Magic(11-8) @ Clippers(10-9)

[J the Drafter]

We showed last night that we still have to learn how to finish games against veteran teams. They turned it up after we got up 10 and we really played tight. Players passing up open shots, no offensive movement, and forcing up bad shots as a result. Then on defense we fouled too much and failed to rebound, deer in the headlights look on D. We still have to learn to not panic against experienced teams, mentally they have to push thru it. Just hate giving away games like this to veteran teams, thats like the 4th or 5th time.

Victor was a huge part of why we were winning. Things went south with him out. That isn't on the players' mental toughness.

[seeingstars]

If Payton can keep playing this way then he is our franchise. He just has to keep this mentality, because sometimes he'll have a game like this then the next game he'll be super passive. He was cooking tonight.... Gumbo..... Well until skiles put him on ice for whatever reason

I've felt for awhile that Payton has that franchise player potential, if he's just consistent with his better games, we'll be cooking every night

[ezzzp]

Need more toughness in the post. Jason tried his best, but Vuc was like a sheep playing with wolves and Jordan and Griffin ate him alive.

I was surprised LA didn't exploit that more.

Vuc was off on the offensive end, but he was totally fine on the defensive end.

The numbers and effect on the game that Blake and Jordan put up are what they do every game vs every team. Nobody totally shuts down that front line - especially when BG's midrange is dropping. The interior defense kept them from their usual barrage of easy interior buckets (dunk/lobs).

Skiles game planned to close the interior and slow their 2nd chance points and gave up the corner 3 to do so. The problem was that those corner 3's came wide open and barely contested. Numerous slow rotations led to Johnson dropping 4-7 from there.

The W-L difference was the late barrage of turnovers and Oladipo + Harris' decision to play late game hero ball. Also, LA (12-31) made the threes the defense game them and the Magic (6-20) didn't.

[woosah]

Sounds like i missed quite a game. I knew it would be a challenge for them to win so I wasn't expecting it, but it sounds like even with the mistakes the magic were right there in position to win in the end. Poo. I'm just gonna take this as one to grow with. On to the next.

[CraZyPraiZ]

We showed last night that we still have to learn how to finish games against veteran teams. They turned it up after we got up 10 and we really played tight. Players passing up open shots, no offensive movement, and forcing up bad shots as a result. Then on defense we fouled too much and failed to rebound, deer in the headlights look on D. We still have to learn to not panic against experienced teams, mentally they have to push thru it. Just hate giving away games like this to veteran teams, thats like the 4th or 5th time.

Victor was a huge part of why we were winning. Things went south with him out. That isn't on the players' mental toughness.

I agree. We hung in there and had a shot. I'd like to see vuc shooting that wide open jumper. He passedit up every single time during that span where we couldn't do anything. He went soft on us. I'm still happy with our effort.

[rcklsscognition]

Here is a link to the NBA official review of all calls/non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the Clippers/Magic game. No Payton/Griffin reviewed.

http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/L2M-ORL-LAC-12-5-15.pdf

But it is interesting to see a little more detail into some fouls, why they're called, why they're not.

[pogiro]

Skiles cost us this one fellas

DeAndre played 37 minutes and only shot 3 free throws.

Aaron Gordon only played 21 minutes, I don't recall a single clipper making a jump shot he contested, he's gotta be playing 25-30, he's too good to be used like this.

Oh please. Did you watch Vuc and Tobias last night?

yeah and guess who Gordon could have been in for?
regardless DAJ only shooting 3 free throws, especially when we were struggling to score late is on the coach

Ok so then pretty much every loss is on the coach and not the players. Even when the two highest paid player shoot 7-23.

And hacking has it's time and place. But you have a young team, that has a lot to learn, that can play defense the way ours can, I want to see them play defense and not be bailed out by some lame intentional fouls. We need to learn to close out games against everyone. Not every team has a 40% FT shooter they keep on the floor in crunch time.

