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This was posted on the Magic board and since it pertains to both our players, I thought I'd share it with you guys over here too.

Some interesting quotes:

The news accounts will tell you Lewis drove the baseline for his game-high 23rd point to win the game for Orlando. What they won't tell you is how four former stars conspired to create that moment by laying their weaknesses bare before a national TV audience, and what a dramatic impact those four players are having on their respective sides.

Allow me to provide an alternate account of the game's key play. First, Lewis only ended up with the ball because former All-Star Vince Carter cemented a horrid evening of awfulness by failing in the simple task of freeing himself to receive a pass at midcourt. Instead, Lewis caught the ball on the right wing on a pass from J.j. Redick, who was the primary ballhandler on the final two possessions because former All-Star Jameer Nelson was on the bench -- where he remained for the final 13 minutes of the game.

That was one of many surprises on that final play, all emanating from the fact that with nearly two-thirds of the season in the books, the four key players mentioned above all seem to be shadows of their former selves.

On Orlando's side, the addition of Carter and the return of Nelson from injury was supposed to key the Magic's quest to win a championship after their Eastern Conference title last season.

Similarly, the addition of Wallace and the return of Garnett from injury was thought to cement a dominant frontcourt rotation and put the Celtics back in position to reclaim the title they won in 2008.

So much for those plans. Between their last meeting (an 86-77 Boston win on Christmas) and this one the two teams went a combined 13-16. Thursday's showing provided ample reason why.

The article is pretty interesting and they talk about the subject in much greater detail. You can read more at :

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page ... daily-dime

it's cleveland and the lakers in the finals although Dallas or the spurs could sneak in there. The celts and magic have way too many holes. IN the celtics case, their lack of athleticism and youth plus their horrid free throw shooting, poor rebounding, propensity for turnovers and overall lack of focus will be their downfall. In the Magic's case, they lost their chance when turkolu, courtney lee and tony battie left in the carter deal. At least the Magic have Howard to build around. We have Rondo and I suppose Perk but that's it. We're about 4 mos away from starting the rebuilding on this team and it's going to take at least 3 years if we're lucky.

Is this Garnett's last year?

He looked old last night.

The only positive I have is that KG was rounding into shape before the "hyperextended knee," so Hollinger's snapshot take aside, KG's splits were progressing from 14/7 at 52% in Nov. to 16/8 and 58% in Dec.

The guy hasn't been hurt much in his career and his recovery has been slow, I am not going to go crazy after 3 games back. He struggled somewhat through his first 5 games back two years ago after he sat 10 games, by comparison last year he couldn't even handle mins he is already logging his mins. That said I would probably think real hard about sitting him tonight.

That said we aren't going to win jack unless he puts it together on both ends and we get control of the defensive glass. It also doesn't explain or do a thing about how awful KG and Wallace are together. I guess you could say they need to play together more but the two of them with the other 3 starters are essentially the worst line up we put on the floor, that isn't what I expected when we went into this.

Whoa, slow down a bit...We're not even at the all star break yet, still recovering from injuries, and I think it's a little too early to call it a season, start a rebuilding process, etc...

Don't hurt yourself in a rush to jump ship...

KG was fine before he hyperextended his knee. He was shooting at about 80% from the floor during a 10 game stretch. Rasheed had a great game yesterday..he has stepped it up when needed this year so I don't get the hate. Carter is Carter..he can still dominate a game, and win it by himself just like he did in the game back here in Boston...obviously they aren't as good, and you can add Pierce and Ray to that list..but they are still good.

BRUNiNHO91 wrote:KG was fine before he hyperextended his knee. He was shooting at about 80% from the floor during a 10 game stretch. Rasheed had a great game yesterday..he has stepped it up when needed this year so I don't get the hate. Carter is Carter..he can still dominate a game, and win it by himself just like he did in the game back here in Boston...obviously they aren't as good, and you can add Pierce and Ray to that list..but they are still good.

Yeah I think it is too easy to give up on these guys just yet. It gets awfully frustrating though.

Sometimes I just wanna throw in the towel and say the Vince Carter experiment isn't working. But then I look back at the months of Oct to December and Vince was averaging 20, 5 and 3 and the Magic were 24-8. Unless Vince automatically sucked on his birthday, or in the blink of an eye forgot how to play basketball at the dawn of 2010, I don't see any reason why he can't return to that form.

If Carter was playing this poorly from the beginning of the season, then okay, I'd be the first to tell you that he's done. But he was a borderline All-Star for a little over 2 months and our team was winning games because of him. Now his numbers have plummeted DRASTICALLY and we are winning games IN SPITE of him.

Maybe it's his shoulder, some other nagging injury, a mental thing, or maybe all of those. Either way, something is up. You don't transform into a completely different player in the span of a month.

420greg wrote:Is this Garnett's last year?

He looked old last night.