2024 NBA Playoffs Round 1 Game 2: (5) Orlando Magic at (4) Cleveland Cavaliers - Cavs up 1-0

[drsd]

Box score thoughts (excluding the obvious; horrible shooting)

But yes the Magic got dogged in FG% differential.

A second-straight game where Cleveland outscored Orlando in each of the first 3-quarters. Winning only one quarter is rarely (if ever) a path to winning a basketball game.

Orlando again lost the rebounding differntial, but by nowhere near as bad in game 1. We fans need to let go of Mobley's 20 boards. The Magic was better here. Improvements are step-wise.

Both teams really disrupted passing lanes making this a Heroball effort. That is proven in the ultra low assist line of both teams and the minuscule cumulative assists of only 36. (contrast that to the other low-scoring game, OKC/Pelicans, that had a cumulative 43, as an example). Assists per FG is really low this series. (To rant: play PnR basketball to get some assists!)

Final boxscore thought: if you would have told me before the game you had a hunch that G-Harris would score more than Suggs and Isaac combined, I would have blasted you with a lot of four-lettered words. G-Harris had 16% of Orlando's points. That's wild.

[drsd]

Question: as I cannot watch games as I am in China, please tell me why Isaac missed the 4th quarter. Did he go down?

[drsd]

On mine stream brodcasting team flat out said Magic don't have (traditional) PG and can't really shoot.

Why did they need the adverb "really"? Let me simplify the sentence: the Magic can't shoot.

The Magic played 11 players, and NINE were sub 50% in FG%. Yuck.
(G-Harris and M-Wagner were the FG% champions for the Magic)

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Question: as I cannot watch games as I am in China, please tell me why Isaac missed the 4th quarter. Did he go down?

Nope just had a bad game.

[basketballRob]

If you get an offensive rebound and you still miss the shot does offensive rebounding matter then? Shooting 33% one game and then 36% the next will lead to losses 97-98% of the time regardless how good you're rebounding.

We have a better offensive rating with Goga than Wendell.

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LMAO... I want to give you a stat...

The Magic are 17-16 with Bitadze starting... I guess you can easily see the record they have with Wendell Starting given they've finished 12 games over 500.

But you conveniently leave that out...

Wendell has played in 57 games this season, and we're 30-27 in those games. We'll never be more than a mediocre team with him. We looked like a much better team with Goga starting, and we had no other injuries, but Markelle and Wendell. We are like 3-15 against 500 teams in the last 18. Wendell started through the easiest part of the season, and we were barely beating a lot of bad teams.

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[bigdogdylan5]

Look for anyone on the ledge.. contrary to what some might think good players get better.. their careers almost always peak somewhere. Jalen Franchero will all be better in a couple of years.. better than a 5 seed.

Fans who wanted to tank/rebuild also need to have the stomach for young players struggling and learning the hard way. Even if this roster was set up at its most optimal at this moment, it wouldn't have guaranteed an easy first round win. You'd probably see a better offensive team with worse defense.

Exactly we tanked and our best players are just so young. We were nowhere near as good as our record said. We jumped a lot of teams with effort and good defense and a lot of those were tanking teams. Shocker everyone gives maximum effort in the playoffs and we get exposed because the experience isn’t there yet. But I don’t think the expectations should be that high. We are led by three players on their rookie deals. Outside of Durant Westbrook and Harden thunder team when does a team like that ever have playoff success? This is good experience for the guys and I think will light a huge fire under them getting embarrassed like that. We’re way ahead of schedule and that is great but it comes with challenges.

Here is where people might lose their minds. I bet we have a similar amount record next year. Which people will get mad at because now they expect 10+ win jumps every year. I think I am eyeing 25-26 season for the contender jump.

[eyriq]

I'll bet money at least one of these four guys and probably two or three of them will be here next season.

As long as Fultz is gone I'm fine

so you're at that point with fultz?

Personally, yeah. Watching him is like nails on a chalk board.

[basketballRob]

Goga was 9-13 against 500 teams when playing 15 minutes or more. We're 11-23, when Wendell plays more than 15 minutes against 500 teams.

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[JoshuaPotter]

As long as Fultz is gone I'm fine

so you're at that point with fultz?

Personally, yeah. Watching him is like nails on a chalk board.

Someone pointed out his hitch and I can't unsee it. It's even at his free throws. I do not question his professionalism I question the medical malpractice.

[JoshuaPotter]

Question: as I cannot watch games as I am in China, please tell me why Isaac missed the 4th quarter. Did he go down?

I was probably the only person staring at the TV screen saying "keep shooting Isaac".

At this point, its a mental game. We are bad, but not wide open 3 bad. If that keeps happening the law of averages will inevitably occur.

unfortunately we do not have the overall offensive firepower to recover from too many missed shots.

[richi_v25]

As long as Fultz is gone I'm fine

so you're at that point with fultz?

Personally, yeah. Watching him is like nails on a chalk board.

Crazy how at times last year he looked usable but this year its the opposite. He can't stay in front of his man or score.

