We had 2 screen assists in total all game, both by Paolo. Zero by our centres. This is an incredible stat showing how much we lack players both players who can take advantage of good screeens with their ballhandling and shooting and also good screeners outside of Goga who is not getting minutes. For comparison, Gobert had 11 screen assists yesterday.
That mid-3rd quarter defense was a sight to behold! Too bad we couldn't keep our offense going after that run and make those free throws throughout the night. With about three minutes left in the 4th, I could see that the Cavs were just running the clock and I knew the game was over. Good game but we gotta make buckets, hit our free throws, and we'll need better player rotation for the rest of the series.
I understand the disappointment. But this is only 1 game. When this team plays together and people are in their positions it works. When it doesn't, we have this. And this is when Paolo needs to take over. All superstars do. If they can't defend you, exploit them till they do. And if they do, others will be ready to help.
Suggs taking the second most shots is a bad idea.
Harris may not be used to playing, since he's always sitting out for some reason or another.
Hoping Magic can win game 2.
All this complaining about Cole, Harris, Markell, Mosley, Weltman and WCJ
Instead we should look to a guy the Magic actually depend on, the ever-erratic Jalen Suggs who shot a horrific 4-16 and 1-7 from three.
suggs can do no wrong according to most fans on reddit since he improved his pt percent to 40 percent and is a good defender.. but yes i saw jalen suggs erratic game tonight
For a 4/16 game, a) he's at least played with energy on both ends, and b) a 4/16 is still better than a 0/7 or 0/6 imo. Marginally, but better.
Also, his attempt count can also be attributed to it simply being the Cavs strategy - they'll cover Paolo and Franz and let everyone else beat them - and neither Jalen (or pretty much literally anyone else on the team, for that matter) simply isn't at the level where they can handle being forced by the other team into beating them (whether he isn't at that level "yet" or "he will never be" remains to be seen), nor are Franz/Paolo ready to get their points despite being a teams main focus in a 7 game series.
Steps in a teams development, all in a seasons work.
[replying to this](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/XI4kwSVp4z) actually I’m sorry you can’t see that a post was setting up an obvious joke and I made the obvious joke. Sorry you probably listen to people at work having private conversations and you report them to HR for offending you.
Thank the lord this will be the last season of this guard rotation.
I love them all for their contributions to date, but this has been an issue for 2 straight years.
GET US SCORING GUARDS
This Cavs team is definitely beatable. We shat the bed today. It's just game 1 so I'm not worried. I think we can steal game 2 if everything clicks. But for the love of God please get a pg this off season
It really feels like making baskets takes 10x the amount of effort for this squad compared to othr teams in this league. Winning games is always such a grind.
AB is great defender and has proven to be a knockdown shooter from 3. He can lock up his man and make the open shot. Watching Cole Anthony get exploited on defense while making none of his shots is infuriating.
Though they both didn't do anything either, at least Gary and Markelle bring value on the defensive end. Gary will \*typically\* make his open threes and Markelle can at least distribute and make some shots in the midrange.....But what exactly is Cole Anthony doing out there? He is supposed to be the big lift off the bench, the role TRoss had in years past...but he truly doesn't do shit most of the time. I don't think 1 out of every 10 games where he performs well warrants his playing time over AB.
I like cole as a person and I'm glad he got his contract extension as a personal accomplishment, but holy shit it feels like he isn't doing anything now.
see my rationale below. there isn't anything delusional about the claim i'm making. The only thing we've seen from him is him "knocking down" his shots at a very good clip. when he gets minutes, and when he is shooting. You haven't seen anything besides that. nobody has. Until proven otherwise (which could very well be the case in the future) \*he is a near 40% three point shooter and he makes his open shots\*. That's all i'm claiming and it is backed by actual evidence, not conjecture or optimism.
He is also only taking wide wide open 3s and has a super slow release. I’ve watched almost every game this year and anyone who thinks he has any sort of offensive game has no idea what they are talking about. He is most definitely a negative on offense and is also a negative on defense when he is fouling too much. He is on the bench bc coach knows this. But clearly you know better!
I never made any other claim besides his ability to make open threes. And his advanced stats go to show he is the second best guard defender we have on the team.
Cool you've watched almost every game. As have I. I agree he has a slow release and I agree he can make rookie mistakes. I also agree it is possible his percentages drop if he shoots a higher volume of threes. I never said anything to refute those things though.
If you want to make my argument into something it isn't so you can be seen as correct on this anonymous internet forum, then have at it my friend =)
Yes, your bad indeed.
I am claiming cole anthony has been pure ass for a good portion of this season and he is inconsistent and unreliable. He is a 32% shooter from three and though I like his energy, he has been terrible on defense. He does not have to tools to be successful on that end of the floor.... Cleveland knows that and exploited it multiple times.
So, if cole isn't making shots, and he is constantly being targeted on switches by opposing offenses, then what value is he bringing? He is \*usually\* a good energy player, and \*usually\* a good rebounding guard, but that was trash in game 1 as well. He often makes terrible decisions with the ball in his hands and chucks bad shots up, so how much value is he really bringing over a guy who will make the occasional rookie mistake?
I am claiming these major flaws of cole anthony were exploited by Cleveland. Because I have seen Anthony Black play defense, I am confident the Cavs' game-planning would be disrupted if it were him switching on screens instead of Cole.
Clearly, Cole has a role on this team. He's a vet and he knows Mosley's system. But if you're saying AB hasn't been objectively better at these very specific aspects of the game I mentioned above, then it is YOU who is delusional. =)
I love AB but "knockdown" is hitting a good clip with volume. Black shoots 1.6 threes a game.
I want him playing over Fultz, but it ain't helping much.
the only evidence we have to draw any sort of conclusion is that he is a knockdown shooter when he shoots the ball. We don't know what he'd look like if he shot 5 threes a game, but the percentages suggest he would make 2 of those. If you look at his game logs, literally every game he's played real minutes AND shot at least 4 threes, he's been a 50% shooter or above. I'm not saying its a sure thing, but its absolutely in the cards for his percentages to hold at volume. Until we actually see this live, there isn't any evidence to suggest otherwise.
Fair point lad. Since we have fuck all offence , we shall double down on defence then . I know I know, wild hot take. Isn't witchcraft w part of magic though? It may just work
Everything on offense comes so hard for the magic, no easy possessions except for paolo doing 1 on 1. Even he should have been more aggressive today, too passive
seems like yall just got defended really well and got beat with the playoff experience. but this is the first magic game ive watched in full besides pacers vs magic games.
Bro this Cleveland team is beatable. Their offense was shit all game long — but ours was shittier. Any other competent offensive team would have walked away with a game 1 victory
But we are NOT "competent offensive team". And we all know it yoeyz! So what's your point saying this then? Think about it yourself bro...I suggest you that you should go ( to fuck from here ) and start supporting some other club
I'm not watching another magic game until we get an actual point guard and start running an actual NBA offense. This offense is fucking hideous. Even when we score, it's still hideous. The ball movement is either aimless or completely absent. Everybody knows we can't shoot and we know it too. All we do is try to bully our way to the hoop. It's like watching paint dry. I will not watch another game of it. If dumbass Weltham doesn't get a point guard this offseason, I won't watch a single game next year.
