I do not want this season to end, under any circumstance. I am so in love, enamored, and otherwise blown away by this NBA Postseason, despite the fact that my C's were removed by the powerhouse Magic.
There are a few ways of looking at the Orlando Magic run:
"Ah man, if the C's had just beaten the Magic, we'd be in the Finals now!"
I don't subscribe to this one at all. I think that the biggest crime in all of this, and it's because Lebron is too good, too powerful, too agile, too much of a media machine, but the biggest crime is that people aren't embracing the Magic in all of this, and I'll get to that a bit more later. But I do not agree that if the Celtics had won one of their 2 final games and advanced, that they'd be in the finals. I look at what the C's had left, how many minutes Scalabrine was playing, how little presence they had in the paint on defense...it doesn't add up.
I've preached this before, and I'll preach it again, but the glory of a 7 game series to decide a winner is that each series is a season unto itself. Amazing patterns of substitution develop, streaks that are 2-3 games long feel like eternity. Take a guy like Joe Smith - he was virtually invisible in the Cle/Orl series, but you have no idea what he may have done against the C's. Maybe the matchups would have dictated 8-12 open jumpers for Joe Smith a game, and he'd hit 4-5 a game, and then he'd be a bench scorer.
The only way this argument can be compelling, and possibly accurate, is that I have zero faith in Mike Brown to make the right decisions. Wally Szczerbiak shouldn't have played in this series, Sasha was a better answer and Sasha is terrible. Mike Brown refused to make adjustments, and maybe the C's would have prevailed. However, Lebron is so good at completely shutting down Pierce, Ray Allen wasn't hitting open shots, and if you are left with Perkins as your main, and possibly only, scorer, you are in trouble. Don't give me "Rondo", I am boycotting talking about him this summer.
"Boy, do I feel good about losing to the Magic, given how easily they beat the Cavs...it feels better to lose to a team that makes the finals..."
This is something I partially subscribe to. See above regarding matchups, I don't think that the C's/Magic series has any bearing on potential outcomes of a C's/Cavs or Magic/Cavs series. I generally don't take any comfort in the fact that the team that beat us advances, really, who cares? Garnett is having surgery, that fact is more important to me than almost anything right now, outside of actual game play on the court in the Finals. I find it trivial to embrace the advancement of other teams as a way of justifying your own excitement for your own team.
"The Magic made it this far, but they are going to get killed by the Lakers"
Shut up. This is the murky place of prediction that everyone falls into nowadays. I like predicting, it's fun, but to do so with any conviction at this point is so embarrassing. People ask me all the time, "do you think (x,y,z)?" in Sports, and I hate answering it now. I don't know. I can tell you 4 reasons why I think X will happen, 3 reasons why I think Y will happen, and 9 reasons why I think Z will happen. I can't prescribe weights to any of those thoughts, they all exist together. Embrace the games, watch them, love them. Lets see who wins, and then we'll have something else to put in our memory banks when we say, "remember how awesome the '09 Postseason was?"
"The Orlando Magic are incredible."
Here it is - this one right here is where my head is at, completely. First of all, it is no secret that I thought the Cavs were going to win it all. I saw a chemistry on this team all year, a team that lost 2 games at home, (really, one...) and a team leader who I cannot gush over any more. If you were to be reasonable about all of this, you would have agreed with me that the Cavs were the team to beat. Its just logic.
This Orlando team had it's first amazing postseason moment when it was faced with a suspended Dwight Howard for Game 6 of the first round against Philadelphia. Going back to Philly, they were staring down a 3-3 series tie in the first round, something that C's fans know how much tension can build around that. The first amazing moment was their victory without Dwight, in a playoff game, against a team with very athletic big men. They actually won handily, and put themselves in great shape to face the C's.
The 2nd round was a huge eye opener. This team isn't soft, as I thought they were all season. The Golden State Warriors for the past 8 years have been soft. The Suns, you can argue, have been soft from time to time. I was mistaking a fast paced, 3 pt. shooting team for a soft one, and I was incorrect. Their team was built for the playoffs. This roster of large, athletic, quick, and fantastic shooting SF's and PF's, combined with the amazing intensity, skill, and domination of Dwight Howard, was built to win 16 playoff games as much as it was built to win 65 Regular Season games.
