sometimes you guys kill me with being over-dramatic. let me get this out of the way - we had won 5 straight games, this is the postseason, teams are harder to play at home, orlando was bound to get all the calls after that clock scandal, we were without our all-star PG for nearly the entire game, we were due for a flat game, and we suck on wednesdays. seriously, i think some of you wouldn't be happy unless we went 16-0 in the playoffs. at least we took care of home and we're still up 2-1...if we can snag game 4 this series is over on tuesday at the palace.

let's face it, sheed sucked today. i'm sure flip didn't tell him to settle for poorly-angled turnaround bank shots near the 3-point line. and hey, i love max, but he sucked too. now do i wonder why he didn't really play much in the 2nd half? yeah, definitely...he could've at least checked rashard to start the 4th, but hindsight...yeah. and it was completely predictable that rip would have 6 turnovers...his shot was on when he wasn't trying to create for himself, which is why it sucks that he rarely realizes this.

stuck continues to be terrible at finishing layups, but he played an excellent game last night. he shot well and drew a lot of fouls while going 9-9 from the line. as soon as he learns to finish in the lane in traffic he is going to be lethal. and hey, like i said before put amir in to guard turk/lewis, but hermann didn't do that poorly. we wouldn't have won the game if amir played, and i can only imagine if he got switched onto howard how badly that would've gone.

i'll give orlando credit - they attacked early knowing they'd get the whistle. they made a lot of contested shots in the 4th quarter (and they were pretty well contested...c'mon that mo evans turn around J at the end of the shot clock? luck). they continuously ran that high pick-and-roll where howard illegally screens at the 3-point line and then shifts down low while taking out both of our defenders and it's never called, but hey if they don't call it keep doing it.

i give our guys credit for fighting back and pulling within 3, but too little too late. you can't get in a hole like that on the road and be down 10-12 all game and expect to win. let's look at the positives - stuckey got a LOT of playoff experience in a game that was a total throwaway. you saw his confidence grow as he started to post up nelson, and as he adjusted for howard's shot-blocking and shot over him. we were pretty much destined to lose once chauncey went out, so at least we got something out of it.

and yeah, maybe flip didn't do the best coaching job (how about an early timeout??), but i thought he was excellent in games 1 and 2 and has generally done a good job adjusting game-by-game in the playoffs so i'm not going to come down on him. he's already knocked jarvis out of the rotation and put afflalo back in, he's starting maxiell over dice, and he's trusting stuckey to get it done. to me that's pretty good so far.