Sure, AG was having a good night and I could've stood to see more of him. But to blame the loss on Skiles is ridiculous. The players need to be tougher and close games out. Vuc sucked. Tobias sucked. Elfrid disappeared the 2nd half. Evan was a nonfactor. AG started to try to do too much and had some gaffs down the stretch. Victor had a nice look to tie the game late, and he missed. Although that one I'll put on Skiles. He should've gone to someone else because that was Dipo's first shot since going to the bench after his injury. But still, Dipo had an open look.

[tooler]

And hacking has it's time and place. But you have a young team, that has a lot to learn, that can play defense the way ours can, I want to see them play defense and not be bailed out by some lame intentional fouls. We need to learn to close out games against everyone. Not every team has a 40% FT shooter they keep on the floor in crunch time.

I agree with this.

[NBlue]

Here is a link to the NBA official review of all calls/non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the Clippers/Magic game. No Payton/Griffin reviewed.

http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/L2M-ORL-LAC-12-5-15.pdf

But it is interesting to see a little more detail into some fouls, why they're called, why they're not.

That is interesting. Its absurd that they don't have anything list for the last play of the game -- EP was CLEARLY fouled by Blake -- he was shoved out of bounds and yet they don't even comment on it. Absurd.

[seeingstars]

Here is a link to the NBA official review of all calls/non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the Clippers/Magic game. No Payton/Griffin reviewed.

http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/L2M-ORL-LAC-12-5-15.pdf

But it is interesting to see a little more detail into some fouls, why they're called, why they're not.

That is interesting. Its absurd that they don't have anything list for the last play of the game -- EP was CLEARLY fouled by Blake -- he was shoved out of bounds and yet they don't even comment on it. Absurd.

Horrible

[NBlue]

And hacking has it's time and place. But you have a young team, that has a lot to learn, that can play defense the way ours can, I want to see them play defense and not be bailed out by some lame intentional fouls. We need to learn to close out games against everyone. Not every team has a 40% FT shooter they keep on the floor in crunch time.

Sure, AG was having a good night and I could've stood to see more of him. But to blame the loss on Skiles is ridiculous. The players need to be tougher and close games out. Vuc sucked. Tobias sucked. Elfrid disappeared the 2nd half. Evan was a nonfactor. AG started to try to do too much and had some gaffs down the stretch. Victor had a nice look to tie the game late, and he missed. Although that one I'll put on Skiles. He should've gone to someone else because that was Dipo's first shot since going to the bench after his injury. But still, Dipo had an open look.

This is such an excellent point that, frankly, I hadn't thought of. Winning is our goal this year -- but its certainly not the only goal. We need to learn to win the right way -- today -- so we can win whatever way we need to in years to come. I have little doubt that if this were a playoff game we would see the hack a DJ strategy employed. But this is teaching a young team how to close out games against a good team on the road -- hack-a-DJ teaches the wrong lesson for that (we need to win by chicanery because we can't win the game on our own merits).

Learning that we can (and do) have the ability to close out these games ourselves -- and how we can make that happen (or not -- see the dumb Tobias play trying to draw a foul inside 30 seconds where they are never gonna call it) is the key lesson.

Great point, pogiro!

[Destin]

Bunch of negative nelly's on this board.

The fact that we not only competed but nearly bested a top 10(ish) team should be giving us a lot of confidence looking forward. Especially since our players and coach have proven they can learn from these types of games. Wish we won of course, but I'm pretty psyched nonetheless.

The fact that we not only competed but nearly bested a top 10(ish) team should be giving us a lot of confidence looking forward. Especially since our players and coach have proven they can learn from these types of games. Wish we won of course, but I'm pretty psyched nonetheless.

LA was missing two very key players. We should have taken advantage of that and we didn't

[OrlandoNed]

Bunch of negative nelly's on this board.

The fact that we not only competed but nearly bested a top 10(ish) team should be giving us a lot of confidence looking forward. Especially since our players and coach have proven they can learn from these types of games. Wish we won of course, but I'm pretty psyched nonetheless.

The fact that we not only competed but nearly bested a top 10(ish) team should be giving us a lot of confidence looking forward. Especially since our players and coach have proven they can learn from these types of games. Wish we won of course, but I'm pretty psyched nonetheless.

LA was missing two very key players. We should have taken advantage of that and we didn't

We did. The Clippers were missing their starting guards, our guards Payton and Oladipo had big games. Everybody else on the team got out played.

