Ah, now this is more like it. I call mulligan over last week's mishap against the C's. The Magic had a shot to redeem themselves once again on national TV and they took initiative.
The first half was somewhat worrying; Ben Wallace setting screens to open up the lane for LeBronze and one too many dunks, and Wally Szcezerbiak of all people was scorching Turkoglu to go a perfect 5 of 5 from the floor. The trey's weren't falling for the Magic, who were an ugly 3 of 11 from behind the arc at one point. The Cavs stretched their lead out to 10 at about the halfway mark of the second quarter. It was around then that the Magic Men had enough of that nonsense and took care of business by slashing it to a one point deficit right before halftime.
The second half would be a thing of beauty.
I'd say the ship began to sink when coach Mike Brown exploded out of his seat over a supposed no-call on Turkoglu for putting his arm against LeBron. Brown got hit with a technical as one of his assistants had to hold him back. Amidst this tussle, Mo Williams blew his lid giving another technical against Cleveland. Orlando made both technical free throws and scored a bucket, padding out their lead by an extra 4 points just because the Crabs couldn't stop whining about why their mangod LeBronze wasn't entitled to every call.
Everything after that was gold. 'Bron was forced to settle for scrappy jumpers after getting embarrassed by a Howard block and several botched drives. The Magic focused primarily on locking things down on the defensive end. 75-year-old veteran Anthony Johnson was somehow able to stay in front of the younger Cavalier point guards and shut them down. The frustrated Cavs kept forcing their jumpshots while the Magic eventually regained their three-point shooting touch to bolster their lead to a comfortable 25. The Magic defense held the Cavs to 32 points the entire second half. That's how you keep a team honest.
The victory could not have come at a better time than the night that both Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson were named to the NBA All-Star team. The never happy Stan Van Gundy even had to concede that it was a "good" night. Unfortunately the boys from Cleveland were less than satisfied:
Said LeBron James: "It just shows the disrespect that basketball in Cleveland continues to get. I haven't seen the All-Star list yet, so I can't comment on who's in it. But it's definitely disrespectful that we continue to do work every year with nothing to show for it. They always say when you win, individual accolades will take care of itself. But sometimes it doesn't happen. "
“You want me to tell you like it is?” Williams chuckled. “Then I’ll tell it like it is. It’s a tragedy. How many players get into the game, and how many players did the Magic get in? They’ve got three players, and we’ve got the best record. Not just in the Eastern Conference, but in the whole league… Best team in the world, and we got one player.”
Mo Williams had a chance last night to prove what a tragedy it was. He delivered 12 points on a blistering 4 of 15 shooting AND a technical foul! You're doing a hell of job Mo. And LeBronze mediocre performance combined with his propensity to whine about non-calls even annoyed ESPN of all outlets:
Put up or shut up, as the kids say.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Post Game - Magic versus LeBrons
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The best part is that their lead in the league was so tenuous. It only took a single game to put them into second place. Plus, the Magic are only two games behind them. Two weeks ago we were on the top, and there are still four months left in the regular season. The Cavs need to stop crying and start playing basketball. Our guys have proved themselves time and time again this year, the most they can lay claim to is slightly improved overall chemistry and Bron's increasing willingness to pass.
ReplyDeleteAlso, LeBron is totally going to move to NYC. Any you know what? I'm starting to think that even under the best of circumstances this eagerly anticipated mega-stacked Knicks team everyone's frothing over is probably going to end up folding after one championship. As much as I like Mike D'Antoni, he's always gonna be known as the guy who packed arenas instead of trophy cases.
If I'm not mistaken, Big Z and Delonte were both missing for this one. Good win regardless, and I didn't see it so I can't speak to any details, but in my opinion the upcoming trading deadline will be the most important thing that happens to all the top teams before late April. That and players succumbing to/recovering from injuries. I feel like there is such a discrepancy between the elite and the second tier that there is really no drama that will unfold over the next couple months, unless you count jockeying for home-court drama (which it may well be).
ReplyDeletePlease note the Celtics' schedule becomes a good deal easier starting now. I think they didn't have a single practice in the month of December, and played 5 back-to-backs in November. They've played 3 more games (48 total) than any of the other top 8 teams in terms of total wins. And after upping their win streak to 10 games tonight, they are the authors of two double-digit win streaks in under 50 games. That's kind of sick, mid-season lull notwithstanding. Just throwing that out there for the lulz.
Yeah, I'm a bitch.
ReplyDeleteWell the Celts are still due for another west roadtrip in February, and we all know what happened the last time they went on one of those. Hah!
ReplyDeleteThe Celtics are a much more legit team than the Cavs. When people talk about Cleveland and their record I tend to bristle a little bit. To me they're such wild cards, know what I mean? It's like playing Miami.
ReplyDeleteThe Celts' success shouldn't be downplayed. They're a great team, they're just super annoying.
The Cavs and their sense of entitlement bug the hell out of me. The homers like to point to their 2007 trip to the finals as evidence they've got it, but if you go back and look at that season you'd realize that the Eastern Conference was pathetic then. Their team is still basically LeBron surrounded by a bunch of role players, granted they're better role players than in 2007. Also Mike Brown is an idiot of a coach.
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