2024-2025 Regular Season Game 9: Orlando Magic (3-5) at Indiana Pacers (3-4) - 7pm

[Knightro]

Glass half full:

Same amount of wins as: Knicks, (potentially) Heat tonight.

More wins than: Philly, Bucks

Also even with Philly, Bucks turning it around, teams in the playoffs right now are Nets, Bulls, Hornets, Hawks.

I am pretty confident the Magic will still be a play in team even if Paolo doesn't come back until after Christmas.

There's gonna be a lot of tanking teams in the East sooner than later. Especially with only one tanker in the West. The race for Flagg is going to HEAT UP.

[KillMonger]

Jalen was the momentum stopper tonight.... Every time we got close, he did something stupid and we lost all momentum

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[richi_v25]

So Paolo got hurt on October 30th.

6 weeks would be December 11th.

Talking 19 more games at least. Can they go 8-11? Dunno. Seems dicey.

They should be in the mix for a play in spot regardless of how bad it gets though.

But on the other end he could be back in under 3 weeks?

with the way this team handles injuries? My bet is that Paolo does not come back until January unless the injury was much less severe than it sounded like.

In that scenario, I think it will be tough to even make the play-ins but it is possible.

We are extra cautious with injuries but he finished the game where he got hurt so it wasn't a horrific injury and he seems to be ok when cheering the guys on.

[eyriq]

So Paolo got hurt on October 30th.

6 weeks would be December 11th.

Talking 19 more games at least. Can they go 8-11? Dunno. Seems dicey.

They should be in the mix for a play in spot regardless of how bad it gets though.

I had them 4-5 instead of 3-6 after tonight, so they are only a game off my expectations. Say Paolo comes back by the 19th against OKC, my original projections have them 15-11 heading into that game. Adjusting for Paolo being out and considering we are only a game off the pace I'm thinking it is reasonable that they are 13-13 heading into that game on the 19th.

[Knightro]

So Paolo got hurt on October 30th.

6 weeks would be December 11th.

Talking 19 more games at least. Can they go 8-11? Dunno. Seems dicey.

They should be in the mix for a play in spot regardless of how bad it gets though.

I had them 4-5 instead of 3-6 after tonight, so they are only a game off my expectations. Say Paolo comes back by the 19th against OKC, my original projections have them 15-11 heading into that game. Adjusting for Paolo being out and considering we are only a game off the pace I'm thinking it is reasonable that they are 13-13 heading into that game on the 19th.

Oh I don't think 13-13 through 26 games is super realistic.

I feel like 10-16 or 11-15 is more likely.

[fendilim]

Posters saying the defense is fine.... Its not, watch the games instead of just looking at a Stat sheet.... Our defense has not been up to standard.... I do not remember giving up multiple 30 point quarters last season

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This. But also, our shots arent falling so how to have set defense?

[eyriq]

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[KillMonger]

Posters saying the defense is fine.... Its not, watch the games instead of just looking at a Stat sheet.... Our defense has not been up to standard.... I do not remember giving up multiple 30 point quarters last season

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This. But also, our shots arent falling so how to have set defense?

You're absolutely right..... When shots don't fall it affects our defense... I remember coach saying that multiple times last season.... Shots falling or not shouldn't affect our defense but.... It does

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[Bensational]

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Such a different game from him tonight. He attacked the paint. Looked to exploit the size advantage in the post. Was aggressive on the ball in general and I hope we see a lot more of it.

Goga is a better fitting big man for AB, his picks clear space and then he finds space on the roll. They have a much stronger rapport than AB has with other bigs.

[SOUL]

An underrated part of these injuries is that by starting Goga (which they should), unless they bring in Isaac for Goga (and Isaac hasn't been great at center), Moe is going to have to man defenses by himself for specific portions of the game by himself, since Isaac spells Franz often and we need a lot of Franz minutes.

Hard to always cover Moe with Isaac minutes with these injuries to Paolo and WCJ. Yes, our defense is that bad with him.

[SOUL]

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[Jiwol]

Easy win

You're like 50 years old and yet you still seem to believe you can talk your wishes into reality. I don't know if that's more funny or pathetic...

[pepe1991]

This would probably be first moral victory of a season.
9 men roster is way to go from now on without Carter and Banchero. Jett is useless.
Franz was best player on the court.
Isaac had best game of a season.
Black had few nice plays. Same with Moe.
KCP was good in first half.

But their bench shot 18/20 FG. Just unreal.

