The Orlando Magic? Gee golly! Looks like central Florida's NBA franchise with a WNBA mascot wants a piece of us in the Eastern Conference Finals!
How exactly did Orlando get through the Celtics? I guess Dwight Howard dunked a bunch and they made just enough ridiculously ill-advised 3-pointers to win. I also bet Stan Van Gundy stopped pissing off his stars long enough to preach defense. Plus, you can only blow so many fourth quarter leads in one series.
I hate the way the Magic play. They (it?) are lazy on defense, relying on D12's shot-blocking too much. They shoot 500 treys a game and somehow make a lot of them. They don't push the tempo as much as they should. This team isn't going to out-scheme anybody. If they win, it's because they have more energy or they're more athletic.
I wasn't sure which team I wanted the Cavs to face in the conference finals. Slaughtering the Celtics in four or five games would be juicy sweet, and even without Kevin Garnett, you got the sense they were a better team than the Magic. On the other hand, Orlando plays that pre-Chauncy Billups Nuggets style, an infuriating concoction of ignorance of fundamentals and how-the-fuck-did-he-make-that shots. The old Nuggets gave the Cavs fits, and I bet this series goes at least six games because of it. But knocking out such a juvenile brand of basketball would give me great pleasure, too.
It is what it is. We have to go through Orlando to get to the Finals. Given the playoff intensity, it should be fun. Let's get this thing under way.
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