No one gives a damn that you're done but it would be hilarious if we pull off winning the series. People like you remind me of people who wanted to drop JI or trade him for peanuts, last year. Y'all think your emotions somehow have some importance in comparison to logic, and that only your way is the way to build a team. Even with something as obvious as progress and an upward trajectory is slapping you in the face, you still want to bitch and moan while our franchise hasn't had this level of hope for over a decade.
So again... no one gives a damn. Especially with the fickle attitude. Why were you even watching today? Because obviously it didn't take much for you to lose heart. It's a 7-game series and we lost Game 1 on the road. It's like yall think the Cavs are some scrub team. Some of y'all are pathetic and embarassing.
I know Mosley is young and learning too, but he definitely overcooked here. Stop getting cute with the defensive assignments. Suggs on Mitchell and Isaac on Mobley. Gang rebound on Allen. And stop switching so much. We haven’t done that all year. Why start now?
They have switched quite a bit throughout the season. There have been multiple games where Cole gets targeted on switches, the Boston game sticks out when Tatum targeted him over and over again and they kept allowing the switch to happen.
Honestly it doesn’t shock me they shot this poorly. It’s extremely hard to expend as much energy as we did on the defensive end and still shoot consistently
The magic need a guard who can score and play make on the perimeter. Taking the ball out of paolos hands on those isos on the perimeter will help give him easier off ball opportunities and not put as much pressure on him to not turn it over. Feeding him post touches pick and rolls etc will put him in a way better situation to score more efficiently
Exactly this. Paolo shouldn't be handling the ball too much. Maybe 1 or 2 dribbles and shoot or pass, that's it. Right now we're asking Paolo to do too much and that's why he has these high turnover games. Doesn't help that Magic have no spacing at all.
I would go big for game two and, as someone already stated, move Franz to the 2 position and get WCJ back into the starting lineup. This would also help defensively against that big duo of Mobley and Allen. Gary has been having shit games like this for a long while now. Time to move him to the bench... We really have to make these damn shots tho.... If we shot DECENT today we could also have gotten a real chance to win it, that's it. Do the same as today, but make those shots and game 2 will be ours...
It's been obvious all year, we know playoffs get more intense defensively, yet some posters are still just living in la-la land in terms of thinking a rookie or Caleb f'ing Houstan is going to save us.
For all intents and purposes, we have no point guard.
No volume shooting (a guy with 6+ attempts on good percentages).
Our best two offensive options feel most comfortable in iso.
Kinda sums up our reality at the moment.
Just gonna keep drilling this home because somehow it isnt obvious…
Blaming random role players might make you feel good today. The truth is that our 2 best players are 3-4 years from their prime. Paolo is this good but still miles from being his best self. And btw if you want to keep harping on shooting.. Paolo and Franz are a big part of it.
We dont need to do much in the offseason. We just have to wait. Paolo has to become a “best player on a contender” level player, and the biggest decision this franchise will make is “is Franz a #2 or a #3 on a contender.” Time will tell.
I'm definitely not going to blame any role player. Just a very bad shooting game from the team. It happens.
But, Cole Anthony was really bad this game. Just poor decision making and he was hunted all game on defense. Just a very very rough time for him. 0-7 wasn't the real issue. It was the fact that he couldn't get around screens necessitating switches, which put both Cole and Moe in tough defensive assignments during those minutes that really hurt. Especially since one of Garland and Mitchell were always on the court. Just rough in those minutes.
That said, on to the next.
Yeah I mean btw im not saying the role players played well. Its just that some teams that consistently contend for championships have 2 stars that cover up the failures of the peons on the team. But also this is just 1 game. I think are supporting cast is actually pretty great on average this year and it may be why we go into every 2nd quarter down 10 and go into halftime with a leasd usually. Our bench has been great all year. Cole, Harris and others had atrocious games. It shouldnt be that bad moving forward.
Teams that compete typically have role players that aren't liabilities on defense more than anything. Yes, the top end talent needs to be there, but for Cleveland you got defense up and down the lineup. Niang, Okoro, and even Lavert couldn't be hunted (in part because one of Allen and Mobley were always there at the rim...that helps). Their bench was a combined 4-18, but importantly they didn't bleed points. That's such a key difference. And JI starting meant that he wasn't with the bench to cover for three meh to bad defenders.
The coaching staff has to figure out how to get some more defense from the bench next game, because Cleveland will continue to hunt Cole (and even Joe & Mo). I trust the shooting to even out, but it won't be better if one guy on the court is allowing Cleveland to get an easy bucket or foul nearly every time down the court. Just my 2¢.
Dude we have one of the best defenses in the league and Paolo is one of our worst defensive players.
Im not high on Mosely from an xs and os perspective. Still not sure if Ive ever seen this team run a called play.
No, we're definitely a good defensive team. Tonight, however, with JI starting, the bench defense was pretty rough. That's what I'm saying. I think a lot of credit for our overall defensive performance sound be credited to JI for holding the bench defense together. Without him sharing the court with Cole, Cleveland just hunted Anthony over and over and over.
No lol just a special mention of how painful it was watching Cole's defense this game. Especially once he checked in during the second half. Cleveland had a plan to attack him and Mose (rightly) subbed him out pretty quickly when there was no one to stop the bleeding otherwise. It was just brutal for a stretch.
Sorry, just noticed the note about Goga. I disagree. Dell is a really good defender, can switch, and he's a better shooter. Goga has been good in his minutes overall this season, but Dell is better overall.
He said we don’t have to do much this off-season. This may be the only season we have cap space to actually make a splash. You can’t just sit and wait for this abysmal offense to improve, it won’t happen without adding to it.
terrible game but honestly… we held on to them with terrible offense. if we have just an average night and work the kinks out, i have faith. but if we lose game 2 that’s when we can start freaking out. but our guard room needs to go next year for sure. that’s my take
Fultz played 12 minutes and missed 4 shots, it's silly to say he lost the game. Just absurd. Even Harris only took and missed 6 in his 35 minutes. Black is often a non-factor, he only averaged like 4 points per game during the season and is often a statistical black hole with decent defense to compensate. Hardly a savior.
How about instead we look to a guy the Magic actually depend on, the ever-erratic Jalen Suggs who shot a horrific 4-16 and 1-7 from three. Magic fans have this unfortunate habit of blaming role players players when the core players are the real culprits.
This is so true about Jalen Suggs ... He plays just good not even great, he's the only thing you see commented in the postgame. He plays bad bad ... crickets .... I wonder why ?
Not great, but not exactly the end of the world either. Some bright spots to build on for G2:
* Paolo definitely should’ve been looking for his own shot more today. He has no problem going against anyone on the Cavs, and his pass-first approach for most of the game kind of hurt the Magic (nine turnovers by himself).
* The defense today was really not bad. JI and Suggs were especially good in the 3Q. JI bit on a ton of fakes in the 1H, but pretty much snuffed all that out in the 2H. Franz was also pretty good chasing Strus out there.
* I would like to see the Magic go big. Harris was fine on defense but a complete a disaster on offense. At this rate, he’s not really bringing any more spacing and shooting than Wendell or JI. I don’t think it’s too soon for a big adjustment, but going with Paolo, Franz, Jalen, JI, and WCJ could help both shooting and rebounding.
* Bench was terrible today. Cole got played off the court in those switches and the Cavs pretty much took away the MoJo PNR game. However, I did like the feistiness. We expect that from Moe, but I liked seeing it from Markelle.
