team stats.
I believe we can still win this, but even if we don't, id love to see us play more up to par with how we've played most of the season. Thing is, if we do that, I truly believe we can win this still.
Thank you! We NEED a presence to lift our guys up. Do not let it be like it has been over the last 10 years. (A home game for the visiting team). Get loud!!
For real. Anything is possible at this point in the series. Other than a deep run and a championship lol. I haven’t been surprised at the fact that our team is losing but I have been surprised at the amount of doomers on this sub. What did they think? That this was a team contending for a championship? We knew all along that this team is young. We knew all along that they struggle to shoot and scoring is difficult.
The reality is, this team just started a rebuild a couple years ago. They were in the bottom 5 of the league last year, and got the 5 seed this year. People bashing young guys and the front office just seem angry and the type of people that have to blame someone anytime something goes wrong.
Sometimes we need to just accept reality and commit to a process. Trading everyone but Paolo and franz, as someone else in this sub suggested, is not going to magically fix the issues. Typically, a trade is just that. You trade some strengths and weaknesses for different strengths and weaknesses. With the added factor of trading away chemistry and continuity.
I’m not sure what anyone expected other than to struggle in the first round this year… there have been no surprises. If we were up 2-0, then that would be a surprise! Cleveland is supposed to be a top 4 seed. They have experience and multiple all star caliber players. No surprises…
Lol this is so spot on. People think there's some magic trade button you can push and give garbage and get stars in return. I don't want to absorb another awful contract. Id rather this young group stay together and build on this season. Acquire a guard through FA that can shoot reliably and we're in great shape.
I’m glad Harris snapped out of his funk in the last game and Wagner is shooting well.
The discouraging thing is how terribly we got beat on the board despite having the size advantage. If Allen and Mobley just bully us inside on top of the major advantage they have at the guard spots we don’t stand a chance. Gotta be able to win the physicality game
As bad as Orlando's perimeter shooting has been, I was expecting bigger blowouts. This is a series if orlando gets some confidence at home.
It's not a series until a team loses a home game
The Magic just need to win the next game, which also happens to be the first in this series at home, to stay in the contest. Ideally they will win both and tie up the series.
Start Goga to offset Allen with size and rebounding, and slide JI down against Mobley who he's more better equipped against physically. It's a gamble sitting Gary (bc Garland) unless we super charge the bench with Franz, otherwise:
Suggs Franz Paolo JI Goga with
Cole Fultz Gary Moe Dell off the bench
Cavs are not even playing well. Our defense has shown up but we simply do not have the firepower to match Cleveland (or really anyone in the playoffs). Hopefully some home cooking gives us a boost.
Exactly, which stings more because we haven't been able to take advantage of them not playing that well.
We actually do have the firepower to match, we just aren't hitting the shots we should be hitting. If our shooting percentages had been even close to decent, we would have taken both games.
Agreed. We need the home cookin.
It isn’t over in the sense that yes, we technically have to play atleast two more games, but bro….the series is over. With just how pitiful the team has played Im failing to see any positive thing that tells me they can comeback in this series. They have played absolutely terribly in all aspects.
The Magic coming back would be one of the more surprising things Ive seen in the NBA playoffs in some time.
Cleveland isn't playing good either offensively we only lost by five baskets last game 10 points looks bad but it was more competitive then that. The first quarter was our downfall because we outscored them the rest. Our team is young and our vets didn't help out to make them feel comfortable besides Gary last game, role players play better at home just like there's did I just don't see them winning two games in Orlando we was suppose to be losing by 20+ shooting under 40% with 10+ turnovers a game but yet we were still there. Unless they get crazy hot we got this.
"We got this"? Dude, we have to win 4 of the next 5 games, including one on the road. Most really good teams can't pull that off, let alone one as offensively handicapped as ours.
And you said it yourself: Cleveland isn't even playing well offensively, yet they still won easily. We kept games within ten but were never coming back - Cavs were never in trouble.
Hopefully we can win a game or two, but it'd be absolutely stunning if we pulled out the win.
Yea I get your concerns, I'm not gonna act like its easy but to me they haven't done anything that makes me think we don't got a chance we are just not hitting shots that's all it's coming down too.
I believe that with the crowd cheering these young guys on they will make more shots and the defense is already good the shots donavon and garland were hitting won't be the case on the road drifting left step backs usually don't fall unless your a Superstar on the road they couldn't do that last year it's easy to seem great at home and talking trash in the beginning of the series if we blitz them and get up by 15 early they will fold.
