JJZFL

Surprised to see Magic as 7 point underdogs against Knicks. I think we’re a good bet to cover, if not win outright, but I’m not much of a gambler.

What really gets old for me is multiple players dribbling in 2-3 opponents and losing the ball. I realize Banchero is our star but when he’s double or triple teamed he needs to trust his teammates and pass to someone else for a better shot. Doubly true for Anthony. A good chunk of our turnovers were due to dribbling into traffic with a mindset of taking a shot no matter what. That has to change, no matter who’s on the floor.

Agree with everything in your post.

Ive got tickets for the March 10 game against Indiana. Gotta hope they’re ready to play for that one

Magic look like they didn’t want to play tonight

Trying to go 1v3 just plays into their hands

For tonight’s game, Minnesota is favored by five. Everyone who was out for the Magic last game is out again tonight.

I’d like them to retire Travis Diener’s jersey.

I'm still not able to understand all these ridiculous turnovers, about half of which seem to be unforced.

Only watched first half due to lateness of the game. When I looked at the box score this morning, I noticed we out rebounded GS and we actually shot one more three than they did. Baskets made were almost even. So I’m asking myself, why did we lose? Two things stood out. One, they had 14 more free throws than we did. They shot free throws very badly last night, but still got five more points than we did from free throws. Secondly, 17 turnovers by us, 12 for them. I saw some of those turnovers in the first half and continue to be baffled. So many of them are unforced; ridiculous passes that have no chance at all. How about that pass last night that was thrown about 15 feet over the supposed targets head? This has started to be a problem these past few games and I don’t understand it.

Very winnable game. Make two of however many open three point shots we missed in the last five minutes and we win. Just that simple. No need to invoke refs. Once again our lack of clutch three point shooting did us in.

Almost seems like Houston is trying to aim the ball instead of just shooting naturally. Not sure if it’s nerves or what.

It’s been said before particularly by CT but Cole is a huge liability on defense. Fortunately Frantz seems to be coming out of his three point shooting slump in a big way, which we’re needing tonight.

You’re right but other teams rely more on the three than we do. By design and necessity we focus on the paint.

Again their absolutely horrendous shooting is making us look a lot better, just the opposite of how horrible we looked when Boston and Philly were hitting everything against us.

You’re not wrong. Knicks an astonishingly bad 1-14 from three. Change that around and it’s a different game. Many of those misses were open shots. I’m realizing an important truth of basketball: game is easier when the other team misses all their shots.

Again we see a lot of dribbling into traffic. Very rarely do you win 1 v 3 situations.

Me too. Natural on defense with surprisingly fast hands. Good enough on offense, knows his role, smart passer.

There were a lot of very casual passes leading to turnovers last night. Not sure if it was fatigue or what. Cole himself had 4 turnovers to 1 assist. I didn't feel like it was great defense that forced most of the turnovers; rather just careless passes or constant 1 v 3 dribbling into traffic.

Maybe Fran Vazquez is also available and we could swing a deal for both of them.

There was no injury that anyone noticed. Just his surgically repaired knee swelling up after a few games. No reason to believe that won’t be an issue in the future. The only way he can be pretty much guaranteed not to have issues going forward is for him not to play at all. Given how AB looks like he’s starting to develop, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Part of my post after the Indiana game. Looks like the game is really starting to slow down for him.

Our shooters are elite enough to beat them.

I dunno. Maybe he didn’t intend it, but the implication of those remarks is that Indiana is the better team but just couldn’t be bothered to turn it on against the Magic. Sounds like making excuses to me. If they’re really the better team they need to prove it by beating us and so far they’ve done just the opposite - on their home court.

LOL, I don't think so. But it is a pretty well hidden slap in the face.