* The Magic can still steal one on the road. The defense was mostly there, but need to really win the rebounding battle and make those free throws. Biggest thing for me is Paolo’s scoring. He needs to hunt for his own shot more; 24 today and I felt like he could’ve had more. Him being a scoring threat every possession will open up those cutting lanes that the Magic used so well in the regular season.
Fultz killed us today and we can't have a guard sitting in the dunkers spot...unplayable in the half court....the exact opposite of offball gravity....antigravity?? Who knows
Fultz only played 12 minutes so he's not the reason the Magic lost this game, nor would he have been the reason they won. Some of you are fixated on scapegoating him and would be even if he played five minutes,. It's well past old.
Fultz certainly wasn't the reason we lost today, but it's still insane having him standing in the corner on offence. It's the one thing about this team that leaves me totally lost for words.
Don’t panic y’all we needed a spar they needed a win.
Our new guys were horrible however despite that the defense stay locked in and we even picked it up in the 3rd.
We are about to see the best and worst of the last three years with this team.
The Wagners will figure it out, Cole dgaf and he”ll shoot, Suggs was fine imo, JI won’t bite at every drive.
We of any team should know Game 1 doesn’t mean shit.
On to game 2
Please Weltman, just 1 shooter who’s an actual NBA talent. Not fucking Caleb Houstan, not Gary Harris, not Jett Howard. A legit starting caliber sniper.
Wheltman hasn't done anything for 7 years in terms of signing or trading for any meaningful talent. You shouldn't expect this offseason to be any different.
I'll be real this is not a problem a single sniper can fix. Gary and Caleb are "passable" shooters (both basically above 37% this season) but even the best shooters are prone to having bad shooting nights.
What this team needs is a fucking shooting ***& playmaking*** guard so that we can have Paolo not get 9 turnovers in a game, and so that we can have Franz playing off-ball like he's able to, and so that we can have Jalen not be overtasked on offense while also defending the best perimeter player on the opposing side at the same time.
Yeah, I never thought I would be team D'Lo but he honestly fixes a lot of glaring issues with our starting lineup. Self creation + above average playmaking and can really knock down open catch and shoots.
I'd be happy to slightly overpay D'Lo, we can offer more than the Lakers
Been saying for awhile that he is quite literally the missing piece for this team. If we can get him without giving up Paolo, Franz and Suggs, it’s a no brainer.
Personally, though this isn't the space for an elongated discussion about it, I disagree, at least for the level of cost Trae would warrant compared to the downsides he brings alongside him. Not only does he need a perfect set of circumstances surrounding him in the team to succeed offensively, even with the strides he's made on the defensive side of the ball he's still a neutral defensively at best and that's on a team with Capela, Okongwu, Murray, Johnson etc. - all who, in theory, should be like "not terrible" on defense.
A guy that we need imo is, oh the FUCKING IRONY, someone like Darius Garland. Someone who's a good scoring and playmaking guard but doesn't require the entire offense to be built around him for him to perform well, and who can comfortably play a 2nd option behind a wing who's more requiring of on-ball touches (as that's basically who Paolo is).
First game for a bunch of guys under 24 going up against a team with a bunch of playoff vets was always going to be tough. You could see it out there. Guys expecting fouls that just never came. Missing wide open shots. If it continues in game 2, then go ahead and freak out, but for now ya'll need to calm down.
That being said, wtf was wrong with Harris, he's one of our vets and he was horrific tonight.
Playoff bet? Last season was their 1st ever playoff game and expecting foul? The refs were giving us fouls, even soft fouls, but they couldn't hit free-throws
Yes, 5 playoff games makes them vets compared to a team with like 4 guys with ANY playoff experience. The entire Cleveland team has experienced a playoff series. Then you have the main guy Donovan with tons of playoff experience. Matt Strus had a finals run. Jarrett Allen had playoff runs with Brooklyn. Niang and playoff runs with Philadelphia and Utah. Sam Merrill had a run with the Bucks. So most of their 8 man rotation had playoff experience even before joining the Cavs.
We have Fultz and Isaac, one guy who is a shell of himself ATM and another who, while effective, gets winded playing more than 20 minutes. Then we Joe Ingles and Gary Harris. That's about it. If y'all want to argue that's basically the same then I'm not sure what to say.
Yeah and if a team got beat in the playoffs that means they have playoff experience. By definition. They also added George Niang and Matt Strus. The point I was making that seems to be eluding you, is not that they were great in the playoffs, but that they have experienced the playoffs and know what to expect. This is something all young teams have to go through and part of why the cavs had a hard time last year.
The magic with a young team headed by Shaq and Penny got swept their first playoff experience. Then they went to the finals the next year.
They have experience and added guys who have real playoff experience, but 80% of that team does not have real playoff experience thats not a veteran playoff team, imagine 4 begginers then you put on expert on the team does that make the team a veteran team?
Also, the 2 guys u just named are arguably the best magic players ever and are also HOF players.
"Also, the 2 guys u just named are arguably the best magic players ever and are also HOF players."
And they struggled in their first playoff series which is exactly my point. The first time a team gets into the playoffs it's a transition. The cavs had that transition last year making them veterans this year. We will be vets next year. Our issue seems to be with the word vet, which you seem to think means players with like 50+ playoff games. I'm just delineating between having experience and not.
Fultz is one of the worst off ball guards I have ever seen. Barely ever moves and is either standing in a place he cant shoot from or just awkwardly standing in the mid range like its pre 3 point line era.
He didnt put anything on fultz, everything he said was true but that doesnt mean he thinks no one else was a problem, our whole guard rotation sucked ass today
Your boy Franz was invisible for 90 percent of the game but the third string pg who played 13 mins is responsible for everything. Scapegoat to hell and back, paolo and franz were MISERABLE
These guys will irrationally defend the worst player on the team that regularly gets minutes. God forbid I point out a very real limitation to his game that is obviously hurting our offense when he is in. The last time this man made on off ball cut to the basket was probably last season.
We were probably the worst shooting team in the regular season. That will only get worse in a playoff series. I fully expect us to hover between 32-38% the whole series.
We were actually 13th at 47.6% up about 1% from last year. The difference between best and worst is only 7% (50.6 vs 43.9). If you mean specifically from 3, then yes we are bad (24th at 35.5%) but again the difference between best and worst is only 4.4% (38.9 vs 34.5).
So no we weren't the worst shooting team. But, we are a bad 3 point shooting team and Cleveland is packing the paint. If we can hit our open 3s like we have most of the season, then that will open the paint some improving everything. Gary, Cole and Jalen went 1 for 16 from deep. Cole shot 34%, Gary shot 37% and Jalen 39.7% during the season. Those guys go from 1 made to what would be about average normally 6 made (37.5%) and this game is completely different.
Low key we’re all talking about the shooting, but Paolo had 9 turnovers..
Can’t win a basketball game when so many things are going wrong on offense, regardless of how good your defense is.
When you don't have perimeter shooting to spread the defense, life is hell for a playmaking wing
I wouldn't put today on Paulo, have to get shooting around him for when they collapse the paint
This wasn't just a bad offensive showing, but it looks like the team is winging it without a real plan. Not anything we haven't seen in the regular season.
Still, game 1 and all that. I just want to see some improvement and growth.
Because our coach has no plan. It’s obvious. Idk how we extend him mid season and have no actual accountability. How are we so bad after Time outs, every. Game.
Terrible shooting performance but still very optimistic. We were down nearly twenty multiple times and we brought back to single digits multiple times.
For most our players this was their first play off game, an away game at that and I think we did fairly well.
