pepe1991 wrote:half of fans in arena, especially kids, didn't even watch basketball back when Howard played.
It's not like Magic ever menaged to build championship team around him ,and that's not his fault.
Everybody likes Turk, but if we are being honest ,he was Gallinari level player at most.
Lewis is another player who was complimentary peace ,yet one year was second highest payed player in basketball.
Right before everything went to garbage, Magic commited biggest money to... Gilbert Arenas who shot 34% FG on 8 ppg.
Even during nba finals it was obvious that Magic need another star ballhandler ,as team was led by Lewis in assists (4,3 a game) where Lakers were led by Kobe (7,4). Especially because Nelson was hurt.
They probably did try to adress ballhandling issue with Arenas later, but in hindsight, Arenas was already trash at that point.
Lot of this is also bad luck.
Magic got Vince -who already got worst and declined.
Magic got Arenas who fell off cliff.
Magic found a way to get Turk back, who also fall off cliff after.
They were 31-33 years old players. There was no objective reason why they got so much worst so fast.
As for this game, Lakers are really, really good and built for playoffs.
For Magic, next game is flopping party vs Harden at home and 4 road games vs West. (Pelicans, Jazz, Nuggets, Blazers).
Tbh i don't see much reason why rush Vuc back before Jazz game.
Yea for me was even a really strange feeling in the week up to the finals. I was super happy, but depressed at the same time. I knew we have almost no realistic chance & it was probably our only chance with that team, because of the Hedo contract situation + the team failed to acquire other young talent around Dwight over the years (Dwight was still the youngest player & this was his 5th year).
I don't like him personally, but what Dwight did here is still super underrated by fans & media. He did something guys like Garnett never did. He put 1-2 super role players/fringe all-stars in the finals & he always stepped up his game in the playoffs unlike players like David Robinson or Alonzo Mourning.
To the game.
Fantastic defense by JI vs. AD. AG was solid. Mo with another good game. Ross was off tonight but cant fault him after 6-7 really good games in a row. Lakers are just too good defensively for us without Vuc & Fultz. With them i like our chances.
We held both there stars way under 50% shooting. Too bad the scrubs had the hot hand.
