Regular Season Game 48: Orlando Magic (21-26) at Miami Heat (31-14) - 7:30pm ET

[SOUL]

I admit Vooch has his faults... but he's the one taking majority of the blame. It's been said before... it's the poorly constructed roster that makes him the focal point. I mean... with Injuries... we have Birch playing the four and Vooch has to now play outside more often. Hopefully some moves are made to help that.

If we're going to pay him to win games for us, he should shoulder most of the blame. Happens with any team in any sport where their best player is struggling. Same with Fournier, Ross, AG. They're getting paid to be our most effective players.

Same thing with Fultz/Isaac etc when they get paid.. I will be way more critical of their mistakes and warts.

[CZ Eddie]

Clifford hates fouling shooters and we did it 3 more times tonight. If he had hair, he'd be losing it.

Sounds to me a lot like a team that's just "going through the motions" and not players thinking for themselves.

[The Real Dalic]

The Team we're playing only loss twice at home.

Yeah, so why try to be the third to beat them? Psshh. Just accept the loss and don't even bother trying. Great mentality.

Also, we're 4-20 against teams over 500. I guess you needed to see that stat after all.

It's called being rational and understanding that... the team is dealing with a crap load of injuries and playing guys out of position. They had their best January in years and yet people still gripe. Due to the circumstances, they are managing and the schedule gets easier.

Remember when Giannis missed a game against us? You know that team won, right? They didn't make excuses and hang their heads because they lost THE BEST PLAYER IN THE GAME to injury. They just picked each other up and destroyed us.

How about the Celtics? They were down 3 major rotation players in Tatum, Brown, and Kanter. They even got down big that game. They then turned it around and spanked us to win the game.

How would Isaac and DJ have helped us during all those times we went scoreless for 5-8 minute stretches? I believe Isaac is our most impactful player, but he's not gonna be the one to end the scoring drought. DJ is just a role player and he ball hogs and pounds the ball way too damn much. C'mon now, you can't be serious about the injury thing, right?

If it were our defense struggling, I'd agree with you that we miss Isaac and his elite defense. But the same problem that has been here for 7-8 years continues to persist here. . . WE CANNOT SCORE.

[Def Swami]

Vucevic has been especially bad of late, even by his own standards. Defensively he has been a sieve. Offensively he has struggled all season. He has been nowhere near as efficient as last season. His post game has left him. His mid-range touch has left him. He's in an especially bad slump, and it's absolutely killing us. We leaned on him hard last season and made the playoffs because of him. If he's going to be this bad, we're going to look like a lottery team most nights. Vucevic even knows this and commented on it last night.

[FFBlitzace]

Buddy Ball coming in safely under the Glen Davis Line once again.

[SOUL]

Watch on YouTube

Better times

[CZ Eddie]

I wanted nothing more than a Detroit Piston's 'escque "team" where nobody was the star, but we played as a team.
And I think we can have that with our current team.
But I don't believe the playing style we're playing matches up with our players.

I'm thinking Clifford is great and all, but not the best Coach for "this team".

[KillMonger]

Vucevic has been especially bad of late, even by his own standards. Defensively he has been a sieve. Offensively he has struggled all season. He has been nowhere near as efficient as last season. His post game has left him. His mid-range touch has left him. He's in an especially bad slump, and it's absolutely killing us. We leaned on him hard last season and made the playoffs because of him. If he's going to be this bad, we're going to look like a lottery team most nights.

naw....more like he left his post game, he's popping way more this year as opposed to rolling. That's what clifford wants though, he calls all the plays.

[407Junkie]

This team doesn’t play for wins they play to stat pad and look good in the boxscores. Trade all these clowns and fire this coach. Pathetic.

[CPBalla2003 n da 863]

I admit Vooch has his faults... but he's the one taking majority of the blame. It's been said before... it's the poorly constructed roster that makes him the focal point. I mean... with Injuries... we have Birch playing the four and Vooch has to now play outside more often. Hopefully some moves are made to help that.

If we're going to pay him to win games for us, he should shoulder most of the blame. Happens with any team in any sport where their best player is struggling. Same with Fournier, Ross, AG. They're getting paid to be our most effective players.

Same thing with Fultz/Isaac etc when they get paid.. I will be way more critical of their mistakes and warts.

People was still criticizing him before he got paid, so that didn't change anything. Putting a non-shooting big with him is not giving him space and set him up for success. You want him to go in the paint... it's crowded. I give him he's got to hit the wide open three's.. But I feel like with the injuries, He's being put in an uncomfortable position. But it's not just him. Ross is getting blitzed more... Started to have more room with DJ going to the bench and DJ gets hurt. I mean, this team is getting hit with the injury bug and some of that got to take account for the recent struggles.

[The Real Dalic]

Just wanted to point it out again because it's the only consistent thing about our team this entire season, but look who disappeared on us again. . . Vuc, Ross, and Fournier. This is a serious problem. They clearly are happy that they got overpaid and just don't care anymore. They're being bums because of their new paychecks.

They clearly had career years last year because of the $$$. It's annoying.

[KillMonger]

I wanted nothing more than a Detroit Piston's 'escque "team" where nobody was the star, but we played as a team.
And I think we can have that with our current team.
But I don't believe the playing style we're playing matches up with our players.

I'm thinking Clifford is great and all, but not the best Coach for "this team".