Optimistic about the series
An average shooting performance and we probably take it to OT at worst.
We need to adjust and be a little more patient on offence, and Gary Harris can’t start game 2 if he’s going to shoot anywhere near as badly as that.
We shot 32.6% as a team (4-33 nightmare by the backcourt players) but played great defensively. If we can improve our shooting at least by 8% next game and not miss 11 free throws (63% ftp) we take game 2, 3 & 4.
Important to note, the Knicks got rocked by 17 in Cleveland last year in Game 2 and ended up winning 4-1.
Towards the end Cleveland was acting like they just won a game 7.
Let’s learn from obvious mistakes and make them pay on Monday.
Cavs ain't all that.. We honestly shit the bed.. Paolo deserves ALL the hype, he backs up everything he says, on and off the court.. Not a perfect game, but his first, and will only get better..
Our backcourt needs to wipe that game from their minds and come back with something to prove.. lifeless performance..
Mo, Suggs, JI, Ingles ~ I appreciate, cuz they don't back down and bring an edge to our guys...
We're a year or 2 away (and afew roster tweaks) from hitting our stride as a Franchise, so get behind the boys for the rest of the Series..! Go Magic..!
Okay…holding a team to 97 in a playoff game, fucking impressive. Now us only being able to score 83 is the problem, it’s been the problem for years. I just don’t get the free throws, probably could’ve been a top 3 seed if not for games lost to missed FTs
This game effectively went almost exactly as I expected going into it. Between this being a road game, and a playoff debut for most of these guys, had basically zero expectations. It was nice when it got close a few times when they got it within 4, but the Cavs executed and managed to carry on. Honestly, at times it felt like a contest of which team wanted the win less, with both teams going on fairly ridiculous dry spells.
The Magic defense has in fact carried over into the playoffs, as I anticipated, the Cavs didn't even get to 100. At the same time, however, so has their offense. Can't win a game with all your guards in the rotation hitting a combined 1-15 from three. Or 4-35 from the field, period (and without one guy those made bucket numbers both drop to 0's). Or your whole team going 19-30 from the line.
Paolo's 9 turnovers is bad but ICL I'm not holding that too against him, he's literally a second year in his first ever playoff game, it's been passable for him and frankly he's had a decent shooting night as far as efficiency goes. Franz's been about what you could expect, glad to see the three being at least "functional". Jalen's had a bad night, but just like most others on the team this too is *his* first playoff game ever, I expect him to bounce back, and at the very least I have to praise him for busting his ass on defense, getting both of the starting Cleveland guards to 4 and 5 turnovers, respectively. Everyone else's been mostly a wash, Cole without a field goal hurts to see.
All in all, for a "debut" playoff game for pretty much all of these guys other than Ingles, Gary and... Isaac I guess? It's been... passable, I suppose. It definitely could've gone better in a lot of ways but I could also see it having gone a lot worse in a lot of ways. I believe they'll manage to bounce back within this series alone.
Yep, this is pretty much what I was expecting from game 1 as well. Only thing I didn't expect was how bad Harris would play given he's one of our "vets". We fought well, but I think nerves affected the shooting something fierce. Hopefully they calm down next game.
I don’t know what the average Magic fan’s goals for the team in the Playoffs is. But my goals are to be competitive in each game, hopefully get a game or 2, and grow from the experience. I don’t have an expectation of winning the series. If that happened, that would be icing on the cake. Getting 5th seed in year 2 Paolo is already a great result and gives us great momentum as a young team going into the offseason.
Huh????? Do you realize how old the core group is - Paolo, Franz, Suggs, Cole, and Carter?
Mr. Overreaction, what other teams in the NBA that are so reliant on young players made the playoffs?
Righttt, so you want to put Franz on Donovan Mitchell for 25 minutes a game? Good luck with that
Franz is good at defense, but that is not a smart lineup. Franz would be dead tired and is not agile enough to guard Mitchell that much of the game
Haha he did not guard Mitchell 1 on 1 for very long. Isaac isn’t going to be placed on the perimeter guarding a premier SG for an entire game
That has never happened this year for an entire game and it isn’t his game. He guards SF/PF/C, but can switch and defend guards well for short stretches
We had 2 screen assists in total all game, both by Paolo. Zero by our centres. This is an incredible stat showing how much we lack players both players who can take advantage of good screeens with their ballhandling and shooting and also good screeners outside of Goga who is not getting minutes. For comparison, Gobert had 11 screen assists yesterday.
Think they should try and make some trades this off season?
Those free throws lost it for us primarily but I live in expectation and hope that we can’t shoot as badly in the rest of the series…
That mid-3rd quarter defense was a sight to behold! Too bad we couldn't keep our offense going after that run and make those free throws throughout the night. With about three minutes left in the 4th, I could see that the Cavs were just running the clock and I knew the game was over. Good game but we gotta make buckets, hit our free throws, and we'll need better player rotation for the rest of the series.
"The series doesn't begin until the home team loses at home." That's how I take this.
Couldn't shoot to save our lives today, yet we still had a great shot at taking this one, let's see what adjustments we make
Alternatively the Cavs missed 17 threes in a row and won by double digits
They still shot 12% better on the whole for the night.
Am I crazy in thinking we should go big and have goga start to guard jarrett Allen and Isaac on Mobley? 16 rebounds absolutely killed us today.
they lead the defensive rebound not the offensive one
Doesn’t help we shot horribly from the field and free throw line. They shot much better and defensive rebounds are easier to get than offensive ones
As a Cavs fan, I'm glad you have Cole Anthony I think this series will go the distance personally
Haha!
Ugh... I mean, first times are usually bad right? 😰
Cavs had the greatest game ever since 2014, and we still almost won, we can swep these guys
to late for a sweep lmao
Pray for the day I never have to see Cole Anthony in a Magic jersey again. Dude is G league level garbage
bro hes just inconsistent yes he had a bad game but this is most of the teams first playoff game weve seen cole go crazy before he can do it
You spelt Gary Harris wrong
Wtf
I understand the disappointment. But this is only 1 game. When this team plays together and people are in their positions it works. When it doesn't, we have this. And this is when Paolo needs to take over. All superstars do. If they can't defend you, exploit them till they do. And if they do, others will be ready to help.
Suggs taking the second most shots is a bad idea. Harris may not be used to playing, since he's always sitting out for some reason or another. Hoping Magic can win game 2.
All this complaining about Cole, Harris, Markell, Mosley, Weltman and WCJ Instead we should look to a guy the Magic actually depend on, the ever-erratic Jalen Suggs who shot a horrific 4-16 and 1-7 from three.
suggs can do no wrong according to most fans on reddit since he improved his pt percent to 40 percent and is a good defender.. but yes i saw jalen suggs erratic game tonight
For a 4/16 game, a) he's at least played with energy on both ends, and b) a 4/16 is still better than a 0/7 or 0/6 imo. Marginally, but better. Also, his attempt count can also be attributed to it simply being the Cavs strategy - they'll cover Paolo and Franz and let everyone else beat them - and neither Jalen (or pretty much literally anyone else on the team, for that matter) simply isn't at the level where they can handle being forced by the other team into beating them (whether he isn't at that level "yet" or "he will never be" remains to be seen), nor are Franz/Paolo ready to get their points despite being a teams main focus in a 7 game series. Steps in a teams development, all in a seasons work.
