Got To Believe In MAGIC

Okay, alright, pardon me but I gotta do this. This is like my blog post last year. About the Orlando Magic team. The difference is....I have more confidence in them now than before. Why? Simply because the team is much stronger. With a fab five starters consists of Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis, Matt Barnes and the Daytona native Vince Carter. Plus, the bench players whom play like starters, namely Mikael Pietrus, JJ Redick, Ryan Anderson, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, Jason Williams, Anthony Johnson. Like last year, when Cavaliers, even though they are the number one team in terms of wins, had a hard time playing against the Magic. Magic has the deepest bench in NBA. Give all the credit to general manager Otis Smith for trading in a very good line up.
The first round with a sweep against the Bobcats and now facing the Hawks for the second round. You would think that the Hawks has more weapons compared to Bobcats(Al Horford, Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford). But the humiliating defeat in the first game is really something. Hawks struggled the whole game and was defeated by 43 points. Another first in NBA history since 1958. But they should not be over confident since the Hawks will go back with a vengeance. And so, the second game came. But despite the more improved game of Hawks, Magic still got it for 14 points ahead.
There are too many highlights in the game, not to mention Dwight sat on the bench mostly during the first round for foul trouble. But in the second round, Dwight dominates the game, avoiding foul trouble, he really makes a difference on the floor. Team mates Jameer's stellar performance, Sweet Lew's(Rashard Lewis) 3-pointer dagger, Matt Barnes's offensive rebounds and tough defense, and Vince Carter's last-minute plays.
During the whole regular season and up to play-offs, hearing more and more of Lebron is sickening. His injured elbow is probably the most famous elbow in history of mankind. Awarded the MVP award without being 1st in any of the categories. He is 2nd only to Kevin Durant in scores, then the rest, blocks, assist, field goal percentage, they all belong to Dwight Howard. And yet, the Queen James is still the MVP. No doubt, he's a good player but I can't see why they keep on promoting him, they didn't even made it to the finals and he doesn't even have a ring! He throws tantrums, a poor sport and treats a towel boy like a crap. Oh well...
My point in this post is Magic should have the respect from media. Even coaches from other teams agree. NBA veteran coach Larry Brown can't think of words why they lost to Magic in a 4-0 sweep. He just said that this team is so good. And that they cannot match up. He recognized Dwight as MVP and doesn't have to score. Doc Rivers once said to his Boston Celtics team when the team said they are greater than Magic, Doc Rivers said " No, you're not. They just beat you up 3 times in a row!" And now, Hawks's Mike Woodson comments after the 2nd loss to Magic, "It takes a perfect game to beat this team."
Though Magic has their ups and downs, but so far, they are playing excellent, the bottomline is....you just GOT TO BELIEVE IN MAGIC.

Well, I Guess They Haven't Lost That Magic!

Sorry guys, I gotta do this. It was a real heart-thumping game between Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics last night at the Amway Arena in Orlando. After the loss of Magic over Celtics last Dec.25, and at home, plus the fact that Boston is a real tough team, who would thought that Orlando will have the victory? From the very start of the game, Celtics already leads 9 points ahead for only a couple of minutes. It has gotten worse when the lead came up to 16 at the 2nd half. Magic fans feeling hopeless, including me and my husband, it makes me wanna throw-up, seriously. We thought that when Jameer Nelson was able to make those 10 consecutive points in the first quarter, that they'd be able to atleast keep up. But the Celtics simply can't stop. 3 points everywhere from almost every member of the team. Ray Allen, Rasheed Wallace, Eddie House, oh my, I thought they had it all!
Then the 4th quarter, Magic made a big come back. With all those big and important guys of Celtics in foul trouble (4 each)...Magic took that advantage. We were even surprised to see Howard and Gortat play together! I guess that's Stan Van Gundy's strategy...to intimidate the Celtics bullies. Well, it works excellent. The use of the "twin towers" works very good.
I feel bad for Vince Carter. He's a great player but since he's been injured left and right, he has not been himself. He's been playing poorly. I even get upset and wondering why Van Gundy keeps on using him. I love Vince but he needs a break! He's just simply in a bad shape and needs enough rest to recover.
But what made us so excited is when Dwight's getting good shots, Gortat is doing a good job, JJ Redick put that 3-point dagger that tied the score in the last 15 seconds. Then the last 14.1 seconds is where the decision will be made. The original play was Redick will pass the ball to Carter and Carter will make the shot. But because of the strong defense of Celtics to Carter, Redick made the smart decision of passing the ball to Rashard Lewis who was just standing in the corner, and when he saw that Redick and Carter is being hustled by Pierce and Allen, he ran towards Redick and get the ball realizing that the time is running out. So, for the last 5 seconds, sweet Lew drive the ball to the basket and made 2 points leaving Celtics 1.3 seconds left to try to tie the score, hopefully. On the other hand I thought that maybe Van Gundy plays reverse psychology with the Celtics. Probably Celtics think that Carter will get the ball and so they guarded him strictly leaving Rashard open. In NBA, never under estimate the 1 second. A second can still make a lot of difference. And so Rondo passed the ball to Wallace for a catch and shoot play. Wallace, never get the chance to aim, missed the 3 point shot that sealed Magic to victory! Whew! What a game!!!!
In every game or sports, the mind plays the big part. it's all about strategy. I even thought that Garnett should have fouled Lewis and even he made the free throw shots, this will still give them atleast 3 or 4 seconds left and can tie the game for an overtime!
Oh well, that's smart playing I'd say...it's a real exciting game.
Congrats to Magic. So, I guess, they haven't lost that magic!