Bro, this is the real answer....but some will say...."i want to see him with a better roster"......if wholesale changes are being made then Clifford should be one of those changes....for me the under utilization of JI ALONE is a fireable offense

[The Real Dalic]

I admit Vooch has his faults... but he's the one taking majority of the blame. It's been said before... it's the poorly constructed roster that makes him the focal point. I mean... with Injuries... we have Birch playing the four and Vooch has to now play outside more often. Hopefully some moves are made to help that.

If we're going to pay him to win games for us, he should shoulder most of the blame. Happens with any team in any sport where their best player is struggling. Same with Fournier, Ross, AG. They're getting paid to be our most effective players.

Same thing with Fultz/Isaac etc when they get paid.. I will be way more critical of their mistakes and warts.

People was still criticizing him before he got paid, so that didn't change anything. Putting a non-shooting big with him is not giving him space and set him up for success. You want him to go in the paint... it's crowded. I give him he's got to hit the wide open three's.. But I feel like with the injuries, He's being put in an uncomfortable position. But it's not just him. Ross is getting blitzed more... Started to have more room with DJ going to the bench and DJ gets hurt. I mean, this team is getting hit with the injury bug and some of that got to take account for the recent struggles.

The fact that even fans are using the "injury" excuse is definitely giving me confidence that our FO will stick their heads in the sand and not make any moves with the same excuse in mind.

[CPBalla2003 n da 863]

Yeah, so why try to be the third to beat them? Psshh. Just accept the loss and don't even bother trying. Great mentality.

Also, we're 4-20 against teams over 500. I guess you needed to see that stat after all.

It's called being rational and understanding that... the team is dealing with a crap load of injuries and playing guys out of position. They had their best January in years and yet people still gripe. Due to the circumstances, they are managing and the schedule gets easier.

Remember when Giannis missed a game against us? You know that team won, right? They didn't make excuses and hang their heads because they lost THE BEST PLAYER IN THE GAME to injury. They just picked each other up and destroyed us.

How about the Celtics? They were down 3 major rotation players in Tatum, Brown, and Kanter. They even got down big that game. They then turned it around and spanked us to win the game.

How would Isaac and DJ have helped us during all those times we went scoreless for 5-8 minute stretches? I believe Isaac is our most impactful player, but he's not gonna be the one to end the scoring drought. DJ is just a role player and he ball hogs and pounds the ball way too damn much. C'mon now, you can't be serious about the injury thing, right?

If it were our defense struggling, I'd agree with you that we miss Isaac and his elite defense. But the same problem that has been here for 7-8 years continues to persist here. . . WE CANNOT SCORE.

Of course... I'm serious with the injury thing. Orlando is a team that needs their depth because we don't have a Superstar. I know we can't score and I'm aware that scoring issues is still a problem with this team. I know there needs to be change, but if the young core is Isaac, Fultz and Bamba... I prefer them to experience Playoffs until management figures this out.

[SOUL]

People was still criticizing him before he got paid, so that didn't change anything. Putting a non-shooting big with him is not giving him space and set him up for success. You want him to go in the paint... it's crowded. I give him he's got to hit the wide open three's.. But I feel like with the injuries, He's being put in an uncomfortable position. But it's not just him. Ross is getting blitzed more... Started to have more room with DJ going to the bench and DJ gets hurt. I mean, this team is getting hit with the injury bug and some of that got to take account for the recent struggles.

He had 3 years of decline though after a lot of us were hyped about him being a perennial 20/10 guy.. he was an average player averaging 18/9, 14/0 and 16/9 (with no FTs or threes, average to below average defense) before before his All-Star year, where a bunch of us pretty much ate crow... he very much deserved that blame PRIOR to that year because it was his 4th, 5th, and 6th years with us.. basically Gordon right now who is getting fair blame.

I just don't know what else there is with Vuc we can do. He's been featured all this time... mostly due to lack of talent better than him and I don't fault him on that, but also doing the same thing over and over is insanity.. so at some point t hings will have to change.

The injury bug sucks and obviously not having Isaac especially will hurt but it doesn't excuse bad shooting nights and poor individual effort defensively.

[PrimeThyme]

I'm really not interested in ragging on individual players on this team anymore. To me, all of this falls at the footsteps of WeHam. Frankly, I don't think either is good at their jobs. We knew Hammond wasn't based off of his Milwaukee track record, but there was hope that Weltman may have been more competent due to his time in Toronto but its obvious now that all their success and continued success was because of Masai.

If the long overdue firesale were to happen I wouldnt want either being in charge of it. The bigger issue though is if you fire them Alex Martins would once again be making the hire and I have even less faith in him.

We are the definition of mediocre. Even without the injuries, this roster construction was laughably bad and the ceiling of this team was still the 7th seed. This organization needs a complete teardown starting with Martins. I'm just fearful that we are never going to truly get it.

[Bensational]

4 game losing streak and still sitting comfortably in 7th seed.

This is worse than mediocrity. It's making sub .500 feel successful.

[SOUL]

I still don't see why Isaac can't be our future center even in spurts (if Bamba doesn't pan out) other than the injury bug, but the last one was a freak/unfortunate accident..you rarely have bruising bigs inside anyway. I mean he literally locked up Porzingis who is a giant and disturbs other bigs as well.. I don't know.. I feel like that would make us much more dynamic with different options at the forward/guard spots too.

[KillMonger]

birch played 26 minutes......Bamba? 13 minutes.........g-leaguer....6th overall pick.....clifford....wha

[Bensational]

How many PGs do we have to go through blaming failed PnR defense on them until we replace the actual culprit who has failed all of the differing matchups over time?