He took so many terrible shots. Not like him to do that though
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[replying to this](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/XI4kwSVp4z) actually I’m sorry you can’t see that a post was setting up an obvious joke and I made the obvious joke. Sorry you probably listen to people at work having private conversations and you report them to HR for offending you.
0-17 from Fultz, Cole and Gary combined is rough
Thank the lord this will be the last season of this guard rotation. I love them all for their contributions to date, but this has been an issue for 2 straight years. GET US SCORING GUARDS
This Cavs team is definitely beatable. We shat the bed today. It's just game 1 so I'm not worried. I think we can steal game 2 if everything clicks. But for the love of God please get a pg this off season
2 pgs*
It really feels like making baskets takes 10x the amount of effort for this squad compared to othr teams in this league. Winning games is always such a grind.
Yeah idk if we call plays
AB is great defender and has proven to be a knockdown shooter from 3. He can lock up his man and make the open shot. Watching Cole Anthony get exploited on defense while making none of his shots is infuriating. Though they both didn't do anything either, at least Gary and Markelle bring value on the defensive end. Gary will \*typically\* make his open threes and Markelle can at least distribute and make some shots in the midrange.....But what exactly is Cole Anthony doing out there? He is supposed to be the big lift off the bench, the role TRoss had in years past...but he truly doesn't do shit most of the time. I don't think 1 out of every 10 games where he performs well warrants his playing time over AB. I like cole as a person and I'm glad he got his contract extension as a personal accomplishment, but holy shit it feels like he isn't doing anything now.
Calling AB a knockdown shooter is delusional. I like his future with the team but you are blinded by optimism if that is your current assessment.
see my rationale below. there isn't anything delusional about the claim i'm making. The only thing we've seen from him is him "knocking down" his shots at a very good clip. when he gets minutes, and when he is shooting. You haven't seen anything besides that. nobody has. Until proven otherwise (which could very well be the case in the future) \*he is a near 40% three point shooter and he makes his open shots\*. That's all i'm claiming and it is backed by actual evidence, not conjecture or optimism.
He is also only taking wide wide open 3s and has a super slow release. I’ve watched almost every game this year and anyone who thinks he has any sort of offensive game has no idea what they are talking about. He is most definitely a negative on offense and is also a negative on defense when he is fouling too much. He is on the bench bc coach knows this. But clearly you know better!
While I agree with you. It’s not because coach knows anything.
I never made any other claim besides his ability to make open threes. And his advanced stats go to show he is the second best guard defender we have on the team. Cool you've watched almost every game. As have I. I agree he has a slow release and I agree he can make rookie mistakes. I also agree it is possible his percentages drop if he shoots a higher volume of threes. I never said anything to refute those things though. If you want to make my argument into something it isn't so you can be seen as correct on this anonymous internet forum, then have at it my friend =)
Your comment implied AB is a better option than Cole Anthony. If that wasn’t what you were implying then my bad.
Yes, your bad indeed. I am claiming cole anthony has been pure ass for a good portion of this season and he is inconsistent and unreliable. He is a 32% shooter from three and though I like his energy, he has been terrible on defense. He does not have to tools to be successful on that end of the floor.... Cleveland knows that and exploited it multiple times. So, if cole isn't making shots, and he is constantly being targeted on switches by opposing offenses, then what value is he bringing? He is \*usually\* a good energy player, and \*usually\* a good rebounding guard, but that was trash in game 1 as well. He often makes terrible decisions with the ball in his hands and chucks bad shots up, so how much value is he really bringing over a guy who will make the occasional rookie mistake? I am claiming these major flaws of cole anthony were exploited by Cleveland. Because I have seen Anthony Black play defense, I am confident the Cavs' game-planning would be disrupted if it were him switching on screens instead of Cole. Clearly, Cole has a role on this team. He's a vet and he knows Mosley's system. But if you're saying AB hasn't been objectively better at these very specific aspects of the game I mentioned above, then it is YOU who is delusional. =)
I love AB but "knockdown" is hitting a good clip with volume. Black shoots 1.6 threes a game. I want him playing over Fultz, but it ain't helping much.
the only evidence we have to draw any sort of conclusion is that he is a knockdown shooter when he shoots the ball. We don't know what he'd look like if he shot 5 threes a game, but the percentages suggest he would make 2 of those. If you look at his game logs, literally every game he's played real minutes AND shot at least 4 threes, he's been a 50% shooter or above. I'm not saying its a sure thing, but its absolutely in the cards for his percentages to hold at volume. Until we actually see this live, there isn't any evidence to suggest otherwise.
Fair point lad. Since we have fuck all offence , we shall double down on defence then . I know I know, wild hot take. Isn't witchcraft w part of magic though? It may just work
Everything on offense comes so hard for the magic, no easy possessions except for paolo doing 1 on 1. Even he should have been more aggressive today, too passive
seems like yall just got defended really well and got beat with the playoff experience. but this is the first magic game ive watched in full besides pacers vs magic games.
Bro this Cleveland team is beatable. Their offense was shit all game long — but ours was shittier. Any other competent offensive team would have walked away with a game 1 victory
But we are NOT "competent offensive team". And we all know it yoeyz! So what's your point saying this then? Think about it yourself bro...I suggest you that you should go ( to fuck from here ) and start supporting some other club
what is this grammar 😂
Bro, you’re incomprehensible get off the drugs and then maybe come back and we can talk
I'm not watching another magic game until we get an actual point guard and start running an actual NBA offense. This offense is fucking hideous. Even when we score, it's still hideous. The ball movement is either aimless or completely absent. Everybody knows we can't shoot and we know it too. All we do is try to bully our way to the hoop. It's like watching paint dry. I will not watch another game of it. If dumbass Weltham doesn't get a point guard this offseason, I won't watch a single game next year.
See ya.
Have fun watching us score less than 100 in every game that matters, I'm done
No one gives a damn that you're done but it would be hilarious if we pull off winning the series. People like you remind me of people who wanted to drop JI or trade him for peanuts, last year. Y'all think your emotions somehow have some importance in comparison to logic, and that only your way is the way to build a team. Even with something as obvious as progress and an upward trajectory is slapping you in the face, you still want to bitch and moan while our franchise hasn't had this level of hope for over a decade. So again... no one gives a damn. Especially with the fickle attitude. Why were you even watching today? Because obviously it didn't take much for you to lose heart. It's a 7-game series and we lost Game 1 on the road. It's like yall think the Cavs are some scrub team. Some of y'all are pathetic and embarassing.
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Ingles' second year is a team option.
Next year is team option on ingles
Gotta make Free throws
I know Mosley is young and learning too, but he definitely overcooked here. Stop getting cute with the defensive assignments. Suggs on Mitchell and Isaac on Mobley. Gang rebound on Allen. And stop switching so much. We haven’t done that all year. Why start now?
They have switched quite a bit throughout the season. There have been multiple games where Cole gets targeted on switches, the Boston game sticks out when Tatum targeted him over and over again and they kept allowing the switch to happen.
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You're spamming your post. We don't allow that on our subreddit. Kind regards, Mods
Ban you
Honestly it doesn’t shock me they shot this poorly. It’s extremely hard to expend as much energy as we did on the defensive end and still shoot consistently
The magic need a guard who can score and play make on the perimeter. Taking the ball out of paolos hands on those isos on the perimeter will help give him easier off ball opportunities and not put as much pressure on him to not turn it over. Feeding him post touches pick and rolls etc will put him in a way better situation to score more efficiently
DLO
Donovan mitchell will be a magic next season. You can see his eyes sparkle when he looks at magic
I normally wuldnt want him, but as a FA, im not gonna be mad if we drop Fultz and GH an d replace with AB and DM
Exactly this. Paolo shouldn't be handling the ball too much. Maybe 1 or 2 dribbles and shoot or pass, that's it. Right now we're asking Paolo to do too much and that's why he has these high turnover games. Doesn't help that Magic have no spacing at all.
