Booooooooooooo: Tribe Drops Fourth Straight
May 20, 2009Kid Cudi: Where Cleveland Happens (Video)
May 20, 2009Orlando Magic (59-23) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (66-16)
Eastern Conference Finals
Game 1: 5/20/09 8:30 PM
Game 2: 5/22/09 8:30 PM
Game 3: 5/24/09 8:30 PM
Game 4: 5/26/09 8:30 PM
Game 5: 5/28/09 8:30 PM
Game 6: 5/30/09 8:30 PM
Game 7: 6/01/09 8:30 PM
All Games on TNT/WTAM
If you’re like me, you find it hard to even remember the last game the Cavaliers played. In this postseason so far, the Cavaliers have practically been sitting around doing nothing just as long as they have been playing actual games. In other words, the Cavaliers really haven’t felt any pressure, or weariness from the playoff grind, or intensity of tight playoff finishes. None of that. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 2009 NBA Playoffs begin tonight. We’ve all heard the rest vs rust arguments, and tonight we’ll see just how sharp (or not) the Cavaliers managed to keep themselves over the 9 days they’ve gone since last playing. If you take out the throw-away final game of the regular season in which the Cavs gave most of the starters the night off, the last team to beat the Cavaliers was the Orlando Magic all the way back on April 3rd. That game was a 29 point loss for the Cavaliers that wasn’t even that close. The Magic are 2-1 against Cleveland this year, have won 4 playoff games on the road, and rose above most peoples’ doubts and expectations to knock off the defending champs on the road in Game 7 last series. The Magic aren’t scared of the Cavaliers one bit, and they don’t even feel like they should be the underdogs. Their confidence is at an all-time high right now. So buckle up, Cavs fans….for the first time this postseason, the Cavaliers are about to enter a dogfight.
Projected Starting Lineups (with Postseason Stats)
Orlando Magic:
-G Rafer Alston (12.8 ppg, 4.7 apg, 1.6 spg, 13.33 PER)
-G Courtney Lee (9.4 ppg, 1.6 apg, .333 3pt%, 11.59 PER)
-F Hedo Turkoglu (14.2 ppg, 4.4 apg, 3.7 rpg, 11.91 PER)
-F Rashard Lewis (19.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 0.8 bpg, 18.37 PER)
-C Dwight Howard (19.6 ppg, 16.6 rpg, 2.8 bpg, 26.03 PER)
Key Reserves: Mickael Pietrus, JJ Redick, Anthony Johnson, Marcin Gortat
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Mo Williams (14.8 ppg, 4.5 apg, .370 3pt%, 13.74 PER)
-G Delonte West (13.3 ppg, 4.4 apg, .357 3pt%, 13.77 PER)
-F LeBron James (32.9 ppg, 8.0 apg, 7.8 rpg, 41.79 PER)
-F Anderson Varejao (5.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 13.74 PER)
-C Zydrunas Ilgauskas (10.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.1 bpg, 14.66 PER)
Key Reserves: Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, Daniel Gibson, Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic
Game Notes
The amount of over confidence on the part of these two respective fanbases is nothing short of astounding. In preparation of this series, I’ve been reading a couple Magic blogs and reading the comments there, and as far as many/most of their fans are concerned, there’s no reason whatsoever for the Magic to lose, as if they have no regard for the level of play the Cavaliers have shown this year, and particularly in the playoffs.
For Cavs fans, they seem to think that cakewalks through an uninspired team and badly injured team somehow can negate the bad matchup this series is for the Cavaliers. Regular season games clearly do not tell the story of how teams will matchup in the postseason, but to completely ignore the matchup issues of those games is a mistake.
It makes me wonder what the mentality of these two teams is like heading into this series. I would imagine it has to somewhat mirror the outlook of the respective fanbases. You get the sense that because of their regular season success against Cleveland, combined with the fact they just overcome long odds to win 2 games in a row against the Celtics (including Game 7 on the road) to knock off the reigning champs, they simply feel like there’s no reason at all why they should fear the Cavaliers.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers will fall back on just doing what they’ve been doing. They are supremely confident in the way they’ve been playing in the post season, and boy do they ever deserve to feel that way. That’s not a misprint above, LeBron’s PER this postseason is a ridiculous 41.79. He’s put this team on his back as he has undertaken this meteoric rise to a Championship run.
So how will this thing play out? Which team’s confidence is well placed and whose will be proven to be misplaced? That’s going to be a fascinating storyline to play out. A lot of people will tell you the key to this series is the Magic’s 3 point shooting. I couldn’t disagree more. In the 2 games the Magic absolutely thrashed the Cavaliers, it was actually the Cavaliers who shot better beyond the arc. In the Cavs’ lone win against Orlando, the Magic were the hot team from the outside.
No, I’m afraid 3 point shooting isn’t the Cavs problem in this series. Instead, it’s interior defense. Rafer Alston is a matchup nightmare for the Cavaliers, as shown by his 18.0 ppg average against the Cavaliers this season, to go with 6.0 assists. Alston has the ability to abuse the Cavaliers perimeter defense by getting to the lane. If the Cavaliers are slow to rotate, he shoots the ball himself. If the Cavaliers are quick to rotate on the 2nd level, Alston finds the open man and the Magic find themselves with an easy basket underneath. They ran this style offense over and over again against Cleveland this season, and Mike Brown has yet to show an ability to counter it.
Perhaps that will be the key to this series…..Mike Brown. If Coach Brown has used this time off to develop a quicker, tighter defensive rotation for the Magic’s pick and roll assault, then the Cavaliers will have no problem with this series. Because really, defense is what this series is all about.
