Magic take Game 1 classic 107-106 over Cavaliers

This is one of the most heartbreaking games I’ve seen in a while. We need to do something about the offense… LeBron is amazing, but even he can’t do this every night and, without that, we would have lost by a ton. The D looked solid at points, but I dunno why we gave up on letting Howard get in but not allowing the threes to start flowing. I’m really upset about this, but I hope we can take game two and at least split in Orlando.

i think if we go down 2-0 its over…these guys are great but this team just seems too much…give up a 16 point lead at home when lebron scores 49…come on, championship teams win those games…

It’s crazy that LBJ scored 49 points and the Cavs still lost. I guess He was ready for the Magic but the other players were still on “rest” mode.

I think the ENTIRE team needs to realize that these aren’t the broken Hawks or the dysfunctional Pistons anymore. This Magic team is motivated and united as well as carrying the energy from their Boston series. I mean, these guys dethroned the champs. They have that to ffed their energy.

That being said, it was a defended three that beat the Cavs. There is still a lot of positive to take from this. You still do have the MVP.

A punch to the stomach for sure….but I’m not too worried. Don’t get me wrong, we could certainly lose, but the Magic are just not likely to outshoot us so thoroughly every night. Brown will adjust the D. And we need to rebound!

Mike Brown refuses to make sane lineup changes. Z can’t guard Howard, Varejo can’t guard Lewis. One of the two have to come off the floor and the defense has to be shifted accordingly.

Delonte and Mo have struggled in the postseason. The difference between this team and last years team was their ability to make shots. If they can’t do that, Lebron will have to carry this team and hope Howard gets called for all those pushing fouls on offense.

In case anybody missed it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmvUVUGrftY

i think my post

http://www.fearthesword.com/2009/5/10/871004/the-cavs-are-in-trouble

looks a little less crazy huh?

look i still think the cavs can win it all, its just going to be very very very tough.

Poor defense after first quarter, poor offense most of 2nd half…ok, I’ve seen them play this way before (the two games I went to this year were the losses at the Wizards!). But what bothers me most is running out of gas late in the game. What excuse is there for not keeping up proper conditioning over the long break? I know you’re not getting real game conditioning, but come on, can you not run some extra wind sprints on the off days?

RELAX. Its ONE game. Anyone who thought it was gonna be a cakewalk the whole way is fooling themselves. The cavs played like crap in the second half…but give the magic credit: they hit every three they needed to make in the second half. Its tough to beat a team thats so hot from behind the arc. This is not going to be the case in every game, I think the cavs have earned the right to keep our confidence in them…besides, Lebron and the other cavs made it clear that its only gonna get more difficult…and that they will face adversity. i think the fans should have listened and understood that. That being said…Im only going to start to worry if they drop game 2.

So they kept Superman slightly contained but couldn’t D-up the treys from Lewis. What’s also infuriating apart from D-West and Mo’s play, was the fact of LeBron missing some critical free throws (3 or 4 if I’m not mistaken) in the second half. This doesn’t make it a time to panic though as I think this is the wake up call they needed. It did turn out to be a great game to watch regardless and now it looks like it should be a series. Go Cavs!!!!

I read and enjoyed a lot of the comments…found some of them very amusing to say the least. Turk..ll i can say is that Magic fans definitely know your pain as we have it in our DNA by now watch our Magic boys grown up into Magic Men…especially in the last 2 playoff series.

  Some thoughts on the game…

So much for Cleveland having any rust after coasting through the first to rounds and having 8 days off before Game1. I was afraid at one point during the first half that Lebron was going to go for 60 and the Magic would be blown out by 30. But if the first 2 round of the playoffs has taught us as Magic fans and our team is that they just won’t go away when they are down. I truly believe they play better when they are behind that when they are ahead because thats when that absolutely HAVE to play defense…which is what happened in the second half…the same as they did in Game 6 against Boston. I think we can safely bury the argument that the Magic will choke when the game is on the line anymore. We weren’t the ones that blew a 15 point 2nd half lead at home. There were a lot of posted i thought about replying to…but they were just so ridiculous and blind that they didn’t warrant the attention.