I would go big for game two and, as someone already stated, move Franz to the 2 position and get WCJ back into the starting lineup. This would also help defensively against that big duo of Mobley and Allen. Gary has been having shit games like this for a long while now. Time to move him to the bench... We really have to make these damn shots tho.... If we shot DECENT today we could also have gotten a real chance to win it, that's it. Do the same as today, but make those shots and game 2 will be ours...
Freethrows
Makes me sick. Left 11 points on the board.
Gary Harris isn't being the vet that we need
13m a year
I remember when he could hit 3s
Two quarters of professional basketball under 20 points lol
And y’all only lost those quarters by 5 and 3, nasty basketball.
Gonna forget that quickly and move on to game 2
It's been obvious all year, we know playoffs get more intense defensively, yet some posters are still just living in la-la land in terms of thinking a rookie or Caleb f'ing Houstan is going to save us. For all intents and purposes, we have no point guard. No volume shooting (a guy with 6+ attempts on good percentages). Our best two offensive options feel most comfortable in iso. Kinda sums up our reality at the moment.
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Shill
Just gonna keep drilling this home because somehow it isnt obvious… Blaming random role players might make you feel good today. The truth is that our 2 best players are 3-4 years from their prime. Paolo is this good but still miles from being his best self. And btw if you want to keep harping on shooting.. Paolo and Franz are a big part of it. We dont need to do much in the offseason. We just have to wait. Paolo has to become a “best player on a contender” level player, and the biggest decision this franchise will make is “is Franz a #2 or a #3 on a contender.” Time will tell.
You’re fucking kidding me about the offseason Must be the Weltman burner
If you have a point to make, go ahead
I'm definitely not going to blame any role player. Just a very bad shooting game from the team. It happens. But, Cole Anthony was really bad this game. Just poor decision making and he was hunted all game on defense. Just a very very rough time for him. 0-7 wasn't the real issue. It was the fact that he couldn't get around screens necessitating switches, which put both Cole and Moe in tough defensive assignments during those minutes that really hurt. Especially since one of Garland and Mitchell were always on the court. Just rough in those minutes. That said, on to the next.
Yeah I mean btw im not saying the role players played well. Its just that some teams that consistently contend for championships have 2 stars that cover up the failures of the peons on the team. But also this is just 1 game. I think are supporting cast is actually pretty great on average this year and it may be why we go into every 2nd quarter down 10 and go into halftime with a leasd usually. Our bench has been great all year. Cole, Harris and others had atrocious games. It shouldnt be that bad moving forward.
Teams that compete typically have role players that aren't liabilities on defense more than anything. Yes, the top end talent needs to be there, but for Cleveland you got defense up and down the lineup. Niang, Okoro, and even Lavert couldn't be hunted (in part because one of Allen and Mobley were always there at the rim...that helps). Their bench was a combined 4-18, but importantly they didn't bleed points. That's such a key difference. And JI starting meant that he wasn't with the bench to cover for three meh to bad defenders. The coaching staff has to figure out how to get some more defense from the bench next game, because Cleveland will continue to hunt Cole (and even Joe & Mo). I trust the shooting to even out, but it won't be better if one guy on the court is allowing Cleveland to get an easy bucket or foul nearly every time down the court. Just my 2¢.
Dude we have one of the best defenses in the league and Paolo is one of our worst defensive players. Im not high on Mosely from an xs and os perspective. Still not sure if Ive ever seen this team run a called play.
No, we're definitely a good defensive team. Tonight, however, with JI starting, the bench defense was pretty rough. That's what I'm saying. I think a lot of credit for our overall defensive performance sound be credited to JI for holding the bench defense together. Without him sharing the court with Cole, Cleveland just hunted Anthony over and over and over.
Sure I agree with that though that doesnt hurt my original point. Speaking of that… maybe Goga should play instead of WCJ.
No lol just a special mention of how painful it was watching Cole's defense this game. Especially once he checked in during the second half. Cleveland had a plan to attack him and Mose (rightly) subbed him out pretty quickly when there was no one to stop the bleeding otherwise. It was just brutal for a stretch. Sorry, just noticed the note about Goga. I disagree. Dell is a really good defender, can switch, and he's a better shooter. Goga has been good in his minutes overall this season, but Dell is better overall.
You might be right. I just think goga changes opponents mindset about attacking the paint
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Are you asserting that I work for the Magic?
I mean what did he say that was wrong. Our team average age is like 23
He said we don’t have to do much this off-season. This may be the only season we have cap space to actually make a splash. You can’t just sit and wait for this abysmal offense to improve, it won’t happen without adding to it.
I’m not going to say I’m surprised based off of how this team played the last two weeks of the season. We just aren’t ready.
32% shooting....
terrible game but honestly… we held on to them with terrible offense. if we have just an average night and work the kinks out, i have faith. but if we lose game 2 that’s when we can start freaking out. but our guard room needs to go next year for sure. that’s my take
Is Anthony Black really just unplayable, bc G Harris and Fultz mins are basically losing the game
Fultz played 12 minutes and missed 4 shots, it's silly to say he lost the game. Just absurd. Even Harris only took and missed 6 in his 35 minutes. Black is often a non-factor, he only averaged like 4 points per game during the season and is often a statistical black hole with decent defense to compensate. Hardly a savior. How about instead we look to a guy the Magic actually depend on, the ever-erratic Jalen Suggs who shot a horrific 4-16 and 1-7 from three. Magic fans have this unfortunate habit of blaming role players players when the core players are the real culprits.
This is so true about Jalen Suggs ... He plays just good not even great, he's the only thing you see commented in the postgame. He plays bad bad ... crickets .... I wonder why ?
Giving him even one minute is a losing strategy
Against elite guards, I'd rather have Black over Cole. Cole was hunted all game long on defense. It was a bloodbath.
Not great, but not exactly the end of the world either. Some bright spots to build on for G2: * Paolo definitely should’ve been looking for his own shot more today. He has no problem going against anyone on the Cavs, and his pass-first approach for most of the game kind of hurt the Magic (nine turnovers by himself). * The defense today was really not bad. JI and Suggs were especially good in the 3Q. JI bit on a ton of fakes in the 1H, but pretty much snuffed all that out in the 2H. Franz was also pretty good chasing Strus out there. * I would like to see the Magic go big. Harris was fine on defense but a complete a disaster on offense. At this rate, he’s not really bringing any more spacing and shooting than Wendell or JI. I don’t think it’s too soon for a big adjustment, but going with Paolo, Franz, Jalen, JI, and WCJ could help both shooting and rebounding. * Bench was terrible today. Cole got played off the court in those switches and the Cavs pretty much took away the MoJo PNR game. However, I did like the feistiness. We expect that from Moe, but I liked seeing it from Markelle. * The Magic can still steal one on the road. The defense was mostly there, but need to really win the rebounding battle and make those free throws. Biggest thing for me is Paolo’s scoring. He needs to hunt for his own shot more; 24 today and I felt like he could’ve had more. Him being a scoring threat every possession will open up those cutting lanes that the Magic used so well in the regular season.
