Magic live blog

Magic, because it wrote itself. Live blog because I was doing it during the game against Orlando.

Lebron’s back at full strength – he started strong with the bad pass turnover on the 2nd possession

And wow was that an embarassing WIDE OPEN dunk by Wallace. That was worse than the Bulls game. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt by hoping the ball just slipped out of his hand.

We are dominating the offensive boards and there is nothing they can do to stop it. If we just keep moving the ball and play some defense (early on they’ve gotten some WIDE open 3s), then this is a W.

At full strength, we really are deep. There aren’t many better 6-7 tandems than Boobie And Andy. And Joe Smith at 8? You could definitely debate the value of our starters – I doubt Devin Brown or Ben Wallace would start for many contenders, but our bench might be the best in the league.

Sloppy Q1. We routinely cut down our turnovers in the 2nd half, so keeping this one close and dominating the boards should still be enough.

I don’t really like Rick Carlisle as a color guy because everything he says is a tease. “3 point shooting is weapon. We’ll talk more about it.” And on to some fluff comment from the play by play guy. Adds 0 to the game. Plus, for a coach, his insight is amazingly cliched. “Bringing in a guy like Ben Wallace will add some toughness in the playoffs.” Why not just talk about the weather? We’ll all spoiled by JVG.

Yikes! Hedo blew right past the much smaller Devin Brown.

Lebron laying on his back behind the bench is worrisome. If we can hang with the Magic for a stretch of the 2nd quarter without him, I’d be fine not bringing him back out in the 3rd. He’s not as loose as he’d like and trying to explode through that just means the risk of worsening the injury.

This should definitely be a live blog. That fact that I’m typing all this in notepad doesn’t do anybody a lick of good. Then again, I doubt too many folks are stopping by mid-game. Do people like live blogs?

“If the Pistons could have a do over of last year, they would take the ball out of Lebron James’s hands.” I’m starting to hate Rick Carlisle.

Lebron is back in. Let’s keep an eye on how much he moves on both ends.

Wally has seemed steadily assertive. As in, he’ll get his minutes, if the shots are falling, he’ll keep shooting, and he could well average 12 per the rest of the way. What I think nobody realized was that Wally isn’t really a 3 point shooter. From me to Mike Brown, we all looked for him to a be another stand in the corner and wait guy, but he’s really more like Rip Hamilton, using screens and hitting mid-range jumpers. Just the sort of offensive player that commands some attention from the defense. If he develops some chemistry with Lebron where Lebron keeps his dribble working on wing while Wally uses a curl around the back, Lebron should do a great job of anticipating the defense reacting to Wally and exploiting that for a quick drive to the hoop.

As for that last point… Does Mike Brown draw up any plays?

We’re finishing the 2nd quarter strong. Moving the ball and moving without the ball has gotten us a number of easy shots the last 2 minutes, and making the defense pay attention has given Lebron a few one on one opportunities and lanes to the hoop.

(I hope the halftime show is the pig play Ori and I caught once up a time.)

The announcers are commenting on Dwight Howard having only 2 and 2 – after starting the 2nd half with a rebound. This is after averaging 25 and 13 against us the previous 3 games. When was the last time a star had an abysmal game against the Cavs?

We’re starting the 3rd with a lot more sloppy play. I don’t have the stats for it at hand, but I’d guess that if we start and finish the 3rd with a lead, we win an overwhelming amount. However, I’d guess we give away a lot of 3rd quarter leads, and lose far too many of those games. In other words, if we can put together a string of solid possessions to keep this lead, we’re looking good, but if we put in our usual poor 3rd, I’d bet against us.

Z finally gets us on the board, 3:28 into the 3rd. Our offense is running a lot more pick and roll and post sets, compared to a number of off the ball screens (really, a good mix) in the first half.

Dwight Howard doesn’t seem explosively decisive. When he gets it in the post, he turns, hesitates, then springs up. No spins, no elbow hooks, no lateral movement. Is it him or is it us?

I just decided I’m rooting for Memphis to go all the way. Lebron missed a free throw, making him 3-6 on the day. Everybody picked against Memphis because they don’t hit free throws, so they’re a college version of us. Which means we should just put Derrick Rose on the Cavs rather than go through the draft process.

We’re not getting nearly as many offensive rebounds this half. Of course, it’s very noticeable because nothing is falling. It looks like Orlando is crashing harder with 3 or 4 guys, having just 1 leak out, and it’s working. Still, we’re plus 20 tonight. Thank you ESPN for the timely graphic.

Pat Garrity with the season high in scoring. That’s what you expect against the Cavs.

Lebron James is very good friends with everybody. Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, everybody who comes through town. Can we just rename the Cavs “Superfriends” and get them all in uniform? If my friends and I were capable of an absolute dynasty, I think we’d swallow a little individual pride to do it.

Remember how we finished the 2nd quarter strong? Up to 15 turnovers… But the defense has been contesting and we’re still dominating the boards.

On to the 4th with a 3 point lead. I’ll predict this one going down to the wire. We’ve been too sloppy to expect us to clamp down and execute.

About our bench again, right now we have Boobie, Andy, Joe and Wally out there with Lebron. Is that lineup any worse than Delonte, Devin, Ben and Z?

Rick Carlisle just said he wouldn’t want to play Philadelphia in a first round series AND he wouldn’t want to play them in a 2nd round series. Well then! I sure hope the Cavs don’t see them until the conference finals.

I’m definitely not going to say he’s been a liability or that he’s costing us the game, but as he goes to 5-17, Lebron is clearly unable to take over. I’d like to put the onus on the rest of the team to win this one for Lebron. Take him out.

There goes the lead, as we’ve started both the 3rd and 4th ice cold.

First points 4:03 in to the 4th. Z again. Lean on him the rest of the way, damnit.

DirecTV box just froze. This greatly displeases me…

And the game is back on just in time for me to see Delonte miss consecutive free throws. Why do I feel like this is going to get worse before it gets better?

… We’re not getting any good looks, we’re putting them on the line over and over agian, and Lebron isn’t coming to the rescue.

And the deficit is double digits. Hedo is a poor Turkish man’s Lebron, as he does it all in the 4th quarter. Since Lebron is a hobbled old homeless man’s Lebron today, that’s enough for the Magic to kick us to the curb.

Ugh. Lebron ended up 1-7 in the 4th tonight, leaving him 1-12 for 4 points in the past 2 games. As a team, the Cavs are 10-46 in the 4th between the Bulls and Magic games. That’s not the Cavs way.

So now the Magic have clinched the 3rd spot. We’re still 2.5 ahead of Philly and Washington for the 4th spot. We’re mostly healthy, but still need to get over that hump. We’ve shown signs of great movement on offense and suffocating defense for stretches.

We’re off until Wednesday, when we take on a Nets team that is just realizing there is no playoffs. Rest up.

Go Cavs!