The Magic like to use their height on defense to make it difficult for the Cavaliers to get to the lane. It will be important for Ilgauskas to find his shot again in this series, because the Cavaliers really need him to help extend the Magic defense so Dwight Howard can’t just cherry pick and block shots all day lone on them.
If you’re just looking at the individual matchups, you’d give the Magic a huge advantage at center, while the Cavaliers get the huge nod at SF. You’d give the Magic the edge at PF and the Cavaliers the edge at SG. Which could make PG the true swing position. Mo Williams has not had a great postseason to this point, but I actually look to him to have a big series against Orlando. Mo didn’t play well in the Cavs’ 2 losses to Orlando, but he played a great game in the win.
The ultimate X-Factor, however, will be LeBron James. Right now, there’s simply no stopping the guy. What we have witnessed in these first 8 playoff games has been a level of playing that I have never seen before, or at least not since Michael Jordan was annihilating and embarrassing opponents on his way to 6 titles. That’s the same zone LeBron has looked to be in so far in these playoffs, and if he keeps it up, this series will be shorter than a lot of people think. If the Magic and defensive player of the year Dwight Howard can harass LeBron and revert back into regular season mode, then the Magic will have a great chance of winning this series.
21 Comments
Didn’t the Cavs sweep the season series against San Antonio in ’07?
That certainly meant a lot in the finals.
It tooks them 7 games to beat a Boston team that had just went through a gruelling series vs. Chicago, withouth KG, and with Brian freaking Scalabrine playing big minutes. Oh, and Ray Allen could not hit the ocean from the beach. Where is this over confidence coming from? That 29 point blow out was the 2nd night of a back to back where the plane did not land until 7am. I am not worried.
One other thing, SVG is their head coach.
I didn’t realize any professional teams in FL had actual “fans”
Boogie,
Every team in Florida has fans in the playoffs… it’s the regular season when division-leading teams have 2/3 empty arenas/stadiums.
If Cleveland had weather like that I wouldn’t care about sports either. I would be too busy swimming in my pool and not freezing my butt off all year long.
Very anxious for tonight’s game. Sadly, there is still alomst 9 hours until tip-off.
Cavs in 5! Woohoo
well said Craig, well said – except maybe we’d put out better baseball players being able to play year-round and all
I’m 49% excited 51% nervous. Way too long of a layoff for my liking, but we’re at home and we (the crowd) will get them amped up. I agree with MacNip, Cavs in 5. This is Cleveland however, so my confidence will not be at 100% until we’re up by double digits in the final 3 seconds of the close out game of the Finals.
The reason I’m not terribly concerned is how do the teams respond to adversity (taking the figurative punch)?
Sure the Magic came back and won two games, but the end of game 6 was a dead heat for who wanted to lose the most. The Magic play great with a lead, but if that lead starts to evaporate they implode. I’m not sure they will respond well to getting knocked around.
We have LeBron.
Excellent post, Rock.
Can’t wait for the game. I hope everyone enjoys it, whatever the outcome.
I’m ridiculously anxious/nervous about today’s game. The long layoff has not helped in this regard.
I completely agree with Swig about the Magic playing with a lead, which is why I think it’s going to be so important for the Cavs to get off to a quick start. Any “rust” could be a killer if the Magic come out firing on all cylinders.
Magic fans need to check themselves about this series being a cake walk for them. They played awful in 6 out of those 7 games and only won because Boston literally ran out of gas. I would not be confident at all if I had to win against a team that have been bulldozing their opponents by double digits in the playoffs.
The Magic are the definition of butter soft.
@12: Are you serious? You don’t understand why the Magic fans are confident? They just won Game 7 in Boston after being down 3-2 (something no team has ever done before), they destroyed the Cavs twice in Orlando, and they were winning in Cleveland with less than a minute to go. Why on earth should they be scared of the Cavs, just because the Cavs killed the Pistons and Hawks?
If Orlando has a reason to be scared of the Cavs, it’s because with Z, AV, Joe Beast, and Ben the Cavs now have a deep frontcourt of guys with low post defensive presence (something the Cavs didn’t have when they played them in the regular season). That, and because the Cavs have home court. Those are legit reasons to feel good as Cavs fans. What the Cavs did against Detroit and Atlanta, though, has nothing to do with Orlando.
I’m 60% excited, 39% nervous, and 1% nauseous. It’s in Cleveland, which helps, but it’s against a real team, which doesn’t. Oh, and I just ate pudding and yogurt, hence the nausea.
[…] laid out the series preview earlier, so I thought I’d throw out a quick hitter on what the Cavs need to do in order to […]
A little nervous and gassy for this one. Magic will be mentally spent. They blew their load winning game 7 on the road in Boston. Big step for them upon which they can hang their hat. But it’s not their year. Go Cavs.
Please see revisions (and our last game against the Celtics) and repost:
For MAGIC fans, they seem to think that STRUGGLES through an uninspired team and badly injured team somehow can negate the bad matchup this series is for the MAGIC.
Give me a break. You think Philly was uninspired? Then you didn’t watch a single game of that series. That series was INTENSE and heated.
Again, I just pray the Cavs actually take the Magic seriously, unlike the suddenly over-confident Cavs fans.
You started it Rock, with your ‘count-down banners’ and your ‘positive thinking’.
There’s a difference between being positive and being ridiculous. I think the Cavs are going to win this series. But there’s no reason whatsoever to overlook the Magic. They are a legit team that can create some serious problems for the Cavaliers.
to quote Rock “If Orlando has a reason to be scared of the Cavs, it’s because with Z, AV, Joe Beast, and Ben the Cavs now have a deep frontcourt of guys with low post defensive presence ”
The way I see this, that’s 20 fouls (we don’t want guys fouling out) to use on Howard. Make him earn his points from the line