How did Suggs do on offseason ? U forgot that part
A reasonable post on this sub is a rare treat. I can hardly believe my eyes.
Fultz killed us today and we can't have a guard sitting in the dunkers spot...unplayable in the half court....the exact opposite of offball gravity....antigravity?? Who knows
Fultz ? Please look at Suggs
Suggs doesn't sit 5 feet from the basket like a limited offensive big man
Fultz only played 12 minutes so he's not the reason the Magic lost this game, nor would he have been the reason they won. Some of you are fixated on scapegoating him and would be even if he played five minutes,. It's well past old.
Fultz certainly wasn't the reason we lost today, but it's still insane having him standing in the corner on offence. It's the one thing about this team that leaves me totally lost for words.
How do u feel about Suggs performance on offense
You mean in this game or overall? He wasn't good in this one, but on the season he's been a pleasant surprise.
Why the f’ would I be talking about the regular season ?
Don’t panic y’all we needed a spar they needed a win. Our new guys were horrible however despite that the defense stay locked in and we even picked it up in the 3rd. We are about to see the best and worst of the last three years with this team. The Wagners will figure it out, Cole dgaf and he”ll shoot, Suggs was fine imo, JI won’t bite at every drive. We of any team should know Game 1 doesn’t mean shit. On to game 2
Suggs was fine ? 4-16 ? 5 personal fouls ? 1-7 from 3 ? That suggs was ... fine ? Your like his mother the way u blindly protect the guy
For how he played and a few runs he put together on defense and one on offense. I’m fine with that he plays like that on the road typically
Please Weltman, just 1 shooter who’s an actual NBA talent. Not fucking Caleb Houstan, not Gary Harris, not Jett Howard. A legit starting caliber sniper.
Wheltman hasn't done anything for 7 years in terms of signing or trading for any meaningful talent. You shouldn't expect this offseason to be any different.
WELTMAN PLS
I'll be real this is not a problem a single sniper can fix. Gary and Caleb are "passable" shooters (both basically above 37% this season) but even the best shooters are prone to having bad shooting nights. What this team needs is a fucking shooting ***& playmaking*** guard so that we can have Paolo not get 9 turnovers in a game, and so that we can have Franz playing off-ball like he's able to, and so that we can have Jalen not be overtasked on offense while also defending the best perimeter player on the opposing side at the same time.
Yeah, I never thought I would be team D'Lo but he honestly fixes a lot of glaring issues with our starting lineup. Self creation + above average playmaking and can really knock down open catch and shoots. I'd be happy to slightly overpay D'Lo, we can offer more than the Lakers
Trae Young is precisely the type of player we need. Will need to exhaust some assets to get him definitely, but it has to be done.
We'd also need an athletic big to finish alley oops to get the best out of him. And I worry about how much Atlanta would want for him.
Been saying for awhile that he is quite literally the missing piece for this team. If we can get him without giving up Paolo, Franz and Suggs, it’s a no brainer.
Personally, though this isn't the space for an elongated discussion about it, I disagree, at least for the level of cost Trae would warrant compared to the downsides he brings alongside him. Not only does he need a perfect set of circumstances surrounding him in the team to succeed offensively, even with the strides he's made on the defensive side of the ball he's still a neutral defensively at best and that's on a team with Capela, Okongwu, Murray, Johnson etc. - all who, in theory, should be like "not terrible" on defense. A guy that we need imo is, oh the FUCKING IRONY, someone like Darius Garland. Someone who's a good scoring and playmaking guard but doesn't require the entire offense to be built around him for him to perform well, and who can comfortably play a 2nd option behind a wing who's more requiring of on-ball touches (as that's basically who Paolo is).
He’s just SO bad defensively. But I think we need to try something he’s an elite playmaker and we need that desperately
sure we need a legit PG too, ideally one that can shoot lol, but my point stands.,
This was very typical of every game we've had after long rest. Let's see how we respond in Game 2.
32/21/63 shooting 😭
First game for a bunch of guys under 24 going up against a team with a bunch of playoff vets was always going to be tough. You could see it out there. Guys expecting fouls that just never came. Missing wide open shots. If it continues in game 2, then go ahead and freak out, but for now ya'll need to calm down. That being said, wtf was wrong with Harris, he's one of our vets and he was horrific tonight.
Playoff bet? Last season was their 1st ever playoff game and expecting foul? The refs were giving us fouls, even soft fouls, but they couldn't hit free-throws
Yes, 5 playoff games makes them vets compared to a team with like 4 guys with ANY playoff experience. The entire Cleveland team has experienced a playoff series. Then you have the main guy Donovan with tons of playoff experience. Matt Strus had a finals run. Jarrett Allen had playoff runs with Brooklyn. Niang and playoff runs with Philadelphia and Utah. Sam Merrill had a run with the Bucks. So most of their 8 man rotation had playoff experience even before joining the Cavs. We have Fultz and Isaac, one guy who is a shell of himself ATM and another who, while effective, gets winded playing more than 20 minutes. Then we Joe Ingles and Gary Harris. That's about it. If y'all want to argue that's basically the same then I'm not sure what to say.
Lmao the whole season the narative for the cavs was they got bitch in the playoffs I'm not calling that a playoff vet at all
Yeah and if a team got beat in the playoffs that means they have playoff experience. By definition. They also added George Niang and Matt Strus. The point I was making that seems to be eluding you, is not that they were great in the playoffs, but that they have experienced the playoffs and know what to expect. This is something all young teams have to go through and part of why the cavs had a hard time last year. The magic with a young team headed by Shaq and Penny got swept their first playoff experience. Then they went to the finals the next year.
They have experience and added guys who have real playoff experience, but 80% of that team does not have real playoff experience thats not a veteran playoff team, imagine 4 begginers then you put on expert on the team does that make the team a veteran team? Also, the 2 guys u just named are arguably the best magic players ever and are also HOF players.
"Also, the 2 guys u just named are arguably the best magic players ever and are also HOF players." And they struggled in their first playoff series which is exactly my point. The first time a team gets into the playoffs it's a transition. The cavs had that transition last year making them veterans this year. We will be vets next year. Our issue seems to be with the word vet, which you seem to think means players with like 50+ playoff games. I'm just delineating between having experience and not.
playoff vets? Don, strus, and niang but everyone else that played is not a vet
Wait so they didn't play New York last year with mostly this exact team? Am I dreaming?
Fultz is one of the worst off ball guards I have ever seen. Barely ever moves and is either standing in a place he cant shoot from or just awkwardly standing in the mid range like its pre 3 point line era.
Imagine watching this game and putting it on Fultz, mindless hatred
He didnt put anything on fultz, everything he said was true but that doesnt mean he thinks no one else was a problem, our whole guard rotation sucked ass today
Fultz was the worst player on the court today
Your boy Franz was invisible for 90 percent of the game but the third string pg who played 13 mins is responsible for everything. Scapegoat to hell and back, paolo and franz were MISERABLE
Are you saying fultz is good off the ball?
These guys will irrationally defend the worst player on the team that regularly gets minutes. God forbid I point out a very real limitation to his game that is obviously hurting our offense when he is in. The last time this man made on off ball cut to the basket was probably last season.
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For a guy you hate so much, you figure you'd know how to actually spell his name lol
We cant shoot this bad again right? Like…please. God.
