***NEW! OFFICIAL 2024 PLAYOFFS GAME THREAD: ROUND 1: GAME 2, CAVS. VS MAGIC

[Shine88 81]

5 minutes ago, Soul Bro said:

Cole Anthony… Magic killer. 0 points tonight off the bench. Unplayable.

Together our guards tonight off the bench (Cole, Kelle, Joe and Caleb) had 3 total points.

An epic failure on the part of Weltman. Either we stayed the course so our young guys like AB could develop, which isn’t happening in the playoffs, or we stayed the course and bet wrong, especially on Cole and Kelle. Either way, what a mess at the guard position.

0-11 on the series, too. 

[All Eyes On Me 1,212]

What it comes down to is this is a make or break series for about half of our roster to show us they’re worth a damn to be considered in our future plans. Through 2 games they’re all emphatically showing they’re not.

I’m looking forward to being back at home, I expect our role players to play better and the Cavs to play worse. Okoro randomly becoming a 3 point sniper tonight was hard to stomach.

[TrueMagicFan07 675]

5 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

What it comes down to is this is a make or break series for about half of our roster to show us they’re worth a damn to be considered in our future plans. Through 2 games they’re all emphatically showing they’re not.

I’m looking forward to being back at home, I expect our role players to play better and the Cavs to play worse. Okoro randomly becoming a 3 point sniper tonight was hard to stomach.

Our arena needs to be loud to kind of rattle the Cavs and at the same time pump up our team.

[Sumike4ya 23]

35 minutes ago, Soul Bro said:

Cole Anthony… Magic killer. 0 points tonight off the bench. Unplayable.

Together our guards tonight off the bench (Cole, Kelle, Joe and Caleb) had 3 total points.

An epic failure on the part of Weltman. Either we stayed the course so our young guys like AB could develop, which isn’t happening in the playoffs, or we stayed the course and bet wrong, especially on Cole and Kelle. Either way, what a mess at the guard position.

And to think, we signed a 3pt shooting veteran who is slow as molasses and isn’t hitting 3s. Our bench play was what gave us many of our wins this year, but now the spotlight is on and we have zero bench outside of Mo. If our bench doesn’t outscore their bench on Thursday, we’re getting swept. 

[A Better DJ & Photographer 460]

49 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I just don’t understand how you can defend Mosley’s rotations at this point. He even finally benched Kelle in the 2nd half, just to play Caleb Houstan critical 4th quarter playoff minutes when we’re trying to make a comeback. Mose has been almost as bad this series as our 3 point shooting

We have a serious lack of dependable shooting. What would you have done differently?

[All Eyes On Me 1,212]

4 minutes ago, A Better DJ & Photographer said:

We have a serious lack of dependable shooting. What would you have done differently?

If it were me, I’d play a typical 8-9 man playoff rotation in the playoffs. Caleb Houstan being some sort of 3 point sniping hero is overblown bull**** that’s just not true. He isn’t an NBA player. He was -7 in 3 minutes on the court tonight.

Game 3 I’d start Suggs/Harris/Franz/Paolo/Carter and play Cole/AB/Isaac/Moe off the bench. If we’re getting abused on the glass again like Allen has all series, I’d swap WCJ with Goga on a very short leash. I’d also play both Franz and Paolo 40+ minutes and have at least one of them on the floor at all times.

[A Better DJ & Photographer 460]

1 hour ago, All Eyes On Me said:

If it were me, I’d play a typical 8-9 man playoff rotation in the playoffs. Caleb Houstan being some sort of 3 point sniping hero is overblown bull**** that’s just not true. He isn’t an NBA player. He was -7 in 3 minutes on the court tonight.

Game 3 I’d start Suggs/Harris/Franz/Paolo/Carter and play Cole/AB/Isaac/Moe off the bench. If we’re getting abused on the glass again like Allen has all series, I’d swap WCJ with Goga on a very short leash. I’d also play both Franz and Paolo 40+ minutes and have at least one of them on the floor at all times.

While I agree with you 100% on that it still doesn't help with our lack of scoring from our guards. Mose doesn't have anybody on the bench that he can say "Go get us some buckets." IMO Goga is our best defender on bigs, and I'd let him start and burn his 6 fouls on Allen.

[CTMagicUK 1,488]

Can't shoot.

Dumb turnovers. 

Getting out rebounded. 

Paolo's defense is bad.

That's basically the story of the first two games. 

There was actually a group of people on this board who did a victory lap when we didn't make a trade at the deadline and kept Markelle Fultz. How's that working out for us? 

Maybe we make it a series at home but I've already got one eye on the off season. This is a big one. Biggest in some time.

[CTMagicUK 1,488]

Honestly, just start Anthony Black. Like what's the worst that can happen? If he scores 2 points on 1/7 shooting he'd be having a better series than half of our roster and he'd play a damn sight better defense than half the roster too. 

[orlandoholic 134]

Can’t win a NBA game if you can’t score more than 90 points.. 

Thats the real issue. It was visible all season long, we struggle against really physical teams. Paolo and Franz aren’t there yet.

Franz, i want to point out here. I’ve said it for. long time. He desperately needs an offseason to add to his game. His game has regressed imo. All he can do is get to the rim. He has no counter, he has no midrange, he lost his floater. Coach takes away his biggest strength, which is off ball cutting. 

We desperately need a lead guard. I just hope we get swept. It’s the only way i see this lethargic management making the right conclusion. 

Mosley needs help. His coaching is being exposed. He has no tactical answers. All he does is randomly throwing different personal in the game. I don’t see a plan. 
Bikkerstaff has a clear plan on what he is doing.

Plan a is driving to the rim, collapse the defense and drop pass to Allen or Mobley for a clear look. 

Plan B is stagger screen and expose a mismatch. And it’s working

But to be fair, Mosley doesn’t have Mitchell

 

As far as personal. We have to be tough. Can’t be soft. At the end of the day, this is a business. We absolutely have to replace Harris, Fultz, Anthony and Ingles with upgrades! I’m sorry for Markelle, but not only has he absolutely lost his shot, he also lost 1-2 steps after his injuries. He’s not playable at this level. I’m sorry.

Ohh and let me end with the fact that most important thing is that we stay healthy. Thank god, Suggs didn’t get seriously injured. That looked really bad! Could have been a severe injury. 

So yeah, i don’t care about this series. I just wanna stay healthy and management to make the right conclusions. That’s all

 

[Stinger24 3]

Simple do what you get paid for put the *****ing ball in the damn basket 

[Jamesdin 42]

can't wait till we play at home. we are totally different team at home.