Ya know, the more I think about it, the more I think Brad is right.

I keep trying to convince my wife of this fact.

…i think the Magic know this too…since they were one of the 8 that lost being up 3-1 back in the Me-Mac days against the Pistons….I myself am not real comfortable with the T’s that Dwight is accumulating….i would hate to have to play the Cavs in an elimination game without him…and Thursdays game in Cleveland is going to be tougher than the Magic’s game 7 in Boston..

For FTS it is….

Great job everyone!!!

No we have Barkely’s support??!?

As much as I want to hate SVG, I kinda love him. Reminds me a lot of myself. Prone to ridiculous emotional outbursts, but generally knows what’s going on. And he’s pretty damn entertaining.

Channel positive thoughts, dude. I’m telling ya, we can’t give up until that final buzzer sounds.

We got this.

How bout you finish out this series first, buddy? You’ve still got a long way to go even for that.

They obviously have a poised disciplined person running the floor (Rafer Alston is the Tom Brady of basketball), they have a hall of fame ruthless cut throat coach (Stan Van Gundy looks just like Bill Belichik, can’t you tell?) and they’re a multi-dimensional team that does more than just feed Dwight and shoot threes, just like the Patriots were multi-dimensional. What else did I miss… oh all they’re players rock at the fundamentals just like the Patriots do (ie. freethrow shooting, especially from Dwight).

ya know, the Magic are pretty much the 2000 Patriots. Absolutely. Not to mention they probably film their opponents defensive signals too

very nice

Tough loss tonight for the Cavaliers. I can sympathize. GL the rest of the way.

42% to 26% for 3’s this series, advantage Magic. That’s all there is to it. I’m not happy, but I can accept a losing when it’s like that. The Magic aren’t fundamentally better, and everyone clamoring about matchups (despite not really breaking down the matchups) aren’t correct, the Cavs are just ice cold.

Unfortunately, I concur. The Cavs can’t match up on one one with Orlando’s front court. Consequently, there is a lot of scheming and movement to help out. It works great for the first, half, but by the second half, the Cavs are tired and rotating late, which leads to open threes, which leads to a ridiculously high three point shooting percentage.

While that would help immensely, it’s far from our only hope.

I’d argue that game 1 was the Cavs best game. They only had 5 turnovers then and only got outrebounded because the Magic made 55% of their shots. Getting hotter from the perimeter over 4 games doesn’t trump the fact that these are two pretty equal teams from the perimeter (on both sides of the ball)

We’re working on it…

Ha, yeah, it was a crazy stressful game. Tip of the cap for you guys hangin’ in there. and best of luck in Game 5.

Thanks also for contributing politely to our blog. We really enjoy hearing the other team’s perspective when it’s presented in a respectful manner.

….and don’t think Magic fans don’t fear it…because they do!!:) And again…my apologies for the juveniles tonight…

…i for one wondered why Lebron would blow by his defender to get within 10 ft of the hoops only to pass it out again. I admit to not probably seeing his entire arsenal of weapons….but is he not good with the short jumpers??

…i became friends with Horace Grant when he came to play for the Magic and he said Jordan was the world’s biggest you-know-what to his team mates…!! I can’t see Lebron belittling anyone on his team to try and get there attention….which is one of the main reasons i like him…he;s not the Kevin Garnett type at all

…Maybe Lebron can channel his inner Jordan…only time will tell…

Perfectly said.

Just to put a point on it, we got killed last night by a journeyman guard about to turn 33. His career FG% is 38.6. That is not his career 3-pt . That is career FG. This is simply mind-boggling.

Very well said. There were many instances where one little play here or there would have given us a victory, so to act like the Cavs’ entire game plan is flawed is silly. We’re still in this series; it won’t be easy, but we can win three games in a row from this team if they finally stop shotting 3’s like they’re free throws.

This needs to be green.

Very well stated.

don’t worry about Rafer taking 17 shots – he thinks he’s LeBron James now that he had his token good game of the post season.

…..if i’ve learned one thing visiting opponents fan blogs …it’s that perception is everything….and that no matter how logical and unbiased we all think we are….that there are 3 sides to every play…..the Cavs side…the Magic’s side…and somewhere in between lies the truth..lol!

I actually laughed at that.

..i could easily see myself doing that when sometimes during the regular season i am the ONLY guy in a bar watching the Magic game and screaming at no one in particular…while people look at me with bewilderment and fear..lol

What do you mean “where is Sasha Pavlovic”? He played the last two games and didn’t do anything in Game 3. He showed why he hasn’t been getting much playing time in the playoffs. I don’t mind playing Wally some minutes and giving him a chance to make some shots. He can provide more offense than Pavlovic.

