ARandomStranger wrote:I want to point out something that I heard from the Nick Nurse interview that kind of riled me up. He said that the Magic really didn't do anything special at all out there, which is odd for a coach to spout off about when he had to rely on iso plays for the majority of the fourth...one of which had Leonard literally dribbling the ball for almost a full shot clock as AG defended him well forcing another miracle shot. As I said before there is a distinct difference between Nurse and Clifford. It has a lot to do with managing the talent you have and bringing the best out of them as opposed to basically using the talent that you have as a crutch.
Nurse has relied heavily on Leonard and Lowery all season long and has coasted through most of his games with literally 0 problems to show for it. Meanwhile in contrast Clifford has maximized guys like AG, Isaac, Fournier, Ross, Vuc, DJ,Birch, and MCW...hell even guys like Wes Iwundu, who I didn't even think would be a good player, are contributing. This match up, which looked like a boxing match with all the back and forth, proved to me something rather important about the Raptors:
They are mentally weak and disorganized.
The Magic didn't have an extremely good offensive night, none of the normal providers showed up outside of DJ, and we still took their best shot and got back up for more. The Magic are engaged, they are not backing down, and they are not intimidated by the "deep" Raptors team or their star power. A bunch of first timers took a big old dump all over the belief that the they would have jitters and come out unprepared for a game with one of the top teams in the East and the analysts still don't know what to think of it. Instead of calling it what it truly was the national analysts sit back and say one thing and one thing only:
We stole game one.
They don't understand how a team with a bunch of all stars and former elite players are being beaten by a bunch of rag-tag guys from Orlando. They can't get it, it doesn't compute for them, and it doesn't fit the narrative of seeing them in the ECF fighting the Bucks for Eastern dominance. Yet, there are a few who seem to realize what the people in Orlando have known since after the all star break:
This team has heart. It has grit. It doesn't care about what you want, none of those guys give a damn about their seeding, they don't care if you are Leonard, they don't care if you are the Greek Freak...they are coming at you and they are going to keep coming at you until the clock winds down to zero. This team is focused, it didn't care that this was their first showing in seven years in the playoffs, and it sure as hell didn't care if the national media pegged them as a sweep target. They went out and they played basketball. Gritty, stubborn, and hard-nosed basketball.
And the Raptors answer to that stubborn display of resilience was to run Isos. Nick Nurse sat there and said that the magic did nothing special, but I balk at that statement. No...the Raptors did nothing special. They ran the same plays they always ran, they hitched their wagon on Leonard's back, and demanded that he carry them to the win. And Leonard almost did just that, but you see... all those Leonard Isos with all those dribbles, those moves, and that extra pizz-zaz to get away from Gordon just gave us what we wanted.
It ran down the clock. Leonard had to pull out all the stops, every single little iota of playoff Leonard was put on display, and we tucked him and the city of Toronto into bed, read them a bed time story, and sent them home with an L.
Now, I know it may be a bit far ahead to be looking, and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but it seems feasible that the Magic win game 2. As good as many people think the Raptors are going to come out, as hard as a punch that people think they are going to give us, or what intensity they will have...I have no doubt we are prepared. Out of all the ECF teams we are the one who knows the Raptors all too well, just because Lowry goose egged doesn't mean jack squat because neither Vuc or Ross had impressive games. I fully expect them to light the raptors up in game 2 because I expect more Leonard hero ball, I expect more Lowry trying to get going, but after Saturday...
I just don't think the Raptors have it in them. I think Nick Nurse doesn't bring the best out of his team and merely relies on talent to get the job done as opposed to maximizing every player he has. Still, I wonder how the media will pain the next Magic win...perhaps they will paint it as another steal or perhaps they will bring up the importance of Og, or maybe they will just cut our segment on the national stage down to a single minute of recognition.
But in the end it doesn't really matter does it because to the real fans all the lack of national attention and to our team it doesn't matter. Because we know that game 1 wasn't a steal...it was a win by a team with more determination and more willpower. Simple as that.
Very good post. Love to see confidence like this. I feel the exact same way about the Magic and had that type of confidence heading into this series. We have things that we can continue to fix as this series moves on plus there are things that Toronto showed that can be exploited heading into game 2. All of the pressure is on Toronto. If we keep the game close, I feel that they will balk under the pressure. Just have to continue to bring max effort, execute on both ends, and minimize the live ball turnovers.
