Official ECF Game 1 5/20 8:30PM EST TNT Magic vs. Cavs

[inine5]

i think orlando can steal game 1....probably their best chance to win a game. orlando's been playing consistently and the cavs have been sitting out for aweek. and the cavs haven;t played anyone good yet. i think game 1 will be a reality check for cleveland.

 

[eneyekayee]

^

...Cavs in 5...Magic will win game 3 but THAT IS IT (if that). They don't impress me that much right now. Cavs & Nuggets are easily the 2 bestteams left as of right now. LBJ will be pure beast mode this entire series & beyond. Dude is simply on a mission & no ones gonna mess with him.

 

[pr0phecy718]

Originally Posted by Statis22

Magic can win this series with a balance attack

 

[senatorjeffsmith]

CHARLES IS AN IDIOT. HE ALSO PICKED THE CELTICS OVER ORLANDO.

I wonder what his accuracy is in these series? very low i presume.
The same man who believed LeBron would average about 8ppg in his rookie season.

The Magics are in trouble. Cavs in 5 or 6.

 

[ce0 mal]

Too many fans with blinders on in this thread.

Again, the Magic are a nightmare matchup for the Cavs, it's hilarious to think some of you only give the match 1 game.

And LBJ is scared of D12.

 

[jsindaa]

Originally Posted by mYToAsterspeak

Ain't nobody worried about the Magic. We going to play Howard str8 up, and not let him get deep post position. That means 12 a game from him cause he's a bum when it come to low post moves. All that is left is stopping the three, and best believe we going to be stuck to their shooters like glue, make em beat us off the dribble, basketball 101 gents. Cavs about to make everybody stop thinking it's sweet.

Stop it. You forget that they have Hedo (who drives alot) AND Shard? One of which Delonte is gonna guard and well that will be entertaining to say the least. He's not strong enough to stop either and not longenough to really affect their shot. IF Orlando is gonna win they need to exploit those 2 before exploiting the field day that Dwight will have against theCavs' weak frontline. I think this one is going AT LEAST 6.

 

[belle155]

thanks for the input laker fan. whatever helps you sleep at night

 

[jsindaa]

Originally Posted by belle155

thanks for the input laker fan. whatever helps you sleep at night

Ok it came off a bit biased (even tho I WANT Cleveland to win) but you care to refute any of those points?

 

[ce0 mal]

^ If Cavs fans think this game is only going 5 at most, there's no point in trying to reason with them.

The Cavs don't want to play Orlando.

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by belle155

thanks for the input laker fan. whatever helps you sleep at night

Dead yourself.

Your @#$%^&* @#$%^& Cavs fans like to check into every single Laker thread and run their mouth, don't get all butt hurt when Laker fans return thefavor.

The dude made a fair point, West has to guard either Hedo or Rashard? Neither is a matchup in Cleveland's favor. Instead of pointing out which team heroots for, why don't you try and point out how he was wrong?
Now maybe you were upset by him calling your front line weak, I can understand that, but you certainly don't think it'll be a cakewalk down low withD12? So in the end, he pointed out 2 huge matchup issues that go the way of the Magic. You couldn't argue either point, and yet, all that bothered youwas that he was a "Laker fan"

Cavs win this series, it goes deep, 6, maybe 7 games. I don't know if I see a road team winning, other then possibly the Cavs in game 6.

Good luck to both teams.

 

[dmv is rnb]

Thank you CEO Mal.

Cleveland does NOT want to play Orlando. They wanted the celtics which would have given them a 12-0 free pass to the finals.

Regular season means nothing, however being that I watched all 3 games, I saw how Cleveland has matchup issues with Orlando. And if lebron doesn't hit that3 at they endnof the game in the q, Orlando wins 3-0.

Lebron can't just rumble to the basket trampling over everyone when you have dwight Howard down there. As a result he has to shoot a lot more jumpers andhis shooting % goes down. I remember lebron goin to the rack and dwight sending his shot to Africa. Lebron looked puzzled like..."could it be that someoneis bigger athletic freak than me"?

.