Dwight blew my mind last night. In the biggest game of his career, he dominated. We saw in the Celtics series how ineffective he could be on offense. I have a lot of respect for Zydrunas Ilgauskus, he may be one of the only Cavs I'd want on my team, even at his age (wow, did Mike Brown really not use him well...)...but Dwight punished him all night. 40 points, 14 rebounds. In a game 6 they HAD to win. Can you believe that?
The Media, the Press, the Fans, we all need to look at the Magic for what they are. They are a team, at the start of the playoffs who had no business of winning 3 series, to be honest. They had to beat the 1 and 2 seeds in the conference, and they did it. They had to exorcise demons of being unable to close out games, which they did. They developed a weapon, an offensive system, unlike any other, in the 3 point shot.
But they also found a remarkable chemistry during this playoff. Jameer Nelson impresses me so much (remember how they get Jameer back next year?) He is the one, after the C's game 4 in which Dwight moaned about touches, who reached out to Dwight and told him to get his act together. Jameer's presence on the sideline sorta speaks to the team, I think. I fully believe they all just wanna win, and it starts with Van Gundy. Seriously, that may sound silly, but I don't think the Lakers "just" want to win. Jackson wants to pass Auerbach...Kobe wants so desperately his own trophy...Gasol really just wants women, its so obvious...who the hell knows what Vujacic and Bynum want, because they can't seem to make sense of themselves...
Van Gundy is a beacon in this league, he is awesome. He is doing it his way. He is developing a system, a personal style, a "screw you" attitude that isn't offensive to us, maybe offensive to his players, but you cannot argue with his coaching at this point. He loves the way his team plays, he loves coaching, he loves his guys. He loves them.
At this point, if you're watching, and you don't have a stake in either team, root for the Magic, really. Orlando is doing what we all want to do: Overachieving. They are taking their skills, which are already an 8, working hard on them to make them a 9, and ramping up to turn them into a 10 - and they are going to need to be a 10 to beat the Lakers.
I'll leave you with one prediction...Dwight Howard is on the sidelines with Patrick Ewing. In the 1982 NCAA title game v. North Carolina, John Thompson told Ewing to make a statement, he didn't say more than that. Ewing goaltended the first FIVE shots for Georgetown....now you can say it was dumb, thats 10 free points, people argue all were going in anyway, but I think that its possible that Ewing, coaching Dwight, is going to remind him a statement needs to be made. Gasol cannot start Game 1 of the Finals with 3 low post moves for scores, Dwight, via the foul or the Goaltend, needs to send a message that the key is his, whether it is in the Staples Center, or at Amway. Its the only way they will win.
One other thing, I hate Anderson Varejao. I really hate him. I don't hate an athlete at this point like I hate him. I am so close to saying horrible personal things about him. He is the worst kind of person. He is one of those players that broadcasters love to say, "If he was on your team, you'd love him..." That statement, if I hear it one more time...
Do you realize that's a horrible way to think? It's the worst thing about pro sports. I hated, couldn't stand, and otherwise detested the stupid stuff Garnett was doing with his fingers, his palm, his mouth, his body language, during the playoffs this year. He looked like a jackass, and the moment they lost, it made me feel a bit vindicated, towards him, that he had to sit down and realize, "wow, we lost. I feel stupid." Hopefully he thought that.
But that's what's wrong with blind fellowship of a team. Lets really inspect the "If he was on your team, you'd love him," line. Okay, first, He made 5 million this year, and is going to make over 6 million next year. That is for a guy who has no self control on the defensive end - he has been given a free pass by officials, he reaches in every single time on big men in the post.
The minute he changes teams, or Lebron does, those will be fouls. I know, it's stupid, but its true. His hair really is what makes people like him, his hair and his insane loss of body control. Offensively, he is not more skilled than Big Baby or Leon Powe. Defensively, you could argue that the Green's 2 backup big men are better as well.
If we were to spend upwards of 6 million on him, I'd be furious. So, one thing I can say with conviction, aside from how much I hate how he cheats, is financially I do not want Varejao on my team.
People put Artest into this category, which is insane. If you are watching basketball, and you don't want him on your team already, then you are crazy. I don't want him on my team despite all his insanity, I want him on my team for that insanity. He is already overscrutinized by refs, he is already a target...Varejao is a guy that is given every free pass - and his skills are poor. Artest has remarkable skill, and is already under a microscope.
Either love a guy or hate a guy for his game, don't change the rules when they put on your uniform.
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