Time to talk about the Playoffs

Last Guardian · Post #1 » by **Last Guardian** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:55 pm

With 25 games remaining, we are currently 3rd in the east. This is the period now where we are fighting for positioning. We are 3 games up on Cleveland and 4 games up on Toronto. We are 6 games back of Detroit. After that their is a big drop off, in essence, teams/positions we don't have to worry about.

Our schedule is very kind. The question is, who do we want to play? If the season ended the way it is, we play Washington in the first. However, their is only a 3 game difference between 6th place Washington and 11th place Indiana. We could be playing any of those teams in between. Those teams are Was, NJ, Philly, Atlanta, Chicago and Indiana. Obviously, Atlanta is not a team we want to play, but other than that, any of those teams look like a great first round matchup for us. If Washington is healthy, they would obviously be a lot better than their record will indicate. But still, all year not playing together, I think we would hand it to them.

What we don't want obviously is to fall out of 3rd, which is very possible if Cleveland goes on a streak. We would end up playing Toronto. While they aren't a very good team, they tend to shoot lights out against us (understatement). Or Toronto can somehow get 3rd and we play cleveland, which overall is in our favor but they have that 1 player we can't guard (understatement).

If we want to avoid Detroit for as long as possible, we should root for them to overtake #1.

Overall, this is how I think it will look....

1. Detroit - they are better than Boston and will overtake.
2. Boston - good team but I don't see them holding off Detroit.
3. Orlando - easy schedule will help hold cleveland off
4. Cleveland - will finish the season well
5. Toronto - Will continue hovering around 5 games over .500
6. Washington - Health will improve
7. Philadelphia - Just better than the other sub .500 teams
8. Chicago - Think they will just sneak in

Atlanta - just not enough there
NJ - No kidd, they will finish the season poorly

PimpORL · Post #2 » by **PimpORL** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:00 pm

Do we want to hold Cleveland off?
healthy Washington team>>>>>>>>Toronto

magicman123 · Post #3 » by **magicman123** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:05 pm

i think the 3rd seed is very important, playing against the 6th seed, we would most likely be playing a team under or around .500..i really dont want to play cleveland in the first round, just because of lebron, and the raptors are a very scary team since they usually play us so well...i think the 3rd seed is the best case, if the wiz get healthy they would be hard to beat as well..

OMPunk · Post #4 » by **OMPunk** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:07 pm

If Detroit is good enough to overtake Boston and we are only a few games behind Detroit....I see no reason for us to not have a shot at the second seed or possibly more. If the Philly game is any indicator of where we are as a team, then anything can happen.

As far as the rest of the league, there is noone below us that I truly fear outside of possibly the new look Bulls only because we havent' played them yet and don't know how we'd match up with them.

Optimus_Steel · Post #5 » by **Optimus_Steel** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:49 pm

Jim Mora: "Playoffs???? You wanna talk about the Magic making the PLAYOFFS???? Playoffs?? Are you kidding me?? I just hope the Magic can win a game."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq7BYOnDrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V02uegzu ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5N00aAwk4

CourtsideTV · Post #6 » by **CourtsideTV** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:52 pm

id want to play atlanta, philly, or washington

Post #7 » by **MagicMadness** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:52 pm

I really do hope the Pistons overtake the #1 position.

I'm not saying we're better than the Celtics, but obviously we play better against them than we do Detroit. Plus, the Pistons have so much playoff experience together.

thepritz · Post #8 » by **thepritz** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:17 pm

i can see us beating either boston or det, but not both.. beating one is going to physically and mentally drain us. i dont think theyre quite there yet.. dont get me wrong i hope they can, but i dont see it happening..

EasternMagic · Post #9 » by **EasternMagic** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:29 pm

just out of curiosity, not saying we will pass them, but how many games are we behind boston now that they have had a 3 game losing streak and how many games is detroit behind them

Post #10 » by **MagicMadness** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:30 pm

We're still 8 games behind Boston...

Detroit is now only 2 back.

EasternMagic · Post #11 » by **EasternMagic** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:31 pm

thepritz wrote:i can see us beating either boston or det, but not both.. beating one is going to physically and mentally drain us. i dont think theyre quite there yet.. dont get me wrong i hope they can, but i dont see it happening..

