The Celtics, the Magic and the Cavs

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JMost	The Celtics, the Magic and the Cavs	Lead	[-]
Posts: 1875 (05/31/09 12:13 PM) Rondoism President Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Tags : None So, my question is, do the facts that we almost beat the Magic and that the Magic then proceeded to beat the Cavs rather easily, mean that if all three teams had been healthy that we would have come out on top? I think it may be that matchups make a bigger difference than is commonly discussed. The Magic match up really well with the Cavs, better than they do against the Celtics and maybe better than the Celtics do against the Cavs. A big part of that is that Perk handles Howard about as well as anyone in the league and the Cavs have no one like him. So it seems to me that if we had been healthy enough to grab the #1 seed, the scenario that likely would have played out was Orlando beating Cleveland in the Eastern semis, and then Boston beating Orlando in the ECF. I think it's pretty likely the these 3 teams go 1,2,3 in the East next year, so this may be another reason to finish with best record. In the past we've talked HCA as the main reason, but getting the best matchups might be an even better one. Beat LA! Beat LA!
yakyakyak		#1	[-]
Posts: 1435 (05/31/09 01:08 PM) Bigshot Genius Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	The Magic are a tough match up for anyone. They are young,athletic and have a deep bench. They run a lot and shoot three's or can post Howard for moderate success as well. I think Lee and Pietrus adds a lot to their offensive as well. I don't know if the Magic beating the Cavs means we could have beaten the Cavs. The matchups are pretty even between the teams. I think the Cavs would have been more motivated had they face the Celtics (as most teams seem to be). The were ready to face the C's and probably had all kinds of plans and strategies to use against Boston. I really think facing the Magic threw the Cavs off in terms of preparation. And they never seemed to figured out how to best stop the Magic. The Magic had two or three guys to guard Lebron while the Celtics only really had Pierce. That took it's toll on Lebron as he looked like he gave up in Game 6. The Celtics don't have near a potent a bench as the Magic did either. I would like to think the Celtics would have taken the Cavs but if the regular season was any indication, it would have been close either way. A play or there could have decided the series.
MountVJackets		#2	[-]
Posts: 1111 (05/31/09 03:20 PM) VIP Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	All 3 teams being healthy and that's including Jameer Nelson in the mix I still say we're the best team hands down. The Cavs are easily the 3rd best and I'm so happy that the Magic exposed them. I mean, if we had KG, how in the hell are they going to defend us? We could have a lot of options defending their players with KG in the mix, we miss him so much. Let's not forget about losing Powe, man that makes me sick. The main thing to me is when I view the future of the EC, I see Orlando as a team getting better and better. No one really knows what's going to happen with LeBron and the Cavs. They face some tough decisions in the offseason, Ferry will be under the gun. No one except us really has a guy that comes close to being Superman's cryptonite. Perk is only 24 and Howard is 23. I believe that Perk has 2yrs left on his current deal so obviously we can't let him get away because of the factor with Howard. I've got to say that I worry about his troublesome shoulder. On a side note BTW would you believe me if I told I recently dated a woman originally from Beaumont TX, and her younger brother played basketball and got directly involved with the infamous play that messed up Perk's shoulder. She's says it's always kind of the family joke, that they are famous because the brother contributed to what would become a chronic shoulder condition. I was stunned but no that wasn't the dealbreaker in the end. Anyway, it was pretty sad to see 7-3 center being shoved around like a rag doll by Howard. I mean big Z should be stripped of his namesake. It made me feel very fortunate to have a guy like Perk around and he's only 24 (maybe 25 - i may have gotten it wrong). Orlando is the future burning very bright in the EC. The presence of Howard and the hospitality of Florida (no state tax) will attract many potential suitiors. We have quite the challenge on hand to keep pace but we got a few pieces in place.
JMost		#3	[-]
Posts: 1876 (05/31/09 05:45 PM) Rondoism President Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	I looked it up and Perk turns 25 in November. I have to agree with you that the Magic are looking very good for quite a while, especially if they can lock up Turkoglu - who can opt out of his $7.4 million contract after this season. Given how he's played, he's probably worth quite a bit more, and will probably demand and get an extension with a big raise involved. If he stays, they have him, Howard, Lewis, Nelson all on board for several more years. I remember thinking (and posting) that the Magic had blown it by throwing so much money (about $20 million per year on average) at Lewis. I thought they weren't leaving themselves anything to acquire more pieces to put around Howard. But they found Turkoglu for short money, Nelson finally bloomed this year, and they added useful pieces like Pietrus and Gortat without breaking the bank. Not to mention filling in with Alston when Nelson went down. Some good GMing. And while the Magic will continue to get better, I have trouble seeing that for the Cavs. Who among the Cavs is really going to get much - if any - better? Maybe LeBron. They may have just blown their best chance. Who knows if James is even there in 2 years? Menawhile, we're still there for the next year at least. Beat LA! Beat LA!