   I will say this to Cavs fans as to something they should wonder about and possibly worry in the next few games…Lebron went for 49/8/6/3/2/2/1 in PT/AS/RB/BL/ST/TO/PF, shot 20-30, 50% from the arc and you still lost at home. Why would a guy who had torched the Magic in every conceivable way and gotten every virtually every call the officials all night long decide he DIDN’T want to take the game winning shot?? I can tell you that virtually EVERY Magic fan in the sports bar i was in was resigned to the fact that Lebron would either make a ridiculous game winner or the officials would gladly bail him out if ANYONE was even near him if need be and take the heat for letting him win on the FT line. We were in utter shock when he gave up the ball. Not in shock when the Cavs missed because they were probably in shock to after watching him torch the Magic all night. Lastly i will comment on the officiating…and before you calling it whining….i did some reseach at numerous other teams blogs just to see what the unbiased( if there is such a thing) take on it was. It was pretty unanimously in Lebron favor of getting ridiculous calls compared to Dwight, who at several points in the game could do nothing more than laugh and shake his head in disbelief. If you don’t take much stock in opinions…look at the stats themselves….Lebron 10 FT, Dwight 2 FT, despite Lebron taking an insane number of jump shot(making all of them it seemed like!!) and Dwight not taking one jump shot and getting all of his offense within 3 feet of the rim. Lebron 1 foul, Dwight 6, Lebron 3 blocks, DPLOY Dwight 0!! Now i will give Lebron credit that 2 of his blocks were monstrous, but the one on Dwight that came from backside help was just an absolute CLUBBING with the follow through. And the 2 fouls on Dwight going straight up on Lebron drives were complete B.S. in the text of a playoff game. Also…who can forget 260lb Lebron’s pathetic FLOP against 220lb Pietrus in the 4th. Need i go on?? I will actually give the officials credit for recognizing AV obvious “acting” holding his throat like he had been hit there where the replay showed that he clearly DIDN’T and they rightly so did not give him a call the rest of the game. Bottom line is the officiating was clearly on the Cavs sise…and they STILL lost at home…this would concern me if i was a Cavs fan. And finally…is Lebron really hurt…or did he stay on the court for an extra 5 minutes for all the world to see when he clearly could have gotten walked off the court and gotten medical attention in the Cavs locker??? Was i the only one that noticed this? I thought at one point he was going to collapse and start holding his throat??? LOL Was it his left knee? His right ankle? His right thigh?? I mean what was the deal with all that…and then after all that he walks off the court with barely a limp?? I thought for real he had tweaked his knee when he tried to drive on Dwight and lost the ball, then didn’t move from under the basket as the Magic scored on the ensuing fast break. But then i think on the very next play he blew by everyone right down the lane for a dunk?? So what the real story?? Is he hurt…or just his feelings..lol?? Anyways..see you guys in Game 2…should be interesting to say the least!!

the officiating ‘clearly favoring the cavs,’ actually the Cavs were called for more fouls. Not to say you’re saying this but I NEVER agree with the refs being decidedly one way or the other. Yes, superstars get more calls…but bottom line is the refs rarely if EVER are in the majority responsible for the outcome, or even a major factor. The MAGIC won. The Cavs lost. The reason the magic won? They played better, and the Cavs fell apart. Every team will get a few extra calls on their home floor. Its just human nature for the refs to be slightly influenced by the crowd. the magic will too in Orlando, so if you think the refs favored the Cavs, it will even out. May the best team win.

…if you read i was focused on the 2 stars of the teams Lebron and Dwight…simply saying that they did not IMO…get equal treatment…..and if as you say it will equal out…if only back in Orlando…that this should be a concern for Cav fans as the Magic were able to win this one despite this and Lebrons amazing play and the fact that they…not the Cavs came out rusting in the 1st!!