Regular Season Game 32: Orlando Magic (14-17) at Milwaukee Bucks (28-5) - 8:30pm ET

[drsd]

Orlando got a plot in this BtB. I feel good about that.

[Bergmaniac]

DJ looks really checked out in a lot of games this year, just going through the motions. He was always a bad defender, but this year so often he doesn't even seem to be trying on this end, and offensively his playmaking has been a joke.

Anyway, this game was lost by the bench. Atrocious DJ, invisible Ross, and Iwundu and Birch together on the court just make it a struggle to get any good looks against any half-decent offense. AG deciding to chuck terrible shot after terrible shot while playing with the bench didn't help either.

Birch for some reason seem to have regressed significantly offensively, he was always quite limited on this end, but this year he can't make a contested layup to save his life and his offensive impact is limited to screens and the occasional offensive board. And Iwundu's minutes have been limited so he may still improve, but his shot looks completely broken this season, and he can't make layups in traffic either. Both of them on the court at the same time just won't work, but we got nobody else healthy right now.

[MagicStarwipe]

Briscoe is a better backup PG than DJ. Underrated loss.

[basketballRob]

They must've taken away a steal from JI because his NBA boxscore only says seven steals now.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

[j-ragg]

DJ has sucked all year. Something about being a backup with this guy...

[jezzerinho]

DJ looks really checked out in a lot of games this year, just going through the motions. He was always a bad defender, but this year so often he doesn't even seem to be trying on this end, and offensively his playmaking has been a joke.

Anyway, this game was lost by the bench. Atrocious DJ, invisible Ross, and Iwundu and Birch together on the court just make it a struggle to get any good looks against any half-decent offense. AG deciding to chuck terrible shot after terrible shot while playing with the bench didn't help either.

Birch for some reason seem to have regressed significantly offensively, he was always quite limited on this end, but this year he can't make a contested layup to save his life and his offensive impact is limited to screens and the occasional offensive board. And Iwundu's minutes have been limited so he may still improve, but his shot looks completely broken this season, and he can't make layups in traffic either. Both of them on the court at the same time just won't work, but we got nobody else healthy right now.

I wouldnt be AG's biggest cheerleader on the offensive end but - faced with the players he had around him, playing that badly - he'd have been remiss in not trying to make something happen for himself.

[KillMonger]

Watch on YouTube

If he can get his shot more consistent and his handle tight? AK47 2.0

[Bergmaniac]

DJ and Birch playing together have an offensive rating of 88.6. Ouch. Not a surprise, since running pick and roll and pick and pop to get buckets for himself or the centre setting the pick is pretty much the only decent playmaking skill DJ has and when his centre partner is so limited offensively, the results are predictably bad.

[TheGlyde]

I know I'm late to the party on it but I am off the Clifford bandwagon... My main issue is the pre determined rotations and lineups with zero in game adjustments. In his post game comments here he spoke about how the starters all have positive in the boxscore plus/minus, but "when their bench came in they outplayed our bench".

It's like he simply had no other options, when the Bucks bench subbed in, the Magic bench must also sub in... Um, Cliff, you could have easily played the starters a few more minutes mate? Pretty simple fix.

I hate the modern NBA where we have starters playing 30-32mins tops, and Cliffords insistance in giving a player having a stinker his set allocation and benching someone when they have the hot hand... Along with brainfarts like the timeout that nearly cost us the Philly game... I'm just not a fan anymore.

But, honestly, I look around the league and this is how so many coaches coach, we would probably just bring someone else in to do the same crap.

Bring me back Matt Goukas boys

[ezzzp]

DJ and Birch playing together have an offensive rating of 88.6. Ouch. Not a surprise, since running pick and roll and pick and pop to get buckets for himself or the centre setting the pick is pretty much the only decent playmaking skill DJ has and when his centre partner is so limited offensively, the results are predictably bad.

Yeeesh that's ugly...Bamba has been a much better match with DJ




I have been pretty critical of the DJ/Fultz pairing, but looking at the updated numbers show their lineups have actually done pretty good...I might need to re-adjust my opinion as maybe my bias is distorting it.

[TheGlyde]

^ Theres definately some bias coming from the fact so many people see DJ as already hitting his ceiling last year and Fultz with so much potential. So they want to see him handed the reins and hope that he can reach his potential instantly, and that DJ is holding him back and therefore holding the team back.

On the surface, the main issue with the lineup is that in that pairing you could put the ball in Fultz hands more often and have DJ as the shooter. It will happen though, I still remember the same thing back when we had Skiles at PG and a rookie Penny playing SG.

Everyone wanted Penny playing PG instantly. We had seen Skiles ceiling and it led the team to 30wins. Enough already, lets see what Penny has got... Of course those conversations didn't happen on the interwebs though

[Popsicle1228]

Amazing what winning does to a team. If this where to be there normal roster without ginanis and Bledsoe everyone would say how bad of a team they where. Since they have such a winning cultur with Ginniss for the last couple of seasons they play at such a high level no matter who is on the floor. It’s crazy cause realistically this is a team we should beat without ginnais and Beldsoe.

I haven’t read passed page 2 because I just finished watching the game (been a busy holiday), but wanted say the point being made in this post is key. The Bucks are on a back to back also and missing key starters. This was a winnable game!

The big difference is that the Bucks play with purpose every night. It is a winning culture that has permeated all the way to their 12th man. It is a culture that we lack and it was clear from the first quarter which team wanted the W more. Outside of Isaac and Fournier, I would argue that Robin freakin Lopez had more of an impact on this game than the remainder of our team. Let that sink in.

[UCFJayBird]

I know I'm late to the party on it but I am off the Clifford bandwagon... My main issue is the pre determined rotations and lineups with zero in game adjustments. In his post game comments here he spoke about how the starters all have positive in the boxscore plus/minus, but "when their bench came in they outplayed our bench".

It's like he simply had no other options, when the Bucks bench subbed in, the Magic bench must also sub in... Um, Cliff, you could have easily played the starters a few more minutes mate? Pretty simple fix.

I hate the modern NBA where we have starters playing 30-32mins tops, and Cliffords insistance in giving a player having a stinker his set allocation and benching someone when they have the hot hand... Along with brainfarts like the timeout that nearly cost us the Philly game... I'm just not a fan anymore.

But, honestly, I look around the league and this is how so many coaches coach, we would probably just bring someone else in to do the same crap.

Bring me back Matt Goukas boys

I'm not off the bandwagon yet but I agree, that seems to be Clifford's biggest issue. It drives me nuts when I see a player score a few buckets, appear to be catching fire, and then he comes out because it's time for a substitution, or for a starter to get back in if they're off the bench in the 1st place. That's not just a Clifford issue either, has been a big gripe of mine for years. I always cringe when I see that player practically begging to be left in and the coach is just "Nope, you're out."

The lack of in-game adjustments by coaches today is quite strange.