[Bergmaniac]

The team just has a horrible combination of bad playmaking and bad 3 point shooting. You can get away with being bad in one of these things when you are elite defensively but being bad at both is just impossible to overcome. We are the worst team in the playoffs by far at running the pick and roll, the bread and butter play of the NBA offenses. So many times last night we tried it and got no advantage whatsover, only wasted time of the shot clock. Cole hasn't made a good pass in 2 games straight. Paolo has been a turnover machine. Fultz is completely done. Ingles is our best pick and run ballhandler but he is on his last legs and a massive liability defensively (still, it's idiotic to have Cole or Fultz handle the ball more when both are on the court).

At least Harris had a bounceback game (he got way too much slander here after Game 1 where he played excellent D) and was our only good shooter and played very good D again, Suggs apparently avoided a serious injury and Mosley seemed to realise in the 4th quarter Fultz is unplayable. We aslo actually won the minutes Suggs was on the court, the minutes Harris was on the court and the minutes Franz and Paolo played together, we just got killed by the bench units and Isaac. A real shame Isaac's shooting has been so bad in the playoffs after it looked so good in the last few months of the season. I think we will be bettter off with him back as a bench player, everyone is much more used to this.

[Fortune Teller]

Coach Mos has to make adjustments. That's what the playoffs are about. There's no time to sit around waiting for things to work. The Nuggets played a guy who had barely played this season in Game 1 against the Lakers. If the matchups aren't good, change the matchups. If certain guys aren't playing with playoff intensity, sit them.

And please, stop pandering to Markelle. He should not see the court again. We look like a joke playing this guy at all. 6 minutes in Game 2 was 6 minutes too many.

[PrimeThyme]

At some point during his tenure here, I just hope Weltman will be held accountable for something. I give credence to youth and inexperience being a major factor so far, but when your team's flaws in roster construction are amplified to this level on this stage, I just think you can't be completely let off the hook.

[drsd]

At some point during his tenure here, I just hope Weltman will be held accountable for something. I give credence to youth and inexperience being a major factor so far, but when your team's flaws in roster construction are amplified to this level on this stage, I just think you can't be completely let off the hook.

The Magic is 27 games better than 2 years ago, and the roster is 24 years on average. Calm down. It's all fine. Yes the magic is going to get swept or lose in 5. But that is better than us fans' expectations for the seasons on game-1 (38 wins and a low playin bid).

[Knightro]

At some point during his tenure here, I just hope Weltman will be held accountable for something. I give credence to youth and inexperience being a major factor so far, but when your team's flaws in roster construction are amplified to this level on this stage, I just think you can't be completely let off the hook.

I'm actually willing to chalk this front office's inactivity this season up to "we did way better than we expected to do and ultimately we are just happy to be there given how inexperienced our core group is" - I don't like that mentality, but I can understand that.

I don't think they expected to win 47 games by any stretch of the imagination.

But the question now is... what's next?

Look no further than the Sacramento Kings. Last year they won 48 games and were a 3 seed. They lost in Round 1 because of their inexperience, but they incorrectly assumed because they were young that they'd keep progressing forward.

So they ran it back with the exact same group and what happened? They only won 46 games and didn't even get out of the play-in tournament.

Weltman absolutely, positively cannot run it back with the same group.

[eyriq]

At some point during his tenure here, I just hope Weltman will be held accountable for something. I give credence to youth and inexperience being a major factor so far, but when your team's flaws in roster construction are amplified to this level on this stage, I just think you can't be completely let off the hook.

I'm actually willing to chalk this front office's inactivity this season up to "we did way better than we expected to do and ultimately we are just happy to be there given how inexperienced our core group is" - I don't like that mentality, but I can understand that.

I don't think they expected to win 47 games by any stretch of the imagination.

But the question now is... what's next?

Look no further than the Sacramento Kings. Last year they won 48 games and were a 3 seed. They lost in Round 1 because of their inexperience, but they incorrectly assumed because they were young that they'd keep progressing forward.

So they ran it back with the exact same group and what happened? They only won 46 games and didn't even get out of the play-in tournament.

Weltman absolutely, positively cannot run it back with the same group.

Their core is already in their prime. Not a good example. We can definitely bank on internal improvement.

[p0peye]

so you're at that point with fultz?

Personally, yeah. Watching him is like nails on a chalk board.

Someone pointed out his hitch and I can't unsee it. It's even at his free throws. I do not question his professionalism I question the medical malpractice.

Yeah, like what happens once you see what Matrix really is, the vale is gone. I may have revealed a bit to people that there is no spoon.

[Knightro]

Their core is already in their prime. Not a good example. We can definitely bank on internal improvement.

I agree that Banchero, Wagner and Suggs will continue to improve, but that's probably not enough.

It's arguable that of the next 7 guys in the rotation, 6 of them aren't good enough?

[Bergmaniac]

Suggs, Paolo and Franz and even eyriq's beloved AB will still develop fine if we trade for a PG who can actually run an NBA offense. In fact, this would only helps them.