OFFICIAL GAMETHREAD: Magic @ OKC

[Franchero MVP 391]

This shows ibaka can be a beast but is his motivation lacking? I mean he had motivation this game because of his old fans, but what happens next game?

[TyMagic 1]

Great win for the Magic! Over a really good OKC team. I really like Ibaka's game, i still think it was better trade for us to get him for Oladipo.

 

 

Go Magic!

[Soul Bro 1,419]

Random thoughts:

 

- Payton was a beast.. that's nice

- Fournier was solid and outplayed Dipo

- Gordon is growing a ton offensively

- Augustine played well

- Ibaka went off

- Biz is the biz

- Vooch stunk

 

Bottom line: Vooch needs to find the bench and serve as a sixth man like Kanter. His defense is awful. I'd move Ibaka to the starting five spot and start Gordon at the four. Meanwhile, I'd probably start Rudez at the three for his spacing. Or... We could try to roll with Ibaka and Biz as starters and build lineups from there. Either way, Vooch is a one way player and I hope Vogel has the guts to make adjustments.

[Soul Bro 1,419]

One more thought: while I understand the Mario benching, it still is a bit shocking. Clearly, Vogel doesn't have faith at the moment that Mario knows how to play in his system.

[magicblue 315]

Random thoughts:

 

- Payton was a beast.. that's nice

- Fournier was solid and outplayed Dipo

- Gordon is growing a ton offensively

- Augustine played well

- Ibaka went off

- Biz is the biz

- Vooch stunk

 

Bottom line: Vooch needs to find the bench and serve as a sixth man like Kanter. His defense is awful. I'd move Ibaka to the starting five spot and start Gordon at the four. Meanwhile, I'd probably start Rudez at the three for his spacing. Or... We could try to roll with Ibaka and Biz as starters and build lineups from there. Either way, Vooch is a one way player and I hope Vogel has the guts to make adjustments.

 

If you're seriously expecting Rudez to defend SF's you need to re-think your suggestion. He's got about the same lateral quickness as Andrew Nicholson, no way can he defend SF's. AG could defend SF's but in that case why not just say Rudez at PF, AG at SF?

[Soul Bro 1,419]

If you're seriously expecting Rudez to defend SF's you need to re-think your suggestion. He's got about the same lateral quickness as Andrew Nicholson, no way can he defend SF's. AG could defend SF's but in that case why not just say Rudez at PF, AG at SF?

Fair enough. I just believe Vooch needs to come off the bench.

[Franchero MVP 391]

Payton and Gordon cannot play together

[barnettej 263]

Okay the night was great with a win. However we played way above what we have been seeing from this team. So I will get ready for the next string of losses, not that i want them because i dont.

 

But if we expect Payton to hit back to back 3's and then have Ibaka save us with a good shot, like that baseline... then we are fooling ourselves.

 

A good playoff team, closes those games out by stretching the leads they earn. Our team plays for their lives it seems just to stay close in games.

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

One more thought: while I understand the Mario benching, it still is a bit shocking. Clearly, Vogel doesn't have faith at the moment that Mario knows how to play in his system.

I think it would be more beneficial for Mario to go to the dleague for a few games and build his confidence. Sitting on the bench as the 13th man isn't doing him any good.

[magicblue 315]

Okay the night was great with a win. However we played way above what we have been seeing from this team. So I will get ready for the next string of losses, not that i want them because i dont.

 

But if we expect Payton to hit back to back 3's and then have Ibaka save us with a good shot, like that baseline... then we are fooling ourselves.

 

A good playoff team, closes those games out by stretching the leads they earn. Our team plays for their lives it seems just to stay close in games.

 

Playoff teams win close games on the road throughout the season also, so that logic doesn't really hold water. You're right though, if winning games is gonna come down to EP making or missing a string of 3 pointers down the stretch, we're probably going to lose more often than we win.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

This shows ibaka can be a beast but is his motivation lacking? I mean he had motivation this game because of his old fans, but what happens next game?

It had a lot to do with Vucevic playing 19 minutes due to foul trouble. Ibaka can't shine on offense or defense with Vuc by his side. That guy is a backup

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Okay the night was great with a win. However we played way above what we have been seeing from this team. So I will get ready for the next string of losses, not that i want them because i dont.

 

But if we expect Payton to hit back to back 3's and then have Ibaka save us with a good shot, like that baseline... then we are fooling ourselves.

 

A good playoff team, closes those games out by stretching the leads they earn. Our team plays for their lives it seems just to stay close in games.

 

Yeah, but there's no real hope that we're going to be a good playoff team this season. The benchmark is "Bad playoff team".

 

Bad playoff teams screw up but figure out how to do enough to come out with wins.

 

That team that played last night could be something like 7-3 instead of 4-6 and we'd be talking about how we all need to calm down because we beat teams we're better than including a shorthanded Miami team, a Utah team that was missing George Hill, and a Minnesota team that was coming off a back to back.

 

But once again we're stuck in some sort of weird position where we cant figure out what our team is. is it the embarrassing thing we saw the previous 9 games? or is this game going to push us into what some of us thought the team could be before the season began (a flawed but solid team that we can build on)?