Magic play defense and I see Cleveland winning in 6. I'm just saying I see Orlando putting a scare to them and bringing them back to earth. And if theywere to win the series, I would not be surprised

 

[thekillerj23]

Originally Posted by CROSSISOM

I normally don't like to use this logic, but if the Celtics can take them to seven games without Garnett or Powe, the Magic don't seem too scary to me as they did in the regular season.

It's def going to be a tough series, Up until the playoffs, I never realized how low of a basketball IQ the Magic really have. With that being said, letsget it in 6 Cleveland.

 

[youngtriz]

how are the cavs gonna guard howard?? 1 on 1? if they do.. howard is gonna do damage... double team?? the magic have a so many spot up shooters that can shootthe 3 and some can still take the ball in..... i can only see the magic beating themselves... if they cant get into a good shooting rhythm its gonna hurtthem...

 

[mytoasterspeak]

Howard can be guarded str8 up cause he HAS NO POST MOVES. You only double team people who DOMINATE the paint, not people who dunk hard in the paint. If youpush Dwight 10 feet from the rim, he won't know what to do, and it's not like they feed him the ball a lot anyway. The biggest thing to worry about istheir threes, and the Cavs are a very long team, who guard the three better than anybody else in the league, so they won't be giving up a lot of those.Health important too, cause during the season, somebody was always hurt when we played them, now we're well rested and healthy. Also, both teams arematchup problems for each other equally, it's not just skewed towards the Magic, they tall and can shoot, we short and quicker. One last thing, theplayoffs will always have three constants that regular season doesnt, and also an x factor; defense, execution, and matchups. I think we win two of those andtie the other, and the X factor, a star who can single-handedly win games, we have that advantage too, his name is LeBron James.

 

[youngtriz]

are you saying that howard doesnt dominate the paint? he does have post moves.... not a lot but he still has some and they work for him... your actinglike howard is a walking stiff that cant move... im not saying dude has a midrange shot like yao... but come on dude... shaq didnt have moves either and he didmad damage in the paint... and he was playing against LEGIT CENTERS back then... how are the cavs gonna keep him 10 feet away from the hoop??

 

[belle155]

post some quotes of cavs fans going in the laker threads, i wouldnt know since ive been in less than 5 laker threads all year. speak for yourself CP

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by belle155

post some quotes of cavs fans going in the laker threads, i wouldnt know since ive been in less than 5 laker threads all year. speak for yourself CP

Man, you know damn good and well Cavs fans live in Laker threads just as much as the other way around. This ain't your first day on NT, quitactin like you don't know.

Post some quotes.....

 

[senatorjeffsmith]

Everyone is forgetting the obvious: Who will guard the best player on the planet LeBron James?


As LeBron goes so do the Cavs and I don't see anyone on the Magics checking LBJ.

 

[youngtriz]

Originally Posted by SenatorJeffSmith

Everyone is forgetting the obvious: Who will guard the best player on the planet ?

im not sure who's guarding kobe?

 

[MVP]

Keys to the Magic winning this series:

1) Keep Howard out of foul trouble so the Magic can have some type of deterrent for LeBron just waltzing down the paing like he did in the 1st 2 series

2) Have Courtney Lee shadow Mo Williams like he did Eddie House, it may be more difficult because Mo has the ball in his hands more, but Lee did an excellentjob not even letting House get shots off. The Magic have to be disciplined and not leave their men EVERYTIME Bron penetrates into the lane leaving shooterswide open.

3) Hit their perimeter shots-live by the 3 die by the 3. They have the size advantage at quite a few positions so just shoot over the Cavs little guards.

4) Try and contain Bron (not easy by any stretch of the imagination) by making him a jumpshooter and keeping him off the FT line. I think he avg. 12 FTattempts/game in the 1st 2 series and the Magic will have no chance if he does that in this series.

5) Hedo has to be the Michael Jordan of Turkey, he can't have bad games in this series, especially if Bron is guarding him, he has to make him work ondefense as well as offense.