tenaciousT		#4	[-]
Posts: 2275 (05/31/09 09:34 PM) Grey Vanilla Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Yeah, the feeling by many was that Lewis wasn't worth the money and neither was Pietrus. Yet, here they are in the Finals, and those two are critical to their success. Maybe there's a lesson here for the Celtics (Posey). On that front, Wyc just said in Mark Murphy's article that the Cs will try to acquire a free agent or two this summer, even though it activates the penalty. I was thinking that the Magic need to re-sign Turkoglu to remain a top team. But maybe Pietrus is ready for more minutes if Hedo goes elsewhere - like back to the Kings. I'm not sure what to think about the Magic against the Lakers. I think they can roll with them, and give them a competitive series, but I'm not ready to say that they will beat the Lakers.
yakyakyak		#5	[-]
Posts: 1437 (05/31/09 10:03 PM) Bigshot Genius Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Isn't that always the case though when teams look dominate one season and you think they can only get better but it rarely ever does. The Magic had Shaq and Penny and everyone thought they would dominate for years. KG and Marbury were also headed in that direction in Minny and it didn't work out. The Bulls were the most recent with Gordon, Deng and Hinrich. The one thing that can undo the Magic is their cap situation. If they have to resign Hedo for big bucks they'll be in luxury cap hell for years (and they still have to resign Gortat). Will ownership be willing to pay Hedo (who turns 30 this year) big money and have the majority of their cap space occupied by Howard, Lewis and Hedo for years to come? Strangely enough Jameer, Pietrus and Lee are tied up for a few years so they have that going for them at least. I really hope the Magic can beat the Lakers as it will only drive Hedo's price tag higher.
Causeway		#6	[-]
Posts: 454 (06/01/09 10:44 AM) VIP Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Beat LA. Please Beat LA. BEAT LA!
BostonDave		#7	[-]
Posts: 134 (06/04/09 11:57 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Interesting question. I guess you have to look at the matchups. Magic are tough for anyone to match up against. We had the fortune of having Perk who seems to have some pretty good sucess against superman. Cavs do not, and that was illustrated. So they double-teamed him and opened up the long bomb arsenal of Orlando. I always thought Cleveland was a bit of a paper tiger myself. I think they were exposed as Labron plus four other guys. And as good as he is he's still only human and can carry them only so far. Celts beat 'em last year, I think we would've beat them worse this year with the improved Rondo, Perk and Baby. Altho probably not as handily as the Magic did. The 4-2 series was'nt as close as that tally would imply. Magic almost could''ve swept them. Hater of Haters.
Sam Lively		#8	[-]
Posts: 275 (06/07/09 12:54 PM) VIP Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	I really don't fear the Magic that much. They were very fortunate to catch the Celtics without their two quick 4s and still needed 7 games to escape. At full health, we really match-up well with them. The Cavs are much tougher for us, as we don't have a dynamic post player or sweet shooting big men to expose their frontcourt's defensive problems. The Cavs can muscle us, hurt us on the boards and pack the paint against us.
Surferdad		#9	[-]
Posts: 2183 (06/07/09 01:03 PM) Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Sam Lively wrote: ...The Cavs are much tougher for us, as we don't have a dynamic post player or sweet shooting big men to expose their frontcourt's defensive problems. The Cavs can muscle us, hurt us on the boards and pack the paint against us. Change this to past tense to reflect the injury situation during this year's playoffs, and I would agree. Otherwise, Garnett and Powe are exactly what you say we don't have.
JMost		#10	[-]
Posts: 1889 (06/07/09 03:52 PM) Rondoism President Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	I read somewhere this morning that the Cavs were hoping that the Celtics beat the Magic because they knew they didn't match up well against Orlando and thought they'd have a better chance against the short-handed Celtics. I really think matchups are underrated, and that even fully healthy we match up better against Orlando than Cleveland. Not to say we can't beat them of course. Beat LA! Beat LA!
ugghhhh		#11	[-]
Posts: 1363 (06/09/09 09:22 PM) VIP Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	And IF we had Garnett, we'd be raising no 18 this year...fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk.

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