2024 Playoffs Eastern Conference First Round: (4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs (5) Orlando Magic

lovegtm

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Apr 30, 2013
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UGH.

Modern hoops pisses me off.

Look, I love the three pointer. When I played, I liked to shoot a lot of them. I find Curry’s threes a thing of beauty.

But dammit is the game warped now.

Twice in the last five minutes, Orlando drove the ball — had a clear fucking path to the hoop — and the player threw the ball to a shooter behind the three point line.

It’s gotten bad enough that the defense is actually giving up part of the lane so that they can close on shooter.

It’s MADDENING.
The teams combined for only 27 3s in the first half. This is mid-90s basketball.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Orlando really needs someone else to be able to initiate----Banchero spends a lot of revs just bringing the ball up and starting the offense. Which is fine time to time, but seems like the default.
Anthony helps when he is in, but they don't seem to want Fultz or Suggs to really handle it often.

If you put Mitchell on Orlando you'd have a pretty nasty looking team...
 

Kliq

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For a guy with rumors swirling that he wants out (not that I disbelieve those rumors) Mitchell is sure showing a lot of fire in trying to help these guys win.
 

dhellers

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Pretty sure he’s been in the league longer than that.

While I want no part of Mitchell in the next round, I’ve reconsidered — Orlando plays out of control, and I don’t want our guys getting hurt.
That is the point I have settled on ... "not want our guys getting hurt"

BTW:
Tristan Trevor James Thompson (born March 13, 1991) is a Canadian-American professional drafted fourth overall by the Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA draft. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Thompson)​
 

TrapperAB

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Van Everyman

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Newton
It seems Richard Jefferson’s prediction of Suggs, Banchero and Wagner headed to Russ/KD/Harden territory may be hitting a bit of a roadblock.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Boy, was Orlando not ready for the moment in this one. A huge first quarter and basically awful in all ways after that.

A really interesting young core there, though.
 

lars10

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Good.

With Zinger, I think we sweep Cleveland. Without, prob 5 games.
I don’t see how either of these teams keep up with Boston.. Cleveland has played decent D but there have been a ton of open looks from three for Orlando.. they just haven’t shot well.
 

TrapperAB

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Everything Mitchell does seems like it’s done to be caught on camera.
Agreed. Old man shaking fist at clouds: too many young players who have grown up in a social media soaked world are acutely/overly attuned to how they’re perceived. I’d find it more annoying with Mitchell if a former boss of mine hadn’t been Mitchell’s high school English teacher and spoken very highly of the kid’s character.
 

timelysarcasm

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Can’t wait to see Garland/Mitchell try to get a pick so that they can get away from White/Holiday, only to have Brown/Tatum waiting for them.
I am extremely excited for this, and I think we'll see Holiday and White at their best - hard not to get up defensively for guys that can get red hot like Mitchell, Brunson, etc. They absolutely put Herro in jail and he's not that level of guy.

Special hatred for Max Strus, but don't really hate many of the other Cavs.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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I am extremely excited for this, and I think we'll see Holiday and White at their best - hard not to get up defensively for guys that can get red hot like Mitchell, Brunson, etc. They absolutely put Herro in jail and he's not that level of guy.

Special hatred for Max Strus, but don't really hate many of the other Cavs.
Caris LeVert can kiss my ass.
 

TrapperAB

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Mobley changes a lot of shots, but he also seems to overcommit — will be interesting to see Tatum get the Cavs defense to collapse and then pitch it out to Holiday in the corner or Hauser up top.

Also, if Big Al can hit some threes, he can draw Mobley out of the lane and open things up for the Jays (would have been nice to have Zinger doing that, too).
 

HomeRunBaker

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How bad is Jarrett Allen’injury? Missed last ?3 games?
You may have answered your own question. When you miss G5 & G6 then aren’t even able to be out on the floor for warmups to even try to go it speaks volumes. Who knows what the next 48 hours brings but it has to be bad enough to miss a G7
 

HomeRunBaker

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YES I AM IN COMPLETE CONCURRENCE WITH THIS ASTUTE OBSERVATION

I keep forgetting that LeVert is on this Cavs team, so when I’m reminded, as I was this afternoon, I’m pissed all over again. He has a massively inflated opinion of his skill set. Dude is an inefficient chucker who‘s a poster boy for empty stats.
How empty were his stats in helping lead a G7 comeback?
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Ultimately, I’d rather face the team that is easier for us to score against knowing we have the horses to slow down anyone if we’re fully engaged on the perimeter.

Cavs have two shrimpy guards and Strus eating minutes. Yes there’s Mobley and maybe Allen but if the ball movement is cooking I don’t know what they can do to win a series here. Orlando offense was not the one to exploit them.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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That’s what’s annoying about the guy: he shot under 37% for the series (18/49). He had a nice game today, and will likely uncork one against the Celts, but he’s not as good as he thinks he is.
He also has an annoying habit of saving his big games for the Celts. Like his 41 point game last season, which he followed up with a 1 point performance against the Knicks.
 

m0ckduck

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How empty were his stats in helping lead a G7 comeback?
Speaking of empty stats, how bad was Garland today? I was joking with my kids at half-time that best chance for a Cleveland comeback involved Darius fouling out. The badness of his box score was only obscured by (a) getting 4 FTs after the game was already decided and (b) the next-level badness of Wagner and Suggs on the other side.
 

BigSoxFan

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Speaking of empty stats, how bad was Garland today? I was joking with my kids at half-time that best chance for a Cleveland comeback involved Darius fouling out. The badness of his box score was only obscured by (a) getting 4 FTs after the game was already decided and (b) the next-level badness of Wagner and Suggs on the other side.
He was horrendous but had a mostly good series. I hope we see today’s version in multiple games.
 

HomeRunBaker

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He was horrendous but had a mostly good series. I hope we see today’s version in multiple games.
This is one area that we will miss KP. So much of Garlands game is about getting downhill and finishing in the paint. Not having that deterrent should help him.