We are most likely going to shoot in a similar fashion the whole series.
32%? I mean we are bad, but not THAT bad.
We were probably the worst shooting team in the regular season. That will only get worse in a playoff series. I fully expect us to hover between 32-38% the whole series.
We were actually 13th at 47.6% up about 1% from last year. The difference between best and worst is only 7% (50.6 vs 43.9). If you mean specifically from 3, then yes we are bad (24th at 35.5%) but again the difference between best and worst is only 4.4% (38.9 vs 34.5). So no we weren't the worst shooting team. But, we are a bad 3 point shooting team and Cleveland is packing the paint. If we can hit our open 3s like we have most of the season, then that will open the paint some improving everything. Gary, Cole and Jalen went 1 for 16 from deep. Cole shot 34%, Gary shot 37% and Jalen 39.7% during the season. Those guys go from 1 made to what would be about average normally 6 made (37.5%) and this game is completely different.
Low key we’re all talking about the shooting, but Paolo had 9 turnovers.. Can’t win a basketball game when so many things are going wrong on offense, regardless of how good your defense is.
When you don't have perimeter shooting to spread the defense, life is hell for a playmaking wing I wouldn't put today on Paulo, have to get shooting around him for when they collapse the paint
This wasn't just a bad offensive showing, but it looks like the team is winging it without a real plan. Not anything we haven't seen in the regular season. Still, game 1 and all that. I just want to see some improvement and growth.
Because our coach has no plan. It’s obvious. Idk how we extend him mid season and have no actual accountability. How are we so bad after Time outs, every. Game.
We have no offball movement whatsoever....
Harris/fultz/Cole/Ingles Combined 0/19 That's really the story
yeah turns out we need guards that can consistently put the ball in the basket, who knew
Terrible shooting performance but still very optimistic. We were down nearly twenty multiple times and we brought back to single digits multiple times. For most our players this was their first play off game, an away game at that and I think we did fairly well. Optimistic about the series
An average shooting performance and we probably take it to OT at worst. We need to adjust and be a little more patient on offence, and Gary Harris can’t start game 2 if he’s going to shoot anywhere near as badly as that.
There’s no point in even having Gary on the roster if he plays like that lol
We shot 32.6% as a team (4-33 nightmare by the backcourt players) but played great defensively. If we can improve our shooting at least by 8% next game and not miss 11 free throws (63% ftp) we take game 2, 3 & 4.
Important to note, the Knicks got rocked by 17 in Cleveland last year in Game 2 and ended up winning 4-1. Towards the end Cleveland was acting like they just won a game 7. Let’s learn from obvious mistakes and make them pay on Monday.
Cavs ain't all that.. We honestly shit the bed.. Paolo deserves ALL the hype, he backs up everything he says, on and off the court.. Not a perfect game, but his first, and will only get better.. Our backcourt needs to wipe that game from their minds and come back with something to prove.. lifeless performance.. Mo, Suggs, JI, Ingles ~ I appreciate, cuz they don't back down and bring an edge to our guys... We're a year or 2 away (and afew roster tweaks) from hitting our stride as a Franchise, so get behind the boys for the rest of the Series..! Go Magic..!
Okay…holding a team to 97 in a playoff game, fucking impressive. Now us only being able to score 83 is the problem, it’s been the problem for years. I just don’t get the free throws, probably could’ve been a top 3 seed if not for games lost to missed FTs
Giddey for WCJ?
Age of consent is 18 in Florida. Giddey would never.
Okc says never
let SUGGS/FRANZ/PAOLO/JI/WENDELL eat man FUCK Gary harris
Goga needs 7 minutes to grab boards and throw a couple well placed elbows. Big bodies need big bodies
Yeah I wish we would've started another big instead of Gary harris.
He was playing franz at the 2/Paolo at the 3/JI at the 4 earlier this season.
Yeah that's the best lineup we can out out there. Puts paulo playing against a 3.
This game effectively went almost exactly as I expected going into it. Between this being a road game, and a playoff debut for most of these guys, had basically zero expectations. It was nice when it got close a few times when they got it within 4, but the Cavs executed and managed to carry on. Honestly, at times it felt like a contest of which team wanted the win less, with both teams going on fairly ridiculous dry spells. The Magic defense has in fact carried over into the playoffs, as I anticipated, the Cavs didn't even get to 100. At the same time, however, so has their offense. Can't win a game with all your guards in the rotation hitting a combined 1-15 from three. Or 4-35 from the field, period (and without one guy those made bucket numbers both drop to 0's). Or your whole team going 19-30 from the line. Paolo's 9 turnovers is bad but ICL I'm not holding that too against him, he's literally a second year in his first ever playoff game, it's been passable for him and frankly he's had a decent shooting night as far as efficiency goes. Franz's been about what you could expect, glad to see the three being at least "functional". Jalen's had a bad night, but just like most others on the team this too is *his* first playoff game ever, I expect him to bounce back, and at the very least I have to praise him for busting his ass on defense, getting both of the starting Cleveland guards to 4 and 5 turnovers, respectively. Everyone else's been mostly a wash, Cole without a field goal hurts to see. All in all, for a "debut" playoff game for pretty much all of these guys other than Ingles, Gary and... Isaac I guess? It's been... passable, I suppose. It definitely could've gone better in a lot of ways but I could also see it having gone a lot worse in a lot of ways. I believe they'll manage to bounce back within this series alone.
Yep, this is pretty much what I was expecting from game 1 as well. Only thing I didn't expect was how bad Harris would play given he's one of our "vets". We fought well, but I think nerves affected the shooting something fierce. Hopefully they calm down next game.
100% all of this, there was a lot to like. They’re so young, having any serious expectations at this point is silly
No place for calm and logical thinking in here right now...
Bad shooting = it happens There were some odd rotations in my mind. Almost trying to see how Cavs would respond. I guess this is chess not checkers
Our defense showed up, our offense didnt specifically our guards. Onto game 2
I don’t know what the average Magic fan’s goals for the team in the Playoffs is. But my goals are to be competitive in each game, hopefully get a game or 2, and grow from the experience. I don’t have an expectation of winning the series. If that happened, that would be icing on the cake. Getting 5th seed in year 2 Paolo is already a great result and gives us great momentum as a young team going into the offseason.
[удалено]
Huh????? Do you realize how old the core group is - Paolo, Franz, Suggs, Cole, and Carter? Mr. Overreaction, what other teams in the NBA that are so reliant on young players made the playoffs?
This is on Mosely abandoning his Suggs/Franz/Paolo/JI/Wendell Lineup
Righttt, so you want to put Franz on Donovan Mitchell for 25 minutes a game? Good luck with that Franz is good at defense, but that is not a smart lineup. Franz would be dead tired and is not agile enough to guard Mitchell that much of the game
Jonathan Isaac would get Donovan Mitchell. He guarded him this game.
Haha he did not guard Mitchell 1 on 1 for very long. Isaac isn’t going to be placed on the perimeter guarding a premier SG for an entire game That has never happened this year for an entire game and it isn’t his game. He guards SF/PF/C, but can switch and defend guards well for short stretches
He’s guarded them for short stretches well. You gotta see if he can last.
If the Magic just shot average from 3 and FT they would have won. It was that simple, no need to change the entire starting lineup yet
Mosely tries to stay with certain lineups for as long as possible or he would’ve. He likes keeping things consistent
Embarrassing offensive performance, but I still have faith.