2020-2021 Regular Season Game 4: Orlando Magic (3-0) at Oklahoma City Thunder (1-1)

[yoyojw17]

Well... at least for the next day or so.... the magic are the #1 team in the NBA and only team that's 4-0.... followed by the hawks... the only other undefeated team. Couldn't make that up myself. haha

[basketballRob]

Well... at least for the next day or so.... the magic are the #1 team in the NBA and only team that's 4-0.... followed by the hawks... the only other undefeated team. Couldn't make that up myself. haha

We're still behind Washington in the power rankings.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

[drsd]

Was it not an easy outing? If we rest Vucevic and Fournier do we win that game yesterday? We got a freebie, it's not a measure of how good we are to beat the only (current) team whose mission it is to have the worst record in the league, while also sitting two key starters. We did what we had to do, show up and take the W.

Team-X rests players-Y because they want to ensure wins and are willing to absorb losses to do so. What the Magic is doing is putting their best out every night, knowing the toll it will take (Ross injury is a good example).

As such, whereas some teams might be 100% for a given game, the Magic never will be. So what is easy in that?

Also: all road games are hard. Always. And the Magic just won a road-road BtB and followed that up with another road win. That is impressive.


..

[PrimeThyme]

I'm not sold just yet. This core of players (Vuc, AG, Fournier) has never faired well when expectations start to creep in. They've started off hot in a season where everyone wrote them off as a 9th/10th seed and have caught some breaks with mediocre teams resting their players (Westbrooke, Horford, Hill) on the other side of a back to back.

Now they are 4-0 and are on people's radar. The schedule over the next week looks pretty favorable, but the following week where we play @Dallas, @Boston twice, and Milwaukee will let us know where we stand.

I saw tired legs last night && wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if tomorrow vs Philly got ugly. We will have to play much better than we did in the last two.

[jonbob17]

Was it not an easy outing? If we rest Vucevic and Fournier do we win that game yesterday? We got a freebie, it's not a measure of how good we are to beat the only (current) team whose mission it is to have the worst record in the league, while also sitting two key starters. We did what we had to do, show up and take the W.

Team-X rests players-Y because they want to ensure wins and are willing to absorb losses to do so. What the Magic is doing is putting their best out every night, knowing the toll it will take (Ross injury is a good example).

As such, whereas some teams might be 100% for a given game, the Magic never will be. So what is easy in that?

Also: all road games are hard. Always. And the Magic just won a road-road BtB and followed that up with another road win. That is impressive.


..

Oklahoma City is not trying to ensure wins. They are resting Horford to make sure he stays healthy, and puts up stats, with the hope they can flip him for more assets that turn into future wins.

That was not a good team we beat yesterday. AND that is fine. We have to beat the teams we are supposed to beat, and we should take advantage of the teams that will most certainly be resting their players during this condensed season. We should seriously out perform our expectations this year, because of the schedule. Like you said we are going to be putting our best guys on the court each and every night. Other teams will not be whether that be they have championship aspirations or lottery ones.

[thelead]

I'm not sold just yet. This core of players (Vuc, AG, Fournier) has never faired well when expectations start to creep in. They've started off hot in a season where everyone wrote them off as a 9th/10th seed and have caught some breaks with mediocre teams resting their players (Westbrooke, Horford, Hill) on the other side of a back to back.

Now they are 4-0 and are on people's radar. The schedule over the next week looks pretty favorable, but the following week where we play @Dallas, @Boston twice, and Milwaukee will let us know where we stand.

I saw tired legs last night && wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if tomorrow vs Philly got ugly. We will have to play much better than we did in the last two.

Agreed. I’m not downplaying our record. Wins are wins but we haven’t played anyone good yet so I’m not going to get excited about a 4-0 start until we beat some really good teams. Especially with the crap effort from the last two games.