2022-2023 Regular Season Game 54: Orlando Magic (21-32) at Charlotte Hornets (15-39) - 1pm

[pepe1991]

I missed this one and with Pepe last couple of posts, is this game worth watching?

I watched 3 quarters and thought it was pretty good.

Yea first 3 quaters were fine, even first min of 4th were fine, but last 6-8 min were just painful

[j_n]

Didn't watch the 4th but gotta love these glass half empty takes, if we lost a close one against a contender we'd be hearing something like "moral victories are for losers", all road wins are good, and every team has bad stretches.

We just tied our win total from last year with 28 games left, 17-12 since Fultz is off his minutes restriction and despite a horrible start we're on pace to improve by 11 wins, only 3 games out of play in, this team has leveled up.

[fendilim]

Thank God the raptors won lol

[drsd]

So glad we got WCJ BACK

A real glue guy. Orlando loses this game without him. This I am sure.

[p0peye]

Is it fair to judge the team by its record when we started 5-20 with more than half of the main guys being injured those first 25 games? I believe we've been a top 10 team, record-wise, over the last 2 full months. That's not bad at all.

Thus glimpses of brighter future. If we play our cards right, next season we should be mediocre 8th or 7th seed.

I'm just afraid that, at our current trajectory, we're going to overtake Washington and Toronto (especially if they sell) in the standings and worsen our odds, all while missing out in the play-ins/play-offs.

That's just odds and picks are crapshoot anyway, we've just been lucky to have two good ones in a decade of drafting. Relax.

[p0peye]

Is it fair to judge the team by its record when we started 5-20 with more than half of the main guys being injured those first 25 games? I believe we've been a top 10 team, record-wise, over the last 2 full months. That's not bad at all.

Thus glimpses of brighter future. If we play our cards right, next season we should be mediocre 8th or 7th seed.

Really? With a lottery again this year? While adding another two rookies? Man, this team should be a college program, too many youth. Next season, we need to add to our core and compete like Cleveland did this year. BTW we have been relying on the lottery for more than 10 years now.

Hey, Paolo and Franz are legit talents and I would expect that one or both of them take place All Star next season. Their improvement alone may be enough, but I am all for consolidating 'young talent' into playoff proven high-end starters.

[bigdogdylan5]

Paolo looked a little deflated at times in this game. He's probably just as frustrated as we are.

I could wag my finger and yell about how he needs to be mentally tough and bring it every play, but in reality he's a 20 year old rookie working through the ups and downs of his first season.

I mean he hit the rookie wall back in December it’s not surprising. No matter how much conditioning you do the crazy spike in not just games but high minutes and high usage is something you build up to. I don’t think in our history since Shaq have we asked a rookie to do more. Even with Dwight he was just dunking and playing defense Francis was doing all the ball handling (Jesus I am getting old thinking that was like 19 years ago)

[pepe1991]

Paolo experiences cronic fatigue that is granted in nba.

If you play any sport + workout+ travel for such long period of time, your performances are bound to decline,especially if that's your first rodeo.

[Bergmaniac]

Pretty bad performance, but I'll take the away win. Perimeter D was pretty awful without Suggs and we lucked out the Hornets couldn't make a FT to save their lives down the stretch. The key was our rebounding dominance, this allowed us to win despite the Hornets shooting much better.