Keys to Cavaliers winning this series:

1) Continue to play stellar defense on the perimeter, it's a well known fact that if the Magic aren't hitting perimeter shots, it's very difficultfor them to win. And Cleveland closes out as well as any team in the league so they'll need to continue that to be successful.

2) Big Z needs to shoot well from the perimeter to keep Dwight from being able to clog the lane and that will open up driving lanes for Bron and co.

3) Someone needs to be big off the Cavs bench, the 1st 2 series were won handily, but was due a lot to Bron's greatness, I really didn't see too muchhelp off the bench besides Joe Smith at times.

4) Bron just continue to play out of his mind. Dude has been amazing the entire postseason and I really don't see any reason why he would struggle evenknow the Magic contained him pretty well during the regular season.

This should be a great series and I don't know how you guys are saying Cavs in 4 or 5. This is a 6 game series at the minimum. If the Magic can somehowsteal Game 1 with the Cavs another long layoff, they CAN win this series, but I just think Bron is on a mission and if his team comes out rusty, he'll takeit upon himself to keep them in it.

Cavs in 7, I think HC advantage will be the difference in the series.

 

[theassassin23]

Lebron will not win this series by himself and I see lots of mismatches on the Cav's side. Other than LBJ and Mo Williams the Magic players are all betterthan the rest of the Cavs's. Delonte West,Illgauskas,Varejao, Sczerbiak? Are you guys serious.

I cant say the Cavs arent on a mission and the Magic collapsed several times in the Celtics series. Also I can say if Jameer wasnt hurt this would favor theMagic 100% LB or not. I think it is going to be a good series and I expect LB to put up crazy numbers but for some reason I think D12 will have a HUGE series.

Perkins played some of the best D on Dwight Ive ever seen and Varajao or Gaus will not come close to that. Wally cant guard Turk or Shard, and Lee is to fastfor West. If Lebron isnt dropping 60+ every night Magic in 6

 

[mytoasterspeak]

What post moves, when he lower his shouler and spin in the paint? Anybody can do that, thats trash. You cannot compare him to Shaq, cause Shaq has goodfootwork, Dwight doesn't, and Shaq is/was more agile than Dwight. He dominates the paint on D for sure, but not on O. He's not even averaging more than18 in the playoffs. He's not a dominate low post player on O, not even close, and never will be cause his fundamentals stink, all he can do is dunk and getlayups. Also, you keep him from the block the same way the Celtics did, be physical. Dwight ain't good at establishing low post position, just have to"lay" on him, cause his footwork don't allow him to create good position, you just have to watch how he play.

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by SenatorJeffSmith

Everyone is forgetting the obvious: Who will guard the best player on the planet LeBron James?


As LeBron goes so do the Cavs and I don't see anyone on the Magics checking LBJ.

Please excuse my Lakerness, but here wil lbe a huge key.

The Cavs can't really "slow" D12 down down low. But, if Bron goes to the hole over and over and over, he can/will pick up fouls on Dwight, andthen the Magic have a huge problem.

Magic can't really "guard" Bron, they can only throw bodies at him, Lewis, Hedo, Lee, Peitrus, but each of those has a big weakness vs Bron. Leeis too light, Hedo too slow, Lewis too slow, Peitrus has prolly the best size/speed, but not exactly shut down type guy.
Howard is they Magic's good luck charm to stop/slow LeBron. If Bron doesn't drive because he sees Dwight lurking, and just pulls up with jumpers allnight, that won't work well. The Magic want that. In fact, the Magic would feel lucky if Bron came out game one and hit a lot of those jumpers, cuz maybethen he keeps shooting them for a couple games, and that saves potential foul trouble on Dwight and eventaully some of those jumpers will stop falling.

Bron could have a MONSTER series, but the Magic may just want it that way so they can stop everyone else. But if Bron gets Howard in foul trouble, I see noway in hell the Magic can hang without him. Those 3's won't be so openly spaced anymore.

I hope my Laker points of view are acceptable and to your liking.

 

[mytoasterspeak]

I was in those Lakers threads Belle, I like messing with Lakers fans. It's fun cause they don't realize the Lakers soft, but I'm go leave themalone this round.

 

[youngtriz]

damn yuku