And who cares about Jackon’s “big game experience” at Kansas? That doesn’t mean anything, and it’s not going to help him defend Howard or make shots. He’s just a rookie and doesn’t have the talent to give the production we need. There’s a reason he’s our 10th man (or whatever). If you think going to the end of the bench is going to help us then we’re really in trouble.

We do have a young big and his name is J.J. Hickson. I know he didn’t play much this year but that’s because he was still learning the game. He’s shown that he has the talent level to play in the league so hopefully next year he’ll know the defense better and get a chance to play. I think he can be a solid contributor off the bench next year.

It’s not Jackson’s experience that is keeping him out of games. It’s the fact he isn’t very good. Read what was written above, Alston is not a great player. He is hot right now and sometimes the right guy getting hot wins a series. Ranting about closing out on a career 38% shooter is just a sign of panic. Take a couple of deep breaths and get ready for tomorrow night.

Good questions, and thanks for stopping by. Yes, it was reported a few days ago that the agreement had been reached with the Chinese investment group to buy a 15% share of the Cavs operating company (which owns the Cavs and Quicken Loans Arena). The PD had a detailed article about the agreement, I can’t find it now but there’s a link on the front page — look for my Fear The Links post from a couple days ago. That should certainly help LeBron with marketing opportunities in Asia.

As far as getting Yao, I don’t know his contract situation so I can’t really speak on that right now. I’d have to say that whenever his contract is up he’s probably going to get a max deal, and I doubt the Cavs could afford both LeBron and Yao under the salary cap when they’re both on max contracts. But I don’t know very much about the NBA salary cap so I can’t really say for sure.

There’s an appalling comparison.

Ugh.

I think you might be right but I hope, for the sake of the game, that you’re wrong.

Dwight Howard is bad for basketball. I’ll say it again: Dwight Howard is bad for basketball. Shaq was AWFUL for basketball, and the NBA is only now recovering from an era laid to waste by slow, center-focused offense. When Shaq came into the league, he forced other teams to go big and try to win titles with grinding offense and D. It nearly killed the league.

Now you’ve got a pretty similar player — a guy with very little basketball skill, but a ton of raw power. I hope, for his sake, he develops some actual basketball talent to go with his amazing strength. But for now he’s a throwback to the 90s, and I don’t dig it.

The Magic-Bird-Jordan era, which is one of the few where wing players dominated NBA Championships, was choked full of great big men who dominated the league.

but it was still called the “Magic-Bird-Jordan” era. the great “personalities” that the league has pumped as big time stars have rarely been big men.

and thats the ability to win the BIG ONE

You do realize, of course, that LeBron is ONLY 24 and in his sixth season, so critcizing him for this is a bit premature. Jordan didn’t win anything in his first six seasons, either. I know he’s a mythical figure now, but when he was young people thought he was just a scorer who couldn’t win the “big one”, too. So give LeBron some time, it’s way, way to early to judge him.

i gotta disagree pretty fiercely with your representation of the last 1 second last night. the foul called on pietrus was a clear blocking foul. the TNT guys (not exactly the arbiters of international truths, but astute basketball observers) said as much after the game. there should be no quarrel, among reasonable, dispassionate people, that pietrus fouled LeBron. on the other end, the TNT guys, again, said that it was a very good no call on the howard/av play, and that howard was even potentially lucky not to have an offensive foul called against him. orlando apologists have spent a lot of time bemoaning the fact that howard has fouls called on him when he “stands straight up”, well, that’s what av did, in spite of howard pulling, pushing and roughing him up. i’m obviously biased, but i feel vindicated by the TNT analysts’ takes.

the absence of a supporting cav to step up and shoulder some burden is clearly the cavs’ biggest issue in the first 3 games, you’re right. mo was that guy all year, and i know you’re not impressed with him, but it’s not unreasonable to expect that he shoot the ball at something closer to his 47% season average than his current 32% in the series. maybe mo isn’t a great 2nd, but at this stage, given how dominant LeBron is, all he needs to do is knock down j’s. he’s clearly capable of doing that, he’s just not doing it over the last 4 games.

i think the toughness of the first two series(es) is really overblown, personally. granted, orlando has taken blows and recovered, and i’m sure that’s helped, but the story here is that orlando is smoldering hot from downtown, and the cavs are ice cold. maybe the cavs’ long layoffs can explain some of that, but it doesn’t explain 4 games’ worth. the competition in the earlier rounds, to me, means little.

if the cavs don’t come back in this series, you’re going to see a man (even more) possessed in LeBron next year. he knows he had the best team this year (and he did), and not getting it done would be a massive motivator, i agree with you. hopefully, it’ll be a motivator for mo and z and delonte (although he was nails last night), too.