Honestly last night is a beautiful story of wondering exactly which bounce you’re gonna get. The magic got exactly 0 last night. It’s amazing how you can out score a team in three quarters all of which aren’t the first and you still aren’t able to win. I’m not sure what is up with the recent trend of forwards getting busy on the magic but I am hoping that is something that is cleaned up very soon. At this point Clifford has got to go. This guy is absolutely horrible. The managing of minutes has been absolutely pathetic and the Magic’s offensive execution at this point is so wishy washy it’s horrible. It seems like just coming into the game it’s impossible to tell what the game plan is going to be. Especially coming off successful games in a row where AG is so alive inside and creating havoc, then come to last night and through the first quarter the Dude was hardly even giving himself the opportunity to look for a catch. The magic just need to consistently work everyone to the point where they can be successful. The magic for sure may not get swept round 1 though, it may be a 5 game series.

Honestly last night is a beautiful story of wondering exactly which bounce you’re gonna get. The magic got exactly 0 last night. It’s amazing how you can out score a team in three quarters all of which aren’t the first and you still aren’t able to win. I’m not sure what is up with the recent trend of forwards getting busy on the magic but I am hoping that is something that is cleaned up very soon. At this point Clifford has got to go. This guy is absolutely horrible. The managing of minutes has been absolutely pathetic and the Magic’s offensive execution at this point is so wishy washy it’s horrible. It seems like just coming into the game it’s impossible to tell what the game plan is going to be. Especially coming off successful games in a row where AG is so alive inside and creating havoc, then come to last night and through the first quarter the Dude was hardly even giving himself the opportunity to look for a catch. The magic just need to consistently work everyone to the point where they can be successful. The magic for sure may not get swept round 1 though, it may be a 5 game series.

I already know how many morons are writing the “thank you dwade” piece when it comes to how AG has been playing. Honestly, all praise needs to go to Clifford. This man has a whole new aggression and what’s amazing is he isn’t making his catches on the three point line to take out these frustrations. He’s catching 10 feet from the basket now and getting in real deep. The game plan last night was he went a lot of the times through chests. Especially a couple of times the post move didn’t really get any body but he was still in tight and strong enough to be able to finish. Honestly too this dude has came out and played with some pretty decent vision. Last night he had a play where he floated from the elbow to the top of the key had Naz Reid late in rotation and as the ball came to him he touch passed perfectly to the block to Markelle who’s wide open. Honestly pair him with Bamba who usually doesn’t get the hose like he did last night and honestly these guys are going to a be a problem inside. Teams will have to commit at least two guys maybe more for the duo and it’s something that the magic have in their back pocket that seems more and more like its coming to life.

Mo Bamba walked away with a 15-10 night and honestly that’s not even close to the reason that Magic fans fell in love tonight. This man was a RIM PROTECTOR. He was treating Jeff Teague as if he was a little kid honestly. What’s even better is he was displaying a lot of range. Anytime he caught in space he gave the defense a serious scare. Who gave me the real scare last night and shocked the hell out of me though was JC. He was getting busy, and being efficient as hell about it as well. He was strong on D for the most part and it felt like his hands were all over it. It shows how much we struggle to confident guards though because Trae young still walked away with a 0 +\- so it wasn’t anyone out there who beat Trae.

It’s honestly amazing how many guys who are really good at basketball are unhappy with where they are at. Lavine in Chicago pissed about Boylan and his incredible plan where he only likes to really coach when this look very bad. Or Brad Beal scores 50 and is only left being able to shake his head in disbelief at a loss. Julius Randle may not be upset in the public but this dude is all over the stat sheet in 29 minutes and is absolutely adding up to nothing. These things hurt when you have guys just zapping your teams chemistry and are shooting very inconsistently all while playing no defense. I can’t believe there couldn’t be one single deal found for the Magic to pull at least one of these guys who put their heart out there and let it be known that winning is the only goal they plan to achieve. Fournier has came with some different fire I will admit since the all star break, he has seemed really bought it, but I just can’t shake the bad taste and I think with the way the magic have dumped players it’s not a bad time to move on.

