2024 NBA Playoffs - East 1st Round: #4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #5 Orlando Magic (Series tied 2-2)

[RookieStar]

Even if healthy, jb won't play him. I'd be more worried about Strus or Niang going on a streak and knocking in a bunch of 3s.

Niang is the definition of a hot/cold player. I swear he either goes 0/7 or 4/4, no in between

Niang and Jingles will play 12 minutes and spend all of it playing grab-ass with each other, chucking contested shots pointing at each other after every made shot.

Niang and Jingles... two of the most dad bods in the league.

For a sport that makes you lose weight, you gotta tip your hat off for them maintaing such incredible physique.

[Roger Murdock]

Magic in 6. JBB is literally one of the worst coaches in the entire league. DM has mostly been a shell of himself since the all-star break due to injury. DG is playing some of the worst ball of his young career and turning the ball over at an alarming rate. We been in really bad slump for nearly 2 months now and 2 of our 3 point specialist are injured. This is a recipe for disaster. Did I mention this team has lost to Hornets twice in the last 2 weeks. I have 0 faith in this team. I sure the Magic coaching staff will review the tape for last year beat down by Knicks and just copy the same things.

This exactly

[JujitsuFlip]

Aint no body worried about Orlando

Thats what Lebron said in 2009…

Wow, i didn't realize that was the only time these 2 teams met in the playoffs. In a 35 year span you figured it woulda happened at least a couple times.

[AddiFB]

The Magic are young and inexperienced. If looking at the games they've played lately, they'll either come in smoking hot to build a good 20+ pts lead yet get close to losing, or flat as a pizzabox, dig themselves in a deep hole and waste a lot of energy trying to crawl back into the game, only to lose by 10-15.

Win a game or two is great and good experience for the kiddos, taking the series would make me jump with joy.

That said, I'll go with my Magic in 6 ... but wouldn't be surprised if it was the other way around.

[Iwasawitness]

Magic in 6. JBB is literally one of the worst coaches in the entire league. DM has mostly been a shell of himself since the all-star break due to injury. DG is playing some of the worst ball of his young career and turning the ball over at an alarming rate. We been in really bad slump for nearly 2 months now and 2 of our 3 point specialist are injured. This is a recipe for disaster. Did I mention this team has lost to Hornets twice in the last 2 weeks. I have 0 faith in this team. I sure the Magic coaching staff will review the tape for last year beat down by Knicks and just copy the same things.

This exactly

The only thing I disagree about is Mitchell. He struggled wearing the mask, but as soon as he took it off, he was right back to himself.

I don’t deny the issues the cavaliers have with their team. The thing that makes me feel confident here are the issues the Magic also have with their roster, and it’s pretty notable. Unlike last year where the cavaliers didn’t matchup well with a well oiled Knicks team, I think the Cavs matchup favorably with the Magic, who are young and inexperienced.

[Froob]

Magic in 6, this is the end of JB Bickerstaff in Cleveland

[basketballRob]

Bickerstaff and Mosely are best friends. I believe they coached together before, and they were hanging out during the summer league last year. They did a podcast together.

Mosely was an assistant coach in Cleveland from 2010-2014.

https://youtu.be/BQOb8KS_jco?feature=shared

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[jbk1234]

I didn't feel great about our matchup with the Knicks last year. They had a deep team. We did not. I wasn't sold that Okoro was a reliable option offensively. You had Knicks fans saying Thibs wouldn't bother guarding him (and he didn't). We bought out Love without having a replacement. Wade was injured and JBB didn't trust him. Garland had never been to the playoffs. The Knicks had been on a tear since trading for Hart. I feel differently about this Cavs team and this matchup.

We've been riddled with injuries this season and it seems like we may finally be healing up and we've got a week off. Garland was eating through a straw for a month, he lost 12 lbs, and came back to a team that was down Mitchell, Strus, Mobley, and Wade during the most difficult part of the schedule. Mitchell tried to play through injury and had to shut it down again, but I was encouraged by what I saw Friday against the Pacers from both Mitchell and the team. A lot of postseason success is dependent upon being healthy, and if the Cavs finally are, they're going to be a dangerous team. People, including some Cavs fans, seem to be forgetting that the benefit of having both Mitchell and Garland is that the other team can't sell out to stop both of them. You can't simultaneously tilt towards both of them. The Magic can only assign Suggs to one of them. Add in healthy Strus, who is our best off-ball player, and the Magic are going to find themselves picking a poison.