[OrlandO]

Here is a link to the NBA official review of all calls/non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the Clippers/Magic game. No Payton/Griffin reviewed.

http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/L2M-ORL-LAC-12-5-15.pdf

But it is interesting to see a little more detail into some fouls, why they're called, why they're not.

That is interesting. Its absurd that they don't have anything list for the last play of the game -- EP was CLEARLY fouled by Blake -- he was shoved out of bounds and yet they don't even comment on it. Absurd.

Smith fouled Griffin, then he fouled his own teammate Payton...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FlZhJlfI0g[/youtube]

[NBlue]

Here is a link to the NBA official review of all calls/non-calls in the final 2 minutes of the Clippers/Magic game. No Payton/Griffin reviewed.

http://official.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/L2M-ORL-LAC-12-5-15.pdf

But it is interesting to see a little more detail into some fouls, why they're called, why they're not.

That is interesting. Its absurd that they don't have anything list for the last play of the game -- EP was CLEARLY fouled by Blake -- he was shoved out of bounds and yet they don't even comment on it. Absurd.

Smith fouled Griffin, then he fouled his own teammate Payton...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FlZhJlfI0g[/youtube]

So thanks for posting that but did you watch it???? That's not even close to what happened. It actually makes me even more mad seeing that in slo-mo.

WATCH!

1) At :29 -- Smith gets clear inside position on Griffin and Griffin proceed to both push Smith in the back and put his hand around Smith's Chest. Its only then (at :30) that Smith reacts by grabbing Griffin's arm.

2) In the meantime EP comes in from the side. He is stumbling but touches the ball at :32. There is some contact with Smith at :34-35 but then EP is able to gain the ball and is shoved out of bounds by Griffin at :37-38.

So Griffin fouls not one but 2 of our guys! And of course he has the gall to then go up to EP after the game and tell him it was all Smith's fault. What a doosh.

[rcklsscognition]

That is interesting. Its absurd that they don't have anything list for the last play of the game -- EP was CLEARLY fouled by Blake -- he was shoved out of bounds and yet they don't even comment on it. Absurd.

Smith fouled Griffin, then he fouled his own teammate Payton...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FlZhJlfI0g[/youtube]

So thanks for posting that but did you watch it???? That's not even close to what happened. It actually makes me even more mad seeing that in slo-mo.

WATCH!

1) At :29 -- Smith gets clear inside position on Griffin and Griffin proceed to both push Smith in the back and put his hand around Smith's Chest. Its only then (at :30) that Smith reacts by grabbing Griffin's arm.

2) In the meantime EP comes in from the side. He is stumbling but touches the ball at :32. There is some contact with Smith at :34-35 but then EP is able to gain the ball and is shoved out of bounds by Griffin at :37-38.

So Griffin fouls not one but 2 of our guys! And of course he has the gall to then go up to EP after the game and tell him it was all Smith's fault. What a doosh.

Sorry, but OrlandO is making the correct assessment of the play and the potential fouls, though they were not even enough to be non-calls tbh. It is legal to make contact with the opponent's back as a defender like Blake did. Smith then attempted and briefly clamped Griffin's arm (foul, but not long enough to get a whistle, though they wouldn't have seen it on court anyway I don't think). Griffin never had his right arm around Smith. He spent the entire rebound trying to wedge his arm in front of Smith who was clamping (fouling) Smith. Smith then proceeded to mug Payton and his momentum took himself, Griffin, and Payton out of bounds. Smith had Blake clipped and Blake couldn't get out and was going down with the ship at that point.

Here is the image. In it you can see Blake's hand trying to push under the clamp from Smith, it's the brown spot on Smiths jersey there. You can see the clamp from Smith on Blake's arm. Smith's hand is coming up from under Blake's arm and clamping it down, restricting it and fouling, though it was likely too brief to be a non-call.



Here is Smith fouling Payton



Just for clarification, Blake has his forearm on the back of Smith sort of on top of his him, as you can tell by his bent right elbow. It remains there through the play, and it a legal move by a defender.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/O1CB63L.jpg
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