Official 2024 Playoffs Game Thread: Round 1 - Game 1 Saturday April 20th, Cavs vs Magic

[harryfromphilly 75]

AND   now watching denver/LA   I hate LA almost as much as the Heat

They both need to go away  lol

[All Eyes On Me 1,212]

17 minutes ago, harryfromphilly said:

ok   so i was working all day today and only swathe box score and even that was on very dodgy internet

Please give me a FAIR assessment of today  (Including what the hell Markelle did to get a flagrant? I! )

Moment was a bit too big. Our defense was great, our physicality was great, our offense was garbage, couldn’t make a shot. The backcourt killed us on offense. Suggs was the only one who made a field goal. Moe and Jalen were great irritants. Kelle’s flagrant was pretty damn soft to be honest. Niang on the break off a steal and Fultz led with his shoulder and kind of charged him while going for a steal. 

[harryfromphilly 75]

1 hour ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Moment was a bit too big. Our defense was great, our physicality was great, our offense was garbage, couldn’t make a shot. The backcourt killed us on offense. Suggs was the only one who made a field goal. Moe and Jalen were great irritants. Kelle’s flagrant was pretty damn soft to be honest. Niang on the break off a steal and Fultz led with his shoulder and kind of charged him while going for a steal. 

thanks

was surprised at all the negatvism on here    thanks for the update

on to the next

 

[Luke_FfS 248]

Even if I loved having Isaac available for extended minutes, our starting lineup only played 44 minutes together all season. Our best three players had absolutely ZERO playoff experience, and even if the Cavs isn't a top level experienced team, they had a lot more than us. There was a few good lessons our young players can learn from yesterday. Everyone that was hoping for us suddenly becoming a good offensive team was honestly dreaming - regular season issues always gets magnified coming playoffs. We will not become good in a couple days, but there're surely things we can do better, and not only on offense.

Even if for some stretches our def was great, we also conceded too much dunks and easy ones on the paint. We are a great def rebounding team, and we let too much offensive ones too.

Suggs just need to take a deep breath sometimes. Harris was unfortunately terrible on offense, but made his work on def (even if I would like Suggs to take Mitchell sometimes too, and being focused on what he does best, defense)

Rotations: talked about it all season, now that we're in playoffs we MUST play ZERO minutes without any of our top two players in the lineup, not to mention all three. Fultz-Cole-Ingles-Moe-Wendell is a terrible choice (two bad defensive players + one bad offensive one) amplified by the fact that Isaac was starting and not there helping the second unit.

 

Little details we could and should improve. Cleveland will react too. Hope we can stay closer.

 

 

[All Eyes On Me 1,212]

I don’t think starting Isaac is the right move unless we’re gonna let the starters go 40+ minutes, it kills our bench. I also wouldn’t mind throwing our “death” lineup of Suggs/Franz/JI/P5/WCJ at the Cavs some this series. It was extremely effective early in the season and then we just kinda stopped doing it. 

Also might be worth giving some spot minutes to Goga for his size; Jarrett Allen dominated us last game and really has all season. Curious to see how Mose adjusts.

[CTMagicUK 1,488]

If none of the guards are going to hit shots honestly I'd be interested in seeing Anthony Black get minutes. I doubt we'd do it but he literally cannot be worse as a shooter than what we got game 1. 

[fan for too long 2 532]

16 hours ago, TrueMagicFan07 said:

Now,  now, Fan. I think you and Crazy Horse are the 2 funniest posters on this board, but that was not funny.  :)  

Sounds like because Joe missed the technical shot, you are blaming him for the outcome of the game.

Shame, shame!!!!

When we win this series and Joe plays a big role in the outcome, everyone will be singing his praises. Book it!

 

Appreciate it TMF! Rather laugh than cry. Lol. 
  I hope you’re right, but his role imo is leadership from the bench. Grandpa should be a coach. 

[TrueMagicFan07 675]

1 hour ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I don’t think starting Isaac is the right move unless we’re gonna let the starters go 40+ minutes, it kills our bench. I also wouldn’t mind throwing our “death” lineup of Suggs/Franz/JI/P5/WCJ at the Cavs some this series. It was extremely effective early in the season and then we just kinda stopped doing it. 

Also might be worth giving some spot minutes to Goga for his size; Jarrett Allen dominated us last game and really has all season. Curious to see how Mose adjusts.

I was one of those who suggested starting Isaac. There were two positions that were taking advantage of our size (Allen and Mobley). Because those 2 are starters for the Cavs, we have no choice but to have Goga start as our rim protector defending Allen, and use JI to defend against Mobley. Mobley was killing us with his 3 pt. shots. Later in the game JI blocked one of Mobley's shots which was closer to the basket. 

That's just my 2 cents.

[TrueMagicFan07 675]

29 minutes ago, fan for too long 2 said:

Appreciate it TMF! Rather laugh than cry. Lol. 
  I hope you’re right, but his role imo is leadership from the bench. Grandpa should be a coach. 

Okay, Fan, but let's be fair. If you are going to call Joe 'grandpa', then LeBron should also be mentioned in the same category. Joe is 36 yrs. old. LeBron will be 40 in December and does not plan to retire.  (I know, we're not talking about LB in this discussion.)  

          

 

Edit: Steph Curry is also 36.

[fan for too long 2 532]

Joe is not quite the athlete as bron. He’s close but not quite there. Lmao. It we could just play him at 1.5x like a video he’d be awesome. 
 

Oh, I’m not calling him that, his teammates do. 

[Luke_FfS 248]

3 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I don’t think starting Isaac is the right move unless we’re gonna let the starters go 40+ minutes, it kills our bench. I also wouldn’t mind throwing our “death” lineup of Suggs/Franz/JI/P5/WCJ at the Cavs some this series. It was extremely effective early in the season and then we just kinda stopped doing it. 

Also might be worth giving some spot minutes to Goga for his size; Jarrett Allen dominated us last game and really has all season. Curious to see how Mose adjusts.

Actually I've no problem with Isaac starting if he feels good enough, except the fact that this lineup has no experience playing together. But it's an option, giving Wendell inconstency.

My main issue is how we manage rotations later. The same Isaac, or probably Franz, should go out early to be back with the second unit (playing Cole more with starters to avoid his hero ball?). No lineup should be made by reserves only, and I believe even better if at least two starters are always in. Having depth is good on regular season, but in playoffs you don't play 10/11 guys. Also, Moe and Ingles together are a big big defensive hole, so if the choice is play both, please stagger their minutes.

[Jay Magic 1,248]

18 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

If none of the guards are going to hit shots honestly I'd be interested in seeing Anthony Black get minutes. I doubt we'd do it but he literally cannot be worse as a shooter than what we got game 1. 

Yep. AB should play regardless i feel