[basketballRob]

I didn't feel great about our matchup with the Knicks last year. They had a deep team. We did not. I wasn't sold that Okoro was a reliable option offensively. You had Knicks fans saying Thibs wouldn't bother guarding him (and he didn't). We bought out Love without having a replacement. Wade was injured and JBB didn't trust him. Garland had never been to the playoffs. The Knicks had been on a tear since trading for Hart. I feel differently about this Cavs team and this matchup.

We've been riddled with injuries this season and it seems like we may finally be healing up and we've got a week off. Garland was eating through a straw for a month, he lost 12 lbs, and came back to a team that was down Mitchell, Strus, Mobley, and Wade during the most difficult part of the schedule. Mitchell tried to play through injury and had to shut it down again, but I was encouraged by what I saw Friday against the Pacers from both Mitchell and the team. A lot of postseason success is dependent upon being healthy, and if the Cavs finally are, they're going to be a dangerous team. People, including some Cavs fans, seem to be forgetting that the benefit of having both Mitchell and Garland is that the other team can't sell out to stop both of them. You can't simultaneously tilt towards both of them. The Magic can only assign Suggs to one of them. Add in healthy Strus, who is our best off-ball player, and the Magic are going to find themselves picking a poison.

The Cavs were the hottest team in basketball for like a 20-game stretch. Wade is a sneaky, good defender, and Merrill killed the Magic one game.

The Magic look like they'll have no minutes restriction on Isaac in the playoffs, so who knows how they'll look with him playing more minutes.

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[jbk1234]

I didn't feel great about our matchup with the Knicks last year. They had a deep team. We did not. I wasn't sold that Okoro was a reliable option offensively. You had Knicks fans saying Thibs wouldn't bother guarding him (and he didn't). We bought out Love without having a replacement. Wade was injured and JBB didn't trust him. Garland had never been to the playoffs. The Knicks had been on a tear since trading for Hart. I feel differently about this Cavs team and this matchup.

We've been riddled with injuries this season and it seems like we may finally be healing up and we've got a week off. Garland was eating through a straw for a month, he lost 12 lbs, and came back to a team that was down Mitchell, Strus, Mobley, and Wade during the most difficult part of the schedule. Mitchell tried to play through injury and had to shut it down again, but I was encouraged by what I saw Friday against the Pacers from both Mitchell and the team. A lot of postseason success is dependent upon being healthy, and if the Cavs finally are, they're going to be a dangerous team. People, including some Cavs fans, seem to be forgetting that the benefit of having both Mitchell and Garland is that the other team can't sell out to stop both of them. You can't simultaneously tilt towards both of them. The Magic can only assign Suggs to one of them. Add in healthy Strus, who is our best off-ball player, and the Magic are going to find themselves picking a poison.

The Cavs were the hottest team in basketball for like a 20-game stretch. Wade is a sneaky, good defender, and Merrill killed the Magic one game.

The Magic look like they'll have no minutes restriction on Isaac in the playoffs, so who knows how they'll look with him playing more minutes.

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That hot streak was against the softest part of our schedule and we have several role players who perform really well against meh defensive teams but really struggle against good ones.

[Jadoogar]

This and the pacers were the only series i said the cavs are likely to beat in the first round.

Dont trust any Donavan Mitchell lead team in the playoffs. At all.

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Prior to last year, Donavon Mitchell has been pretty good in the playoffs.

[JujitsuFlip]

This and the pacers were the only series i said the cavs are likely to beat in the first round.

Dont trust any Donavan Mitchell lead team in the playoffs. At all.

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Prior to last year, Donavon Mitchell has been pretty good in the playoffs.

This is not true.

His efficiency has stunk in the playoffs outside of the bubble playoffs and the following season with limited capacity playoffs.

That is what I'm waiting for is Mitchell to score, with efficiency, in the playoffs, without covid conditions.

That is why when i made my opening point on this thread, i said this series will go as Mitchell does. If dude is lights out on good efficiency, good luck trying to hold the Cavs under 100.

However, if Mitchell is struggling with his efficiency, then it's gonna be a rough series for the Cavs.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I didn't feel great about our matchup with the Knicks last year. They had a deep team. We did not. I wasn't sold that Okoro was a reliable option offensively. You had Knicks fans saying Thibs wouldn't bother guarding him (and he didn't). We bought out Love without having a replacement. Wade was injured and JBB didn't trust him. Garland had never been to the playoffs. The Knicks had been on a tear since trading for Hart. I feel differently about this Cavs team and this matchup.

