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Round 3, Game 3| Cavs @ Magic| Sun, May 24th @ 8:30 pm [et]

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Magic are better than the Cavs, now is the time to prove it

posted by Michael White /Orlando Sentinel

Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.

-- Lou Mannheim, played by Hal Holbrook, in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street

There isn’t a scale available in science to measure how bad this sucks. I am despondent beyond all rational thought.

One freaking second. One freaking second.

Fortunately, it happened on a Friday. Otherwise there’d be two days of Rome is Burning and PTI twisting the knife further into the collective intestines of Magic fans.

In the grand scheme of things though, what can you do? The game’s greatest player hit a great shot. The series is tied at 1 and the Magic have home-court advantage.

But still .. .. .

Of course there is no way in hell Turk should have been covering LeBron. Where was Mickael Pietrus?

And even though the refs finally called James for traveling and a charge late in the game (He even had the nerve to complain — really LeBron?), they did not come away unscathed.

How many times were they going to allow James to come barreling though the lane like a bull at Pamplona, and then call a foul as Magic defenders run for cover? And no technical after Mo Williams launches the ball at Dwight in the first quarter? The incompetence of the NBA refs will forever be a stain on David Stern’s already blemished campaign as commish.

Quick aside: I’ve already had enough of both Big Mouth Mo Williams and Raggedy Andy Varejao. As Dusty Rhodes would say, Mo Williams is a walk-behinder. And when you’re a walk-behinder, the view never changes. If LeBron is Sinatra, Mo is Steve Lawrence. If he were on the Magic he’d be the 4th scoring option, yet he runs his mouth like he's a perennial all-star.

Just remember Mo, without LeBron you’re just an opening act in Reno.

Raggedy Andy is also real a piece of work, hacking away all night and then crying when the refs remember he’s not LeBron and blow the whistle.

Whatever. It comes down to this: Beat the Cavs on Sunday or you play for your season on Tuesday. There is no doubt in my mind the Magic are the better team. Come out and punch these chumps in the mouth.

I think the Magic can do it. What do you think?
 
Cavs win by 3. 93-90.

Game is close all the way up until the end. Closest thing to a big lead is Orlando up by 7 at the half.

Damn it Jigo, don't you have a bad feeling about this one?
 
For some reason I feel real confident heading into this game tonight. I have a feeling Delonte will find his rhythm at the free throw line and then those open 3 pt J's will start to fall for him. Not sure if Mo will find his groove or not. We just need one of them to break out of that slump and we need Sasha to play as efficient as he was in game 2 on both ends of the floor.

If either Delonte or Mo breaks out of their funk there is no question in my mind that we can beat Orlando by double digits, especially with the way LeBron's been playing. :thumbup:
 
im going to be honest i look for the magic to come out on fire from everywhere and its going to force the cavs into adjustments that they normally wouldnt have made otherwise. Somehow its going to lead to the shooters catching fire and from there on out this series is the cavs to lose.
 
I feel physically nauseous right now. I feel the only chance we have of winning this series is Orlando going cold from 3, and thought that we have that little control over the game is sickening.
 
I feel physically nauseous right now. I feel the only chance we have of winning this series is Orlando going cold from 3, and thought that we have that little control over the game is sickening.

Statements like these make me ashamed to be a Cavs fan. Yes, the only chance the best team in the NBA has to win is if Orlando goes cold.

How about the fact that Cleveland has been cold from the 3 the entire series? What happens tonight when the Cavs start hitting their shots?

Orlando has shot the ball extremely well while the Cavs have been horrible from deep mainly Mo and Delonte.

What does that equal? 1-1 series with the two games decided by 2 total points. Orlando played better, shot better, but could not go 2 up or even beat Cleveland by more than 1 point.

If Cleveland shoots good then its a W.
 
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Damn it Jigo, don't you have a bad feeling about this one?

Just give him time. When it happens, it usually happens a few minutes before halftime. :thumbup:
 
Statements like these make me ashamed to be a Cavs fan. Yes, the only chance the best team in the NBA has to win is if Orlando goes cold.

How about the fact that Cleveland has been cold from the 3 the entire series? What happens tonight when the Cavs start hitting their shots?

Orlando has shot the ball extremely well while the Cavs have been horrible from deep mainly Mo and Delonte.

What does that equal? 1-1 series with the two games decided by 2 total points. Orlando played better, shot better, but could not go 2 up or even beat Cleveland by more than 1 point.

If Cleveland shoots good then its a W.

I'm sorry. If I didn't have a lifetime of sports heartache, I'd be able to have some confidence. But I don't.

I hope it is ill founded worry.
 
If we can pull out a victory tonight, I still think we win in 5.
 
I'm sorry. If I didn't have a lifetime of sports heartache, I'd be able to have some confidence. But I don't.

I hope it is ill founded worry.

It this season was truly supposed to be another Cleveland sports letdown, LeBron would have missed in Game 2.
 
I have some good feelings about this game, but I'm cautious as hell here...We've:
-Always been good at making adjustments from a game-to-game basis...we'll figure some things out, though I'm not sure that may be enough...Still we've gotten in every series in the LeBron era (think Detroit in 06-07, even Boston last year, we were just such a better team at the end rather than the start of the series)
-We've got LeBron...as amazing as he's played it seems like he may have another gear left in him that he's going to absolutely need to bring out for game 3 or 4...
-At what point is playing a 7-game series going to take a toll on Orlando? I thought Hedo was hurting?? and Courtney Lee missing the rest of the playoffs didn't happen :(
Hopefully some wear & tear shows at this series goes on...
 
I personally think our trip to Orlando is going to be eerily similar to the last 2 games but in reverse. Both 1 point games with the Magic up double digits for most of the game, but going cold from the 3 and giving us a chance for a 4th quarter comeback (more like last season). Either way, we win by 1 next game, they win by 1 with a miracle shot by Turkeyglue tonight. (Or we win both by 1)
 
Mike Brown was interviewed at shootaround this morning (at this link):

The main points he stressed are:

1) Probably will stick with a similar rotation as Game 2 (in other words, Sasha will likely play).

2) Cavs need to pay attention to transition defense better. Take good shots when the floor is spaced. PG/SG/SF need to worry more about transition than offensive rebounds, depending on where they are on the floor. PF/C can't always crash the boards. PF/C need to also pay attention to 3-point shooters on transition, not just get back to guard the paint, especially since Orlando's SF/PFs are spotting up. In other words, they're looking to improve the defense rather than scrap for extra possessions on every trip.

3) Orlando causes defensive problems for the Cavs that require some adjustments in how they do things (for example, how they approach closing out on shooters) but they are minor issues not major ones. He doesn't expect to pull out any wholesale changes on defense.

4) Cavs need to execute better and focus better in the 2nd half (transition defense, turnovers, and so on), regardless of whether or not they have the lead.

I might have missed some comments on strategy (7-minute long interview) but that was the basic gist of it. He talked about LeBron's shot in Game 2 as well as the set up for the game-ender in Golden State but nothing we haven't heard before.
 

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