Honesty for the first time in my life I would like to thank statistics for ever existing. This man Tross came off the bench last night and in the second half of that game he just started going crazy. Jamming shit hard as hell, moved real well without the ball. Luckily Tross exists because that first half that was played was so damn miserable, and to be honest not a lot of people really got that much going in the second half as well. The defense is pitiful, our help defense strategy is to just foul. Guys get in the paint at will and honestly rotations sometimes aren’t even communicated. But all that matters is scoring more than the other team and I’ll be damned if the Magic didn’t do a fantastic job of just that.

So let’s just be honest. There were some stretches last night where Ol EF looked like a lethal scorer. Vucci every once in a while was getting real strong in deep. AG could have been more aggressive but honestly he looked about like I excepted with an offense that gets as stale as it gets. But enough positives, the Magic were guarding nobody last night. Maxi Kleeber was knocking down 26 footers just because the basket at that point looked so big for everyone on the Mavericks from getting no resistance. The amway centers prices last night were bull shit for how absolutely dead it was, and honestly I wish there was a scenario where the magic start kicking it up and give someone a run for their money this postseason but damn I just can’t set myself up for failure too much more this season. It’s getting to become too hard. TRoss has really pained my heart this year, I thought he would look like Lou Will and I’m being so serious that the pain is all coming back again. I had a great break but it’s whatever because all I could think about is how the magic just aren’t getting better.

If the magic do not find some damn consistency within some upcoming games that they can find a way to work around and build on. The way the magic literally split the game between two quarters or decent offense and 2 quarters of absolute Polk county trash. I can’t be the only one who noticed that the magic are a lot more effective when having a guard get feet into the paint off the dribble. It’s amazing how it’s not mandintory to screen until the corner can be rounded and you can put the defense in a situation to make decisions just as well as you need to. The passing around the perimeter literally puts no stress on anyone. Honestly there are some times the magic make it easier on the defense with some horrible decision making passing, but honestly going into the all star break with a win is an absolute blessing with how ho and down that game we played was. It’s never a fun sign when Reggie Jackson is getting in your kitchen and cooking up.

The magic actually had a very respectable offensive performance last night? It might be the most amazing feeling in the world being able to come off a win and say that. I think this is the 7th time they’ve scored more than 120, which really hurts to say but atleast they can showcase they have it in them. What’s incredible about this magic team is that in route to scoring 120, pretty close to 80 of those points came in the second half. If you don’t find that as amazing as I do I do not believe you’ve been watching this magic team. It makes sense this would be the team of extreme hots and colds but honestly last night was a new level. I was very very happy with AGs play, as much as he still is taking jumpers he keeps finding himself to be more and more aggressive and at this point it’s just a waiting game for Vucc to get back to being super strong in the post.

The basketball that was on this weekend from the college the the pros was absolutely a blessing. Then to top everything off that we were able to give witness to, literally we got the basketball game of the first half of the season yesterday. The Jazz and rockets did nothing but go back and forth all night literally until the last second. Even more beautiful it was the road team who came in and left with a stunner. If you’re RoCo you still gotta be satisfied because you stepped up and completed your part, but damn Bogey just stole the show yesterday. The one thing I really want to note is everyone has been giving this rockets team shit for their decisions but they still have the buy out, as well as they aren’t doing all that damn bad at managing their rotations. As a unit all 5 guys move just as fast as the ball if not faster on defense and each and every person who sees the floor can keep a person in front with active hands. Last night they had Gobert at -6. It’s obviously something that’s very different but speed in this league can always also be your best friend so I don’t see anything wrong in maybe having some faith in this rockets team. Having to guard all guys from the 1-5 who are able to find a shot if needed is going to be a nightmare for coaches, especially those who have big money in the post. Which aren’t the magic you need to worry about because our big money in the post loves being everywhere else.