2023-2024 General Game Thread

[JJZFL 619]

8 hours ago, Jay Magic said:

we are @ Pacers tonight 

You're correct, my mistake.  We did beat them at home last month so my comment stands otherwise, but I was mistaken about location.

[ball junkie 277]

What a contrast in playing styles …Magic just pounding it inside possession after possession …Pacers keeping it close with 41% shooting from the arc …Magic 27 ft attempted Pacers 9 …we’ll see how long that stat continues also …best half the Magic have played in a while .

[Phil4Real 45]

They outscored us 33-20 in the 3rd. We are rushing things and making a lot of turnovers, I think the Pacers' pace it's kind of contagious.

Just one point game into the 4th. Paolo needs to keep attacking the rim.

[ball junkie 277]

They could not stop Banchero down low …story of the game …losing streak over 

[Phil4Real 45]

Good reaction on the final run. The defense was set and we slowed things down on offense. Indiana really struggled to play their basketball tonight. Great win, we needed it.

[MagicMan1979 105]

Great win. Go Magic. Happy Holidays!

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Indiana don't have anyone who can guard Paolo or Franz. And we did a terrific job of running them off the 3 point line and forcing contested shots in the paint. 

Caleb Houstan went some way towards beating the fake shooter allegations, hope he keeps that up. 

I'm prepared to give WCJ 8-10 games to get his legs back under him before I make any grand statements but tonight Goga was our best C. If that's still the case 10 games from now I may have to eat crow on my WCJ>Goga takes. 

Anthony Black was unbelievable on defense. I can't explain to you how overwhelmingly impressed I was with him in this game. There were some possessions he blew up by himself. Indiana runs a lot of guard/guard actions and they had multiple possessions where AB guarded the ball handler, helped onto the screener receiving the ball and then scrambled back to his initial man to close any opportunity. Just a special young defensive player who isn't getting enough love because his defense isn't  loud and eye catching.

[orlandoholic 134]

great game and fairly officiated … We are only going so far as the ref crew will let us. Enjoyed watching a game without the superstar treatment 

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,032]

Paolo has improved his driving game so much from year one to year two

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,032]

Oh, and Isaac’s defense is just insane 

[ball junkie 277]

2 hours ago, orlandoholic said:

great game and fairly officiated … We are only going so far as the ref crew will let us. Enjoyed watching a game without the superstar treatment 

lol …except this time we shot 41 free throws to their 13 …there’s a reason Pacer fans kept booing everyone we marched to the line …pretty sure if you ask Indiana fans they’d scream preferential treatment 

[JJZFL 619]

Goga and Black, as CT said, had a huge outcome on this game that doesn’t entirely show up on the stat sheet.  Also, Black is starting to show early signs of becoming more assertive and confident on the offensive end.  I understand that with Franz and Paulo on the team, almost any rookie PG will feel a lot of pressure to just pass the ball to one of them and run to the corner, which is mostly what he’s been doing, but I think I’m starting to see signs of him looking a little for his own offense also.  
 

Great game and very important win.  Only caveat is what CT said about Indiana’s defensive shortcomings, and in particular inability to stop Paulo and Franz from getting to the basket.  That may not carry over to other teams that are better than Indiana defensively, which is almost everyone (Indiana defensive rating is 28th out of 30 teams).

One other thing:  the offense can have a big impact on the defense.  In the recent Boston games for example, in one game we shot 38%.  In the other game we had 21 turnovers.  Both those scenarios lead to situations where we don’t have time to get set on defense, and the other team will often get open three point looks.  We were able to contest most of the Indiana 3s last night because we shot 53% and had only 13 turnovers.