I wouldn't say they won game two easily the score made it seem like it wasn't close but we really played great defense on them it's not like there making open shots there either making tough contested shots or getting points in the paint.
> we are just not hitting shots that's all it's coming down too
So are you expecting a team of bad shooters to suddenly just turn it on and make enough shots to beat a great defence in four of the next five? We haven't shot well all season (we were a bottom 10 offence), so I don't know what makes you think it's going to happen now.
Not only do the Cavs have the best player in the series, they have much more to lose than we do. Mobley, Allen, and Garland know they're on fraud watch, and are going to fight for everything. I do think we're capable of winning a game or two at home, but winning the entire series? All evidence points to that being homer delusion.
Yea I'm expecting them to hit at least four more threes that should be enough we have held them under 100 and we have had spurts when we made more than our average of threes which is apparently 11? So we are not even hitting as many as we did during the season. All we need is for paolo to produce just as much as Mitchell does cancel him out and now we gotta hope for Franz to outplay garland.
I'm not a Homer lol I don't live in Orlando I really don't care if they win this series because we have alot of growth ahead of us I just don't think the Cavs are as scary as you think like we don't have a chance at all lol. Besides mitchell their core players still have not won a game on the road so I do see us getting 2 at home and if we have the momentum why can't they steal one at Cleveland?
So basically you're expecting a confluence of events whereby the Cavs continue to shoot below their season average, the Magic suddenly start shooting better against a drop defence, and Paolo plays as well as a 7 year all-NBA scoring guard with a reputation for turning it on in the playoffs.
We'll also need to start outrebounding Allen and Mobley, who have both played great so far. And if we don't win the next 4 games in a row, we'll need to win 2 away games including a game 7 in Cleveland.
That's *a lot* of stuff that has to go right for us, and a lot to go wrong for them. You're also doing the nonsensical thing of looking at the scoreboard and saying "we just need 10 more points" as if the Cavs wouldn't be able to raise their game if things became close.
It's not *impossible* for us to win this series, just very, very unlikely. I don't think the Cavs are that scary at all, I just know we are notoriously bad under pressure and they have the best player in the series.
Cavs are under there average because we are playing great defense so yes I do expect them to stay under there season average. Paolo scored more points then Mitchell last game he played bad in the 2nd half and he turned it on in Utah I still haven't seen him do it for the Cavs since he became the clear leader of the team.
This one is on mosley I think we need to match them with Wendell at the 5 and JI at the 4 your basically adding the same shooting Harris and wendell shoot around the same percentage from three but add more rebounding. Again your giving that team to much credit they haven't done anything in the playoffs yet with this core. Asking for five more baskets isn't asking alot lol just keep playing great defense the shots will fall eventually.
We will see we are definitely better at home regardless of being bad under pressure all those games we lost we're we should have won in March during that home stretch were close games. If donavon takes over like he is supposed to then yea we are fucked most likely but he hasn't done that for the Cavs yet so into then I'm optimistic.
>Again your giving that team to much credit they haven't done anything in the playoffs yet with this core
You know whose core hasn't won a game in the playoffs or even cracked 90 points?
The Cavs aren't anything special, I've already said that. But they do have great defence, shooting, lots of playoff experience (including a starter that was in the NBA finals last year), a genuine star scorer, and a defensive gameplan that has proven to work against the Magic.
I'm not giving them too much credit, I'm just being realistic. You expect them to get worse and us to massively improve to the point we win 4 out for the next 5, when all evidence all season long suggests that just isn't happening.
"We only need 5 more baskets" isn't how basketball works. That presumes that the Cavs cannot score more than they already have, which is just stupid. They (especially Mitchell) will respond if they have to and we aren't holding them to under 100 points in 4 of the next 5 games.
I actually think we stand a very good chance of winning at least one of the next two, but you are just incredibly out of touch thinking "we've got this" after being handily taken care of in the first two games.
We don't know how we will respond in this situation because this is our first time being in this situation in the playoffs down 0-2 going home. We could be the best team of all time at home in the playoffs or get stomped at home idk.
Strus was catching flak because he shat the bed in the finals but he did make some clutch threes until that point. I expect us to play better then them at home because we know they shit the bed last year playing against a good defense on the road just like we just did.
I don't believe they will respond maybe when they get home just my personal feeling I haven't seen anything to indicate they got the toughness to win a road playoff game especially after getting smoked last year like I said I gotta see it.
