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This ball club has a pretty easy schedule for the rest of the season. With the next 13 of 16 against under .500 teams, I think we can win all 13 of those gms and be sitting at 55 wins. All SVG has to do is motivate the hell out of rashard/dwight and the rest will follow. Otis says he wants them to be nasty, so if they don't slack and crush teams that they should win against, I see them having a nice win streak going into the playoffs. Maybe even catching DET for that 2 seed. The respect will come if we can do this

Stan said last night the goal is to get 56. Thats gona be tough to do, i dont care what the competition is, its gonna be tough.

prorl wrote:Stan said last night the goal is to get 56. Thats gona be tough to do, i dont care what the competition is, its gonna be tough.

It's the proverbial carrot in front of the mule. The difference is that this attainable.

If we do hit 55 or 56, we'll be in a good groove for the playoffs.

***

I'll take this opportunity to eat some crow. I thought mid to upper 40s would be a good season. Now 50 is looking more and more attainable. And low-mid 50s will be a good season.

Anything above at 50 or above is good.

I'll eat crow too.

In fact, I'll have an all you can eat crow barbecue when the season ends for those warranting invites..

prorl wrote:Stan said last night the goal is to get 56. Thats gona be tough to do, i dont care what the competition is, its gonna be tough.

Well one of two things. Either he isn't really serious about it being a goal or I am sad to see him take that approach. If it has some bearing with seeding then fine but I always prefer a team to cut back on minutes for starters at the end, gets them some rest, cuts down on chance s of injury and gets some minutes in for a player or two that you might find a need for a spell in the playoffs . 56 as a number doesn't add anything over 50 or 52 by itself.

well i guess 48, so I too will have to eat my words and smile while doing so ...

55 is a lot of wins...we'd only be able to lose 3 more between now and then i think...i'd say realistically if our PG's don't slack off, we have a legitimate shot at 52-53 wins...

55 or 56 seem awfully hard, especially since we don't have much of a shot at moving up or down, so why risk the health of our players to reach a meaningless goal. It'd be nice though

J-Mezzy wrote:55 or 56 seem awfully hard, especially since we don't have much of a shot at moving up or down, so why risk the health of our players to reach a meaningless goal. It'd be nice though

Well couldn't Cleveland catch up to us if we slump? They are currently 4.5 behind us.

Plus if we come close to goal, we'll be playing ball right before the playoffs.

But as mentioned, injuries would be a risk.

I guess Stan has read my Magic formula... If you look at every game in isolation, There are 14 games we should go into favoured, and two we should not. Pulling that off would put us at 56.

Out of all our remaining home games, our home record is better than the road record of the team coming in, in all games except one: 1st April vs NO.

Out of all our remaining road games, our road record is better than the home record of all the teams we visit, except one, 5th April @ Cle.

We host the Cavs, but they are under 500 on the road this year, we host the Spurs but they are only marginally over 500 on the road this year, the rest of the games would be an off night if we lost them, but in the NBA off nights are part of the journey.

mhectorgato wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Well couldn't Cleveland catch up to us if we slump? They are currently 4.5 behind us.

Plus if we come close to goal, we'll be playing ball right before the playoffs.

But as mentioned, injuries would be a risk.

Oh, we shouldn't let our guard down for at least aother 10 games, but after that, with the 3rd seed locked up, we should not risk anything in order to meet the goal

I'd be okay with anything over 50...

maginno wrote:Well one of two things. Either he isn't really serious about it being a goal or I am sad to see him take that approach. If it has some bearing with seeding then fine but I always prefer a team to cut back on minutes for starters at the end, gets them some rest, cuts down on chance s of injury and gets some minutes in for a player or two that you might find a need for a spell in the playoffs . 56 as a number doesn't add anything over 50 or 52 by itself.

We only have 2 games a week for the last 2 weeks of the season so I don't think thats gonna be a problem , being rusty maybe though . That's according to Goukas and Steele I haven't checked it myself

d12fan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



We only have 2 games a week for the last 2 weeks of the season so I don't think thats gonna be a problem , being rusty maybe though . That's according to Goukas and Steele I haven't checked it myself

My goodness, thats just shows how crazy our schedule has been all season. Its was just games after games after games with no rest. And a ton of road games. At one point, what like 9 more road games than home games. Just insane sched.

maginno wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Well one of two things. Either he isn't really serious about it being a goal or I am sad to see him take that approach. If it has some bearing with seeding then fine but I always prefer a team to cut back on minutes for starters at the end, gets them some rest, cuts down on chance s of injury and gets some minutes in for a player or two that you might find a need for a spell in the playoffs . 56 as a number doesn't add anything over 50 or 52 by itself.

