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Dwight Howard met with Magic coach Stan Van Gundy and apologized yesterday, but did not retract his statements after publicly challenging the coach’s strategy in their Game 5 collapse against the Celtics.

The Magic center even added a bold prediction as the Celtics look to close out Orlando in Game 6 tonight.

“We’re in this series to win it,” Howard said. “We are going to win this series.”

Link: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bask ... ll_win_it/

They can certainly talk! But can they back it up on the court?

Well, I certainly wouldn't expect him to say "we are going to lose this series", although it may be more appropriate given the circumstances.

As he should.

canman1971 wrote:Well, I certainly wouldn't expect him to say "we are going to lose this series", although it may be more appropriate given the circumstances.

I dunno...given their defeatist attitude with all of the complaining they've done, especially after game 5 (the whole "what can we do?" bitching about the refs) I wouldn't be surprised had he said they'll probably lose...I'm sure if they lose game 6 SVG will say "well I thought we would anyway"...

they obviously lack a go to guy.....a very skilled team at every position (except the 1), a deep team, but they're missing the one with the swagger that Ray or Paul have.

I hope Ray lights it up (finally) tonight.

Howard is of course saying what anyone in the playoffs would say, even if it's 3-0 against them.

He should be saying this. My thoughts are they have 3 legite all stars. We have 3 legite all stars. They have a bench. We do not have a bench. So in theory not having a bench should kick us in the ass and it hasn't yet! If don't win game 6 it easily could come to hurt real bad.

I'd call Howard a "legit" All-Star while Lewis & Turkoglu can be considered borderline All-Stars at best.

I'd say Howard's a 'leading' All-Star, Pierce is a 'legitimate' All-Star, and Turoglu, Lewis, Ray Allen, Rondo, and Perk are all 'borderline' All-Stars at this point. (Oh, and KG is a 'leading' All-Star when he's healthy.)

On a 3-point ranking system, that'd give Orlando 5 points and the Celtics 5 points as they're playing today. With a healthy KG, however, the C's would have a solid 8-5 advantage.

I think if the Celtics get out to an early lead in game 6 then the Magic will struggle to get back in the game. Perk has been playing tremendous defence on Howard along with Big Baby. I think your boy Rayray is due to break out of his shooting slump sooner rather than later.

Dwight is clearly trying to say the right things now, especially after speaking out against Stan.

Kids Are Alright wrote:they obviously lack a go to guy.....a very skilled team at every position (except the 1), a deep team, but they're missing the one with the swagger that Ray or Paul have.

Nelson was developing that swagger this season before he suffered the shoulder injury. I recall a game earlier this season where we beat the lakers in LA before jameer got hurt. He had a huge 4th quarter and finished with 28points. He was our toughest player on the court and our emotional leader, no question. It's clear in the playoffs just how badly we miss him. I'm not making excuses, particularly when the Celtics are down their best player and emotional leader also. I think the loss of KG for the celtics far outweighs the loss of Nelson for Orlando.

Nelson has mental toughness and was developing into a poor mans Chauncey Billups/Tim hardway. He was also becoming the go to guy in the 4th quarter who could be relied upon to show composure. Howard i believe still has a lot of maturing left to do. He still gets too easily frustrated when banged around, argues calls, rushes and forces shots. Even if the magic lose tonight, these playoffs will be a big learning experience for Howard.

People have criticized his offensive game for being limited, for which i do agree with in part. He is too predictable when pushed away from the rim, prone to turnovers when the lane is crowded and lacks a jump shot. However, for guy who averaged 20ppg only on 12/13 shot attempts per game shooting .59 on free throws, there is room for improvement.

I don't think Nelson has develop it he has it he just has to continue develop the All Star game to match it and stay healthy. He certainly gives the Magic someone ready to take the big shot as soon as crosses mid court.

I don't want to bring Dwight down but 32-0.

Eh, history is kind of meaningless in this situation. The Celtics have essentially stolen the last two games. They haven't played particularly well against the Magic in this series. I really believe that the Magic have a slight edge going into these last two games. The Celtics are going to have to play at least one really, really good game in order to eliminate the Magic, unless they truly are a mentally weak team. Right now the Celtics need to get a solid performance out of Ray, Marbury and/or House along with the solid efforts they've been getting from the rest of the squad. Short of that X factor type of performance it seems that the Magic have the pieces to beat the Celtics. The question remains however, whether or not the Magic can put those pieces together. If they fail to do so, then they really have some soul searching to do.

by all accounts this series should have been over but the Magic gave away two games they had in teh bag. So if I'm Dwight Howard I would be saying the same thing. It Magic get a win tonight all the pressure is on the Cs. Orlando has proven they can win in Boston and they have the fire power to win two games in a row. I'm not saying this series is over until it is over. The last two games going into the 4th quarter I thought the Cs was going to lose and they pulled it out. Do they have another come-back in them? We shall see, I just hope they come out and play like they did in game 2. But something tells me this is going to a 7th game.