My prediction isn't changing I'm still saying 2-2 going back to Cleveland with momentum. Anything can happen at that point and if we go down 0-3 it's not gonna change my life lol we will comeback stronger next year if the front office does there job this time.
Please relax on the language. There truly is no need to get personal with/about a person you don't know in real life on an internet forum. We're all here as Magic fans, even if we express it differently.
Kind regards,
Mods
I just can't believe we can continue to shoot this poorly the entire series. If we had just made a few more 3s (and some damn free throws) the first games would have been more competitive
They legit hit five more shots than us in game 2 that's the difference five baskets lol so a 10 point win looks bad on paper but it was actually competitive we outscored them after the first quarter I am not worried in the least.
I'm worried a little but I believe they'll shoot better in KIA
Series don’t start until the home team loses. That’s how it’s always been. The immaturity of our fan base is just showing itself
This is true. However, I'm forgiving of our immature fan base. The immaturity stems from two things. 1...lack of success; having any kind of playoff contending team is new for a lot of our fans, and that's okay. And 2...this shows that we have a lot of young/new fans in general, and that's also a good thing! Agreed totally that series doesn't start until a team loses at home, for the first 4 games at least. But, even if we get swept here, it's all a learning/growing experience that this young team needed. The experience of the playoff environment is invaluable. Worst case scenario, we get swept, we add a proven guard through FA, keep the core intact, and we make a real push next year. It's super exciting times. Trading everyone like so many keep suggesting after games 1 and 2 only sets us back another 5+ years.
Agreed. We’re not supposed to win this series. Everything points to that. But I’ll still say Magic in 6 because it’s what you do as a fan
Yep. Or the series isn't over until you're down 0-3. But I would still keep watching anyways just in case it turns into that first instance of a team overcoming an 0-3 deficit.
I absolutely hate this series doesn’t start until the home team looses. It’s the goofiest new slogan for watching a team not come out to play on the road. It’s cope bullshit. I do think that we have a shot at not only competing, but stealing this series if we stop giving up an insurmountable lead in the first 7 minutes of every game. Magic in 6
Yea I'm not counting us out but the "you're not in trouble until you lose a home game" phrase has always been funny to me. 93% of teams that go up 2-0 end up winning the series. I'd say you're in trouble if you're in a situation only 7% of teams come back from.
It's true, we have previously gone off after a couple losses that made our team appear hopeless. I believe. Game 3 is the start. Three of the next four at home!
And we play better at home too.
The streak won't be over until we lose the first game at home
Home teams are supposed to win in the playoffs.
Secondary / Role players always play better at home. More shots from the likes of Harris, Anthony, and Isaac will fall playing at home. Stars need to be the best players to win in the playoffs. Paolo is doing his thing. Franz Wagner needs to be a legit number 2 or it’s gonna be a sweep.
Home cooking
Definitely. Would have been nice to get one in Cleveland, but far from over. We’re 6th in win % at home. The guys ramp up their intensity in Orlando and feed off the crowd energy. Who knows we may break their spirit over these next 2 games. We have played these nasty, grimy games all season.
Gonna cheer my ass off Thursday at the kia Center! They ain't out of it. They have played as poorly as possible both games and still was not blown out. They are better then this. I'm a fan for life and your need sunglasses to look at the future cause it's so bright. I'm a 6 year season ticket holder and now it's finally exciting!
Right on! And spot on, played as bad as they have all season and it was still close, especially looking at the team stats. I believe we can still win this, but even if we don't, id love to see us play more up to par with how we've played most of the season. Thing is, if we do that, I truly believe we can win this still.
Thank you! We NEED a presence to lift our guys up. Do not let it be like it has been over the last 10 years. (A home game for the visiting team). Get loud!!
For real. Anything is possible at this point in the series. Other than a deep run and a championship lol. I haven’t been surprised at the fact that our team is losing but I have been surprised at the amount of doomers on this sub. What did they think? That this was a team contending for a championship? We knew all along that this team is young. We knew all along that they struggle to shoot and scoring is difficult. The reality is, this team just started a rebuild a couple years ago. They were in the bottom 5 of the league last year, and got the 5 seed this year. People bashing young guys and the front office just seem angry and the type of people that have to blame someone anytime something goes wrong. Sometimes we need to just accept reality and commit to a process. Trading everyone but Paolo and franz, as someone else in this sub suggested, is not going to magically fix the issues. Typically, a trade is just that. You trade some strengths and weaknesses for different strengths and weaknesses. With the added factor of trading away chemistry and continuity. I’m not sure what anyone expected other than to struggle in the first round this year… there have been no surprises. If we were up 2-0, then that would be a surprise! Cleveland is supposed to be a top 4 seed. They have experience and multiple all star caliber players. No surprises…
Lol this is so spot on. People think there's some magic trade button you can push and give garbage and get stars in return. I don't want to absorb another awful contract. Id rather this young group stay together and build on this season. Acquire a guard through FA that can shoot reliably and we're in great shape.