Or it will put us on a momentum hight... i dont think the eastern conference finals are out of reach

rip7 · Post #12 » by **rip7** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:12 pm

prorl wrote:(picture)

Jim Mora: "Playoffs???? You wanna talk about the Magic making the PLAYOFFS???? Playoffs?? Are you kidding me?? I just hope the Magic can win a game."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq7BYOnDrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V02uegzu ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft5N00aAwk4

lmao. Remixed with AI in the conversation.

NEM · Post #13 » by **NEM** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:15 am

the way i want it to pan out

1. detroit
2. boston
3. orlando
4. cleveland
5. toronto
6. philadelphia
7. washington
8. indiana

that way we avoid detroit until the ECF nd we would beat boston in round 2 because their lack of depth...philly as we proved is an easy win for us...i'd be surprised if we didn't win 4-0 or 4-1

Optimus_Steel · Post #14 » by **Optimus_Steel** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:27 am

If we play Philly in the first round we will absolutely destroy them.

lovehoops01 · Post #15 » by **lovehoops01** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:07 am

CourtsideTV wrote:id want to play atlanta, philly, or washington

Have you watched any of the Magic-Hawks games the past two seasons? They don't want to play them. I think the Magic are 2-6 against the Hawks in their past eight meetings. And that was before they got Bibby. It doesn't make any sense, but even though they consistently have a worse record than Orlando, Woodson has figured out something. Plus, they are one of those athletic teams that the Magic typically don't fare that well against. In the past couple seasons, Dwight's scoring numbers have been down against them, too. The other piece of bad news....the Magic still have three more games against them in the regular season. So even though like 20 of their remaining games are against teams with losing records, three of those are against the Hawks.

mfishy · Post #16 » by **mfishy** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:02 pm

philly and Indiana are the dream matchups, no doubt. I am confident we can take down ATL or WAS (yes I have seen the hawks game and yes i know about injuries). Toronto is dangerous. They get so damn hot with all those shooters.

With our schedule, the team should be pushing to overtake the 2 spot ( really unlikely but that's the mentality you gotta have)/

drsd · Post #17 » by **drsd** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:49 pm

I agree that the real fight will be for the Magic to hold onto the 3 slot. A so-called easy schedule might not counter-act the Cavs winning 80% of their final games (a plausible scenario given their new team).

The Magic need to win ~70% of their final games (i.e. go 18-7) to ensure a 3 slot. Doable, but a challenge for StM and his blue-crew. Still, 18 wins would take the Magic into the playoffs on a real high, as a 53 win club.

As for the first round match up of a 3 seed, in addition o the obvious Washington match up, I will look out for Atlanta. They finally got a PG that can run their team. They could start piling n the wins. And this 3-6 could be difficult for the Magic. Atlanta is my current dark horse in the East.

CourtsideTV · Post #18 » by **CourtsideTV** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:25 pm

lovehoops01 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

Have you watched any of the Magic-Hawks games the past two seasons? They don't want to play them. I think the Magic are 2-6 against the Hawks in their past eight meetings. And that was before they got Bibby. It doesn't make any sense, but even though they consistently have a worse record than Orlando, Woodson has figured out something. Plus, they are one of those athletic teams that the Magic typically don't fare that well against. In the past couple seasons, Dwight's scoring numbers have been down against them, too. The other piece of bad news....the Magic still have three more games against them in the regular season. So even though like 20 of their remaining games are against teams with losing records, three of those are against the Hawks.

although this is true..dwight will go crazy playing @ atlanta in front of his family...everyone steps up in playoffs and I think the new hedo/dwight/nelson/shard can take the joe johnson/j smith/zaza/horford.

dwight abuses horford....

Last Guardian · Post #19 » by **Last Guardian** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:02 pm

Another game down, and no one gained ground. Orlando, Cleveland and Toronto all won last night. Detroit and Boston also won. 24 games left....

Only game tonight is Indiana vs Toronto. Travis will abuse Calderon, as I am sure everyone knows.

KingRobb02 · Post #20 » by **KingRobb02** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:09 pm

Well, if we keep up our current pace, it looks like we might slip into the 4 spot and be forced to play the Raptors. In case you haven't noticed, the Raptors pretty much manhandle this team every time they meet.