Actually I just watched last nights game and Van Gundy's press conference and the goal is 50 wins. He said if we were to get on a nice roll 55 is attainable (which it is), but the goal is 50. This is straight from the horses mouth...I just watched it.

I would love to see the Magic go for the throat though. They're playing the best ball they've played all year, and supposedly there's a board in the Magic lockerroom with the goals for the rest of the season. And at the bottom it says CATCH DETROIT (or something like that).

The Magic want that #2 seed. They'll need 54-56 wins to get it IMO, and that might not even do it. We're currently 5 games behind Detroit, but they have a tough schedule over the next 7 games. So if the Magic play well (say 6-1), and Detroit stumbles to 3-4, then the Magic will be within 2 games. Obviously Detroit will probably actually go 4-3, or 5-2. But here's hoping they struggle while we surge and give us an opening to swoop in and steal that #2 seed.

Unlikely, yes. But it is possible. The Magic can't let up. They have to go for it. Having a killer instinct going into the playoffs is just as important as having momentum, and if the Magic found a way to get to 54-55 wins, they'd have a great deal of momentum regardless of seed.

UCFJayBird wrote:I would love to see the Magic go for the throat though. They're playing the best ball they've played all year, and supposedly there's a board in the Magic lockerroom with the goals for the rest of the season. And at the bottom it says CATCH DETROIT (or something like that).

The Magic want that #2 seed. They'll need 54-56 wins to get it IMO, and that might not even do it. We're currently 5 games behind Detroit, but they have a tough schedule over the next 7 games. So if the Magic play well (say 6-1), and Detroit stumbles to 3-4, then the Magic will be within 2 games. Obviously Detroit will probably actually go 4-3, or 5-2. But here's hoping they struggle while we surge and give us an opening to swoop in and steal that #2 seed.

Unlikely, yes. But it is possible. The Magic can't let up. They have to go for it. Having a killer instinct going into the playoffs is just as important as having momentum, and if the Magic found a way to get to 54-55 wins, they'd have a great deal of momentum regardless of seed.

I agree completely. We all know that having these types of goals helps keep a team focused, and when we've been focused we've been a pretty darn good team. I think the goal is obviously to stay ahead of the Cavs, win as many games as possible, and take as much momentum as we can into the playoffs. 55 wins would be great, but so would 52 as long as we keep the 3rd seed IMO.

bucsmagicfan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Actually I just watched last nights game and Van Gundy's press conference and the goal is 50 wins. He said if we were to get on a nice roll 55 is attainable (which it is), but the goal is 50. This is straight from the horses mouth...I just watched it.

Great. thats a rationale approach. Stan's years as a coach has ONLY ended in the playoffs so thats more like him. He knows its not about the regular season and going after 50 (maybe a game or two above that ) should cement the seeding anyway. If you get more without pushing too hard for it thats gravy. IF by the time you get to 50 you are within reach of the two spot and the matchup is more favorable then of course you go for it.

maginno wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Well one of two things. Either he isn't really serious about it being a goal or I am sad to see him take that approach. If it has some bearing with seeding then fine but I always prefer a team to cut back on minutes for starters at the end, gets them some rest, cuts down on chance s of injury and gets some minutes in for a player or two that you might find a need for a spell in the playoffs . 56 as a number doesn't add anything over 50 or 52 by itself.

I kind of agree with you about resting the players some, but then I just think we are a young team. If we give our players too much rest they might come into the playoffs out of sync. One thing I don't agree with is how much Stan is playing the starters in a blow out game, it almost bit us in the ass last night with Dwights injury. Thank god it isn't more serious then a bruise.

tranjSAIC wrote:-= original quote snipped =-




I kind of agree with you about resting the players some, but then I just think we are a young team. If we give our players too much rest they might come into the playoffs out of sync. One thing I don't agree with is how much Stan is playing the starters in a blow out game, it almost bit us in the ass last night with Dwights injury. Thank god it isn't more serious then a bruise.

I have the same concern, but I think until the starters can show him they can consistently close out games without letting the other team back in, we will continue to see it. He is just developing them.. and doing a great job at it IMO. And your right we did get lucky...

I'd rather not take it off.. maybe the last few games, still play them though.. I mean the Giants benefited from playing the whole year.. and football is 10x more tough than basketball.