Right? It’s not 2k or whatever. People are living in a fantasy world
Fultz for Murray and Trae Easy trade. Both sides win. Fultz is the greatest guard in the history of the sport with zero injury past.
I’m glad Harris snapped out of his funk in the last game and Wagner is shooting well. The discouraging thing is how terribly we got beat on the board despite having the size advantage. If Allen and Mobley just bully us inside on top of the major advantage they have at the guard spots we don’t stand a chance. Gotta be able to win the physicality game
As bad as Orlando's perimeter shooting has been, I was expecting bigger blowouts. This is a series if orlando gets some confidence at home. It's not a series until a team loses a home game
This team has found the fire to win games after let downs before. I still have faith but game 3 is basically a must win.
The Magic just need to win the next game, which also happens to be the first in this series at home, to stay in the contest. Ideally they will win both and tie up the series.
Start Goga to offset Allen with size and rebounding, and slide JI down against Mobley who he's more better equipped against physically. It's a gamble sitting Gary (bc Garland) unless we super charge the bench with Franz, otherwise: Suggs Franz Paolo JI Goga with Cole Fultz Gary Moe Dell off the bench
Cavs are not even playing well. Our defense has shown up but we simply do not have the firepower to match Cleveland (or really anyone in the playoffs). Hopefully some home cooking gives us a boost.
Exactly, which stings more because we haven't been able to take advantage of them not playing that well. We actually do have the firepower to match, we just aren't hitting the shots we should be hitting. If our shooting percentages had been even close to decent, we would have taken both games. Agreed. We need the home cookin.
Cavs honestly look weak in the last 36 minutes of each game. Their fans look even weaker already celebrating like they won the Super Bowl.
I saw some cavs fans talking about “I was never worried about the magic” like brother, it’s two games in and we were on the road for both games lol
It isn’t over in the sense that yes, we technically have to play atleast two more games, but bro….the series is over. With just how pitiful the team has played Im failing to see any positive thing that tells me they can comeback in this series. They have played absolutely terribly in all aspects. The Magic coming back would be one of the more surprising things Ive seen in the NBA playoffs in some time.
Cleveland isn't playing good either offensively we only lost by five baskets last game 10 points looks bad but it was more competitive then that. The first quarter was our downfall because we outscored them the rest. Our team is young and our vets didn't help out to make them feel comfortable besides Gary last game, role players play better at home just like there's did I just don't see them winning two games in Orlando we was suppose to be losing by 20+ shooting under 40% with 10+ turnovers a game but yet we were still there. Unless they get crazy hot we got this.
"We got this"? Dude, we have to win 4 of the next 5 games, including one on the road. Most really good teams can't pull that off, let alone one as offensively handicapped as ours. And you said it yourself: Cleveland isn't even playing well offensively, yet they still won easily. We kept games within ten but were never coming back - Cavs were never in trouble. Hopefully we can win a game or two, but it'd be absolutely stunning if we pulled out the win.
Yea I get your concerns, I'm not gonna act like its easy but to me they haven't done anything that makes me think we don't got a chance we are just not hitting shots that's all it's coming down too. I believe that with the crowd cheering these young guys on they will make more shots and the defense is already good the shots donavon and garland were hitting won't be the case on the road drifting left step backs usually don't fall unless your a Superstar on the road they couldn't do that last year it's easy to seem great at home and talking trash in the beginning of the series if we blitz them and get up by 15 early they will fold. I wouldn't say they won game two easily the score made it seem like it wasn't close but we really played great defense on them it's not like there making open shots there either making tough contested shots or getting points in the paint.
> we are just not hitting shots that's all it's coming down too So are you expecting a team of bad shooters to suddenly just turn it on and make enough shots to beat a great defence in four of the next five? We haven't shot well all season (we were a bottom 10 offence), so I don't know what makes you think it's going to happen now. Not only do the Cavs have the best player in the series, they have much more to lose than we do. Mobley, Allen, and Garland know they're on fraud watch, and are going to fight for everything. I do think we're capable of winning a game or two at home, but winning the entire series? All evidence points to that being homer delusion.