We've been riddled with injuries this season and it seems like we may finally be healing up and we've got a week off. Garland was eating through a straw for a month, he lost 12 lbs, and came back to a team that was down Mitchell, Strus, Mobley, and Wade during the most difficult part of the schedule. Mitchell tried to play through injury and had to shut it down again, but I was encouraged by what I saw Friday against the Pacers from both Mitchell and the team. A lot of postseason success is dependent upon being healthy, and if the Cavs finally are, they're going to be a dangerous team. People, including some Cavs fans, seem to be forgetting that the benefit of having both Mitchell and Garland is that the other team can't sell out to stop both of them. You can't simultaneously tilt towards both of them. The Magic can only assign Suggs to one of them. Add in healthy Strus, who is our best off-ball player, and the Magic are going to find themselves picking a poison.

The Cavs were the hottest team in basketball for like a 20-game stretch. Wade is a sneaky, good defender, and Merrill killed the Magic one game.

The Magic look like they'll have no minutes restriction on Isaac in the playoffs, so who knows how they'll look with him playing more minutes.

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That hot streak was against the softest part of our schedule and we have several role players who perform really well against meh defensive teams but really struggle against good ones.

I'm not sure if you're talking about the Cavs or the Magic.

[Drakeem]

Why are Knicks fans talking **** for no reason lol

Yeah, if people aren't interested in this series, click one of the other threads. No one cares about your hate. Leave Magic fans and Cavs fans alone.

There's no need to be sensitive about some pretty harmless ribbing. It's not "hate", calm down.

The pearl clutching today over any comment that isn't perfectly civil is one of the biggest oddities in general today. Especially in sports, I can make my jokes and poke fun as long as we're not getting physical or personal.

[The Real Dalic]

Yeah, if people aren't interested in this series, click one of the other threads. No one cares about your hate. Leave Magic fans and Cavs fans alone.

There's no need to be sensitive about some pretty harmless ribbing. It's not "hate", calm down.

The pearl clutching today over any comment that isn't perfectly civil is one of the biggest oddities in general today. Especially in sports, I can make my jokes and poke fun as long as we're not getting physical or personal.

[dakomish23]

The matchup nobody cares about

It has a good chance to be the best first round series. I think it's going 6 or 7 IF ORL does crater offensively. They are a feisty group who's defense will show up each game

[Mad Guru]

The matchup nobody cares about

It has a good chance to be the best first round series. I think it's going 6 or 7 IF ORL does crater offensively. They are a feisty group who's defense will show up each game

The Magic's offense will crater... it does every other game, this is going to be a first to 90 kind of series.

[Audi]

I didn't feel great about our matchup with the Knicks last year. They had a deep team. We did not. I wasn't sold that Okoro was a reliable option offensively. You had Knicks fans saying Thibs wouldn't bother guarding him (and he didn't). We bought out Love without having a replacement. Wade was injured and JBB didn't trust him. Garland had never been to the playoffs. The Knicks had been on a tear since trading for Hart. I feel differently about this Cavs team and this matchup.

We've been riddled with injuries this season and it seems like we may finally be healing up and we've got a week off. Garland was eating through a straw for a month, he lost 12 lbs, and came back to a team that was down Mitchell, Strus, Mobley, and Wade during the most difficult part of the schedule. Mitchell tried to play through injury and had to shut it down again, but I was encouraged by what I saw Friday against the Pacers from both Mitchell and the team. A lot of postseason success is dependent upon being healthy, and if the Cavs finally are, they're going to be a dangerous team. People, including some Cavs fans, seem to be forgetting that the benefit of having both Mitchell and Garland is that the other team can't sell out to stop both of them. You can't simultaneously tilt towards both of them. The Magic can only assign Suggs to one of them. Add in healthy Strus, who is our best off-ball player, and the Magic are going to find themselves picking a poison.

The Cavs were the hottest team in basketball for like a 20-game stretch. Wade is a sneaky, good defender, and Merrill killed the Magic one game.

The Magic look like they'll have no minutes restriction on Isaac in the playoffs, so who knows how they'll look with him playing more minutes.

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Yea I think Isaac's minutes will be an X factor. Season series split 2-2 and Isaac played in the two wins and was out for the losses.

[Dirk]

Magic in 6, this is the end of JB Bickerstaff in Cleveland

If you put things that way, Cavs Realgmers will be rooting for the Magic here.

[JujitsuFlip]

Magic in 6, this is the end of JB Bickerstaff in Cleveland

If you put things that way, Cavs Realgmers will be rooting for the Magic here.

Yeah, i was gonna say, don't make me root for my Cavs to lose lol

But to be honest Koby Altman is pretty awful himself, so even a series loss here doesn't guarantee a change at head coach, unfortunately.