Tbh Pacers interior defense is laughable , even with Turner. They don't defend paint, they kept going over screens even against Black for no reason, they got crushed on offensive glass, Haliburton was complete no factor up until last 4 min.

What happened to him? Last year, before injury he was one of most exiting players to watch, after injury, especially this year he just flat out blows. And why Pacers don't have backup C? On whole roster they have 1 person taller than 6'9.


and this is for around a league, but man ,teams from East look like G league teams in comparison from Western conference. Only Cavs and Celtics look good, rest of East sucks so hard right now.
And i just read one nasty good article about "Glen" and Bucks, it's not written in English but man writers held no punches.

Bottom line, out of current top 12 nba teams, 10 are on West *brainfart , late edit*


I said after Banchero's injury, we will make play in, it's hard not to. East is sad this year. No wonder Knicks reached out for Towns, they will end up in ECF by accident , like Hawks last year. *like Pacers last year and Hawks in 2021* .

Man i need good sleep, i'm writing nonsense

[drsd]

Box-score thoughts get old, as all I keep saying is that Orlando's three-ball is horrible.

So: I won't do that until i) Banchero returns, or ii) Orlando trades Anthony for a competent shooter.

Anyhow, with this loss, the 3-6 Magic is still a play-in team, AND the 4-4 Pacers is the current #3 seed.

And we thought the East was strong this year: nope.

[drsd]

Only Cavs and Celtics look good, rest of East sucks so hard right now.

We are currently living in a Universe where the Pistons AND the Wizards are BOTH better than the Bucks and Sixers.
Wild.

and a p.s.: the Magic is only one game back of the Knicks.

[pepe1991]

Only Cavs and Celtics look good, rest of East sucks so hard right now.

We are currently living in a Universe where the Pistons AND the Wizards are BOTH better than the Bucks and Sixers.
Wild.

and a p.s.: the Magic is only one game back of the Knicks.

It is early in season so standings are always wild early on, BUT this year it seems like East is so damn bad. Each and every roster ( even including Cavs, despite fact they play excellent ) looks so awkward and unbalanced.

Knicks- no bench
Magic- no offense
Pacers- no interior defense
Wizards- no defense
Pistons- no talent
Bulls - anemic offense
Bucks- too old
Heat - painfully mediocre
Hawks- no defense

And given that 10 out of 15 go into playoff or playin, you know you will have some random 34 wins team in playin.

Feels like it's 2013 again, where nothing on East but Heat mattered. You could skip through whole East from game 1 to last game to ECF because you knew who is going to finals on East . Heat in past, Celtics now.

[cedric76]

Easy win

You're like 50 years old and yet you still seem to believe you can talk your wishes into reality. I don't know if that's more funny or pathetic...

It was a very close game, we d have win it if we had played more Zone defense

Plenty good things to take about this game

JI is ramping up, hopefully he ll get more than 20 min / game soon
Goga is playing solid
Black is attacking the paint
Cole is on the bench
KCP seems to get a better feeling of our team

Our young guys are learning valuable lessons (TDS and Jett are still very raw but they ll get better)

By the way, being a crybaby is what's actually pathetic ( but i guess you are still a bit sensitive because of kamala)

[drsd]

... BUT this year it seems like East is so damn bad. Each and every roster ( even including Cavs, despite fact they play excellent ) looks so awkward and unbalanced.

... and therefore your thoughts on those same Cavs?

I am never sold on a two-PG set.

Cleveland is a bad rebounding team that might emerge as a terrible one once the stats smooth out. Big teams will out-muscle them game in and game out. The need to be a very high FG% team to win.

In conclusion: I could easily see Cleveland as one of those 60-win teams that loses in round-1 of the playoffs.

[basketballRob]

So Paolo got hurt on October 30th.

6 weeks would be December 11th.

Talking 19 more games at least. Can they go 8-11? Dunno. Seems dicey.

They should be in the mix for a play in spot regardless of how bad it gets though.

I still think if we're 100% healthy at the end of the season, we'd have a shot to beat a team like the Cavs in the first round.

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[basketballRob]

Jett is a trade chip. Attach him to a pick and go get us a scoring guard for the bench.

You spelled Cole Anthony wrong but I know what you meant.

Cole is filler to match salaries. Jett still has upside and would be a player that a team like Utah or Portland might be interested in.

I think I'd throw in Wendell also for a player like McCollum. I think it's 50/50 that Wendell will be healthy come playoff time. He was healthy last season in the playoffs, so he'll probably miss this season.

I'm not sure if we could trade Wendell yet or not because of his extension, but I would trade him asap.

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