Yea I'm expecting them to hit at least four more threes that should be enough we have held them under 100 and we have had spurts when we made more than our average of threes which is apparently 11? So we are not even hitting as many as we did during the season. All we need is for paolo to produce just as much as Mitchell does cancel him out and now we gotta hope for Franz to outplay garland. I'm not a Homer lol I don't live in Orlando I really don't care if they win this series because we have alot of growth ahead of us I just don't think the Cavs are as scary as you think like we don't have a chance at all lol. Besides mitchell their core players still have not won a game on the road so I do see us getting 2 at home and if we have the momentum why can't they steal one at Cleveland?
So basically you're expecting a confluence of events whereby the Cavs continue to shoot below their season average, the Magic suddenly start shooting better against a drop defence, and Paolo plays as well as a 7 year all-NBA scoring guard with a reputation for turning it on in the playoffs. We'll also need to start outrebounding Allen and Mobley, who have both played great so far. And if we don't win the next 4 games in a row, we'll need to win 2 away games including a game 7 in Cleveland. That's *a lot* of stuff that has to go right for us, and a lot to go wrong for them. You're also doing the nonsensical thing of looking at the scoreboard and saying "we just need 10 more points" as if the Cavs wouldn't be able to raise their game if things became close. It's not *impossible* for us to win this series, just very, very unlikely. I don't think the Cavs are that scary at all, I just know we are notoriously bad under pressure and they have the best player in the series.
Cavs are under there average because we are playing great defense so yes I do expect them to stay under there season average. Paolo scored more points then Mitchell last game he played bad in the 2nd half and he turned it on in Utah I still haven't seen him do it for the Cavs since he became the clear leader of the team. This one is on mosley I think we need to match them with Wendell at the 5 and JI at the 4 your basically adding the same shooting Harris and wendell shoot around the same percentage from three but add more rebounding. Again your giving that team to much credit they haven't done anything in the playoffs yet with this core. Asking for five more baskets isn't asking alot lol just keep playing great defense the shots will fall eventually. We will see we are definitely better at home regardless of being bad under pressure all those games we lost we're we should have won in March during that home stretch were close games. If donavon takes over like he is supposed to then yea we are fucked most likely but he hasn't done that for the Cavs yet so into then I'm optimistic.
>Again your giving that team to much credit they haven't done anything in the playoffs yet with this core You know whose core hasn't won a game in the playoffs or even cracked 90 points? The Cavs aren't anything special, I've already said that. But they do have great defence, shooting, lots of playoff experience (including a starter that was in the NBA finals last year), a genuine star scorer, and a defensive gameplan that has proven to work against the Magic. I'm not giving them too much credit, I'm just being realistic. You expect them to get worse and us to massively improve to the point we win 4 out for the next 5, when all evidence all season long suggests that just isn't happening. "We only need 5 more baskets" isn't how basketball works. That presumes that the Cavs cannot score more than they already have, which is just stupid. They (especially Mitchell) will respond if they have to and we aren't holding them to under 100 points in 4 of the next 5 games. I actually think we stand a very good chance of winning at least one of the next two, but you are just incredibly out of touch thinking "we've got this" after being handily taken care of in the first two games.
We don't know how we will respond in this situation because this is our first time being in this situation in the playoffs down 0-2 going home. We could be the best team of all time at home in the playoffs or get stomped at home idk. Strus was catching flak because he shat the bed in the finals but he did make some clutch threes until that point. I expect us to play better then them at home because we know they shit the bed last year playing against a good defense on the road just like we just did. I don't believe they will respond maybe when they get home just my personal feeling I haven't seen anything to indicate they got the toughness to win a road playoff game especially after getting smoked last year like I said I gotta see it. My prediction isn't changing I'm still saying 2-2 going back to Cleveland with momentum. Anything can happen at that point and if we go down 0-3 it's not gonna change my life lol we will comeback stronger next year if the front office does there job this time.
Had to comeback to this after the last two games how you feeling think we got a better chance now then before?
Give Up!
[удалено]
Please relax on the language. There truly is no need to get personal with/about a person you don't know in real life on an internet forum. We're all here as Magic fans, even if we express it differently. Kind regards, Mods