So far they look even worst in the second half. All Jumpers and their first 2 FTA are in the second half.... sounds familiar 24-3 run by the Magic.... those threes are falling now, but what about game 2?
BOS looks like they are playing underwater. CHI took a toll as well as them having really no match-up against Dwight.
I watched a little on ESPNews. How nice of him. :nerd2: From playing basketball anywhere in the world professionally. I believe this is now Lebron's era. :( KG being out is hurting them....and I'm loving it.
Now the real Orlando team has shown up..the one that lives and dies via three ball....just like that 28 pt lead down 10
The Magic played the clock and held on luckily to win this one. Once again palyed their 3 ball game and went up 28 but I guess they wanted to take it to 38 and continued to throw up three balls. The Celtics who took no FT in the first half came out aggressive after the first time out and Red Auerbach himself must have been in the huddle because they trimmed that lead all the way down to 4 pts and missed 3 ball by Ray 'I can't hit nuthing tonight' Allen missed a 3 that was half way down with about 45 seconds left in the game. The Celtics shot 26 FT's in the second half with Rondo going to the line 12 times in about six minute span of the end of the third and beginning of the 4th.' Rondo almost had a quadruple double with 14 pts (12 from the line) 10 boards, 8 assists and 7 turnovers...most of those coming during the comeback.. Dhoward only took 12 shots??? while Pietrus took 13, Turk, 16 and Lewis 18....
42-22 PIP. Advantage Orlando. This one is over. Screw Boston... they have so many players that I hate. It's dumb to think that just because this is Orlando's first year of real contention that they're gonna choke. Fact is that they fared DAMN well against almost everybody except us.
That's not the reason IMO ppl think they will choke. It's because they live and die by the three. Hell, they almost lost this game and demonstrated the same exact thing.
I'd like to see the how many of the PIP were in the first half vs the second half. I'm not saying they can't score in the paint, they have a post presence in Lewis and Howard, but I've watched enough of ORL this year to see that if you're able to guard Dwight one on one, and stay on the shooters, they are very easy to beat. Their 4th quarter strategy/crunch time strategy consists of Hedo Turkoglu shooting 3. And generally they rely on the outside shot to get a big lead and then give it all back when theygo cold. They win alot of games getting up on opponents big and fending them off. This game 1 was almost an exact replica of a BOS/ORL game earlier this year.
I'll bet anyone that if doesn't go past 5 games. Our series with them didn't last year, every though most of those games were competitive. That's how I see this series going. There will be no 20 point blowouts. Orlando is just better, PERIOD. That PIP total is NO FLUKE. Boston simply has ZERO ANSWERS for that without KG. There's NOWHERE to hide. They can go dead cold from 3 and still pull away.
At least eight were early when Boston proceeded to throw the ball to an Orlando player pretty much every other possession. I think they should subtract fast break points from PIP. The Celtics were tired and looked it. They can play a lot better, but I'm not all that sure Orlando can. Perkins probably concentrated a little too much on staying out of foul trouble. It will be an interesting series. I don't get all this Rondo hate. That kid can play on my team anytime. Imagine what Larry Brown could do with him.
If you're going to shoot jump shots, then they may as well be from deep. Nothing worse than a playoff jump shooting team that shoots a lot of long 2-pointers.
They are trying to pin the "second coming of Jordan" on him and that's BS. Jordan earned his current stature (much to the chagrin of us Pistons fans). LeBron so far hasn't.
Amen to that. The biggest difference with Orlando is the beast in the middle. Yes, they rely on the 3-ball but Howard's really good on both ends of the court. I think at the moment the Magic's biggest weakness is their coach. BTW, the dumbass moment of the game came from my boy Hedo when he caused the 8-second violation with less than 2 minutes to go and the Celtics making their final push.
I was a huge Rondo fan. I remember being as upset about the fact they got KG and the fact that they didn't have to give up Rondo. I've waned on liking him due to my Celtics hate and his general attitude, but the kid can play. Period.
See IMO Howard is very easily neutralized. He has like one post move besides the dunk. The Celtics just don't have the bodies for it. After Perkins, there's nothing. Kinda shows how good Sheed really is defensively
