~O~

You know what. They are better. Better prepared mentally.

I don't believe that the Raptors are that great. I just believe the Raptors tried harder than us. They complain on every foul which is dynamic you sadly must do in order to get the officials to give you calls. They also know how to break our momentum with cheap calls. We don't have a player that can break momentum with cheap calls because our players don't argue with the refs for foul calls. The Raptors progressively shot better than us. The Magic continually shot worse. At this point, the Magic have lost so much confidence in the game plan and their own individual capabilities that the damage is done. When do what you have to do early into the series like some of our guys didn't, the rest of the series turns into THIS. A one sided recreational game in which the opponent is just toying with you. The Magic became progressively jaded and the zeal is all but gone.

The Raptors are now punking the Magic. Its pathetic.

Ok. I hope the bucks win the eastern conference finals. They're the most deserving team.

Isaac wasn't mentally prepared to defend tonight and he's obviously has damaged his confidence on shooting after game 2. Game 1 was great for him.

Those turnovers early in the 1st sucked the belief out of the Magic. They started the game so promisingly. Then they turned back into who they were.

The Raptors..know us well. They're coasting again. They know the Magic are incapable of boxing out for critical rebounds on this stage. Many of their second chance points have been critical points. They know the Magic are incapable of rotating and recovering fast enough. They know that our players fail to accept match ups which lead to blow-by plays. They know that the Magic will not take have the urgency to take the lead or score since they have accepted the "play behind" role. The Raptors know that they can mentally break the Magic's momentum by getting lowry to bait someone into a foul. They know that we're inconsistent shooters. Especially critical moments. Most of all, they know the Magic will turn it over at a high clip unforced. We can't guard VanFleet at all can we.

I'm glad that players who are dependent on officiating like Lowry end up losing out in the end.

Terrence Ross needs to step up.

Isaac out of the game yet again.

Always expect terrible officiating. This way, you won't be mad. Isaac being off the floor is because of terrible officiating.

That's exactly what he did after getting blocked by Ibaka. Its like he doesn't know how to use his momentum going to the rim and slows himself for whatever reason. It ends up turning into a opponent fast break and the Magic haven't been guarding fast breaks well at all.

If this is going to be the game..where we shadow all night by settling with being down 2 to 4 points every other possession, its not going to look good down the stretch. There needs to be urgency to take a big lead.

It's pretty sad that even after so many years, Gordon still falls apart on fast breaks with an inability to use incredible athleticism to score.

Well...its been a great series.

The objective tonight should have been to show that we arent going to be the same team from the other night. The magic have failed again but turning the ball over at a high rate. Isaac being in foul trouble is going to prove costly. Fournier can only guard siakem in his dreams.

Fultz and Bamba is another issue for me that I can't have an opinion on. Haven't seen them play enough. Fultz...from the news I've read from the last few months was unstable. He looks stable on the sideline however. I'll judge him next year. Bamba....was in a rookie season. Nothing to judge really.

This is why...that point in the third quarter where the Magic went up, Clifford should have been ahead of Nurse. Nurse immediately made his guys push the pace with Siakem out there leading the break. They got it up to an even larger margin. Siakem/Isaac and Gordon/Leonard is critical however its null if the Magic don't DO WHAT THEY'RE SUPPOSE TO DO..on offense.

Exactly. He didn't have easy game because the game wasn't over after the second. Remember, Toronto had the lead for the entire game for game 2. The Magic were one run from being down an insurmountable deficit. They never stood a chance in this game. This was their ultimate chance to prove themselves but they failed again because of the same two guys not doing what they're suppose to do.

He couldnt miss because the magic let him get comfortable shooting the worst percentages and opening a runway to the rim in game 2. He wouldn't be so comfortable in a close game or down 10 points.

You gotta understand. All the necessary adjustments have been made by Toronto. They're basically water walking over us right now. You've seen Fournier play terrible for 2 games and Vucevic play terrible for the entire series. Fournier is missing wide open shots showing that he can't be relied on at all in the NBA on this stage. Vucevic is falling apart mentally. He just does not have anything on an out of prime...34 year old Marc Gasol. Wouldn't you consider..that absolutely embarrassing? There are few adjustments that can be made but Toronto is better than the Magic. They have much more mismatches to exploit than the Magic. I've literally seen this game 3 times Its the same story. It didn't have to come down to a rebound if Fournier and Vucevic did what they were suppose to do.

Vuc was decent for the very beginnings of the third quarter. His terrible play shall not be excused. He was still getting stripped and still missing gimmes to end the game. Being good for 20 percent of the game is not praiseworthy.

And its not going so well for the Magic right now in reality.

You can put him on your ignore list. I already have.

Yep...great effort. The great filter of the NBA playoffs exposes the regular season players. Now.........we'll have to see how competent the Magic front office is.