Frank Lucas wrote:by all accounts this series should have been over but the Magic gave away two games they had in teh bag. So if I'm Dwight Howard I would be saying the same thing. It Magic get a win tonight all the pressure is on the Cs. Orlando has proven they can win in Boston and they have the fire power to win two games in a row. I'm not saying this series is over until it is over. The last two games going into the 4th quarter I thought the Cs was going to lose and they pulled it out. Do they have another come-back in them? We shall see, I just hope they come out and play like they did in game 2. But something tells me this is going to a 7th game.

Not to discredit the Celtics, but this also has to do with Orlando's inability to close out games.

Of course, the Magic were a jump shot away from being up 3-1, so this is still potentially anyone's series. I just think it's tough to lose two in a row like that and not feel a tremendous loss of momentum. They still have a chance though. If they come out focused tonight and play tough, and carry that over to game 7, they are most certainly capable of winning in Boston. If so, they'll show that the belong here. But until that, I'm not convinced.

[quote="szimab01"]
Nelson was developing that swagger this season before he suffered the shoulder injury. I recall a game earlier this season where we beat the lakers in LA before jameer got hurt. He had a huge 4th quarter and finished with 28points. He was our toughest player on the court and our emotional leader, no question. It's clear in the playoffs just how badly we miss him. I'm not making excuses, particularly when the Celtics are down their best player and emotional leader also. I think the loss of KG for the celtics far outweighs the loss of Nelson for Orlando.

Nelson has mental toughness and was developing into a poor mans Chauncey Billups/Tim hardway. He was also becoming the go to guy in the 4th quarter who could be relied upon to show composure. quote]

Yes, I agree with all of this. Nelson got over a big hump and was their big shot taker, and maker. He was cold blooded in that Laker game in LA, and that is clearly what they are missing in this series. I think with Nelson that Orlando would have had a much better shot to beat us (duh).

I think this could be ugly early either way. I expect that the Magic are a pretty frustrated group right now and they are come out bombing 3's and being physical on the defensive end. Obviously that can go either way but I expect this game to be more about ORL than Boston, unless of course it turns into throwing Cheerios into a toilet for Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

"If we play to the level we're capable of playing, I think we can win this thing"

How hard is that to say? Not hard, why do players continue to guarantee things.

Jameer Nelson has the swagger and the ability to get a good outside shot off in crunchtime. But I think his ability to create a shot near the basket is suspect, which makes a lesser triple threat option. Paul Pierce is the complete package, while Jameer averages 2 FTs per game in this season. That won't cut it.

Celtics_Champs wrote:"If we play to the level we're capable of playing, I think we can win this thing"

How hard is that to say? Not hard, why do players continue to guarantee things.

So he means they're gonna lose, then?

Mahoney_jr wrote:Jameer Nelson has the swagger and the ability to get a good outside shot off in crunchtime. But I think his ability to create a shot near the basket is suspect, which makes a lesser triple threat option. Paul Pierce is the complete package, while Jameer averages 2 FTs per game in this season. That won't cut it.

jameer also has a very good aiesque layup once he beets the defender..he also use to avg like 4 alleyoops a game to dwight:)..boy i miss his game.

There is no such thing as "stealing TWO games". If Orlando were THAT good, they would not have let Boston beat them AGAIN after "stealing" game 4. I felt we should have lost both games after watching them as well.....but in reality, we did in fact win both.

With that said, it would be a aggressive to assume we win tonght thus beating Orlando 3 games in a row, so that leave us watching a game 7. So..... Howard suggesting that they win game seven isnt totaly out of line since they have proven they can beat us at home back in game 1, and stay with us up until the end of game 5. We just beat them twice, they may just return the favor...no big deal about his statement.

All and all Im really proud of what i was able to see this postseason either way. Just think, the Mavs, Hornets, Portland, Utah, Miami and Detroit are DONE right now...and we are still freakin hanging around...unbelievable.