That win last night was very much so needed for my mental health. And although it was very back and forth I had a lot of confidence the magic could pull it off. Although Dunn is pretty special he’s not really a traditional point guard and when the ball isn’t spread out well enough you really start to see problems on both ends of the floor. And yes although at times I was convinced it was back to the 9 seed, the magic executed very well down the stretch, and Terrence Ross broke out of his shell finally and started going crazy. A lot of action on the court later on in the game that allowed him to just be all over the court looking for an opportunity to catch and shoot. A big anchor point for this magic team is obviously the 4 and 5, and they have been getting their touches but creating off them has been happening a lot less and that’s honestly a shame, Vucci can draw a lot of attention almost at anytime that can really free up space to shoot, there’s just no real patience anymore with the offense. But listen, as long as wins can be racked up at this point, there’s no need to even mention how Fournier should be dumped.

If a 22-2 run to start the game isn’t enough proof that the starting 5 on your team could be shaken up a bit then honestly, I may have to hop ship. Just go NFL style and just be a fan of the sports because this Magic team is just bull shit. Piled up, stored away, ready for the fields cow shit. Crusty old and get in the cracks of your shoes dog shit. Last night through stretches of the second quarter our offense dissolved into Fournier catching the ball and attacking pick and rolls. In which he took midrange jumpers mostly, in 99% sure I saw the Blazers hifiving while they were on defense because of this. This isn’t even the first game like this of the season where being in the game is out of the question with 42 minutes still left to play. It’s honesty disrespectful at this point, the Magic organization has to think the fans are just complete idiots and they don’t understand what is going on. They are going to throw the same team out there for the next one too and I just pray we are playing a bottom feeder. I don’t need ass whoopings in my life.

What another incredible night of going chalk in Orlando. A team who’s probably got more talent and more hopes for the season ends up walking away with the victory. Honestly if I didn’t enjoy basketball so much the games wouldn’t even need to be watched. I will say last night was very back and forth and we played at a pretty high level at times, the only issue becomes execution when you need a basket. When you live off these created shots all the time that are chancey, you get the same results when it’s comes down to it down the stretch to close a game, and there arent many guys with enough talent and nuts who can go out there and create and make the shots it would take to win an NBA game from night to night. The magic for sure do not have one of the those guys, right now they have an athletic powerhouse who they can’t even get consistently involved and make successful from night to night. It’s honestly a blessing we have to play the eastern conference more than the west because the talent drought is real, even in Orlando, and at this point we need to take advantage of the Cavs as many times as we can get them. If you’re the magic though it has to be an obvious that guys who attack through the middle of the paint all stacked up with guys who aren’t the most consistent hands from the three ball just isn’t a recipe to win. Especially in 7 game series any team is going to know to fluster the ball handler force the cross court passes where the man is on an island and go allow him to take a tough shot. More times then not the shit doesn’t go in, see our just above 40% last night.

Orlando is just a dumpster fire full of bipolar crazy fans. It’s a crazy world to be apart of and it may be left up to me to clean up the streets around here.

Why does watching magic basketball actually really hurt my brain? Much like last game where they were able to float their raft on the three ball for probably only the third time this season, they went into the game with the Jazz wanting to do the exact same. It’s literally amazing how quickly they crashed and burned in the offense with that mentality. What hurts more is going down the stretch that ends the game the magic work the game down to a spot that’s almost respectable, then a Tross 3 with 19 seconds on the shot clock bricks, and the Jazz transition down for an easy bucket.

Listen I love Isaac as much as everyone, but you can’t be shouting DPOY, and have the two guys you’re on and off guarding just go out and torch you. 30 from the 3 spot isn’t good, although his plus minus was good. Listen I know at this point I am a complete broken record, but this team is made up so poorly and guys being effective on this team means they almost all need to be in the same spot, and at this point in the season there is just absolutely no need for it.

I bought 6 lottery tickets and instead of me being able to win back anything at all, God put all the luck in the Magic hitting 50% of their threes tonight. They only have probably 4 more games where something like this happens so you have to cherish these nights when you get them. Although it stinks how the shots go in suddenly no one on the team then wants to play defense. It’s sad, anytime we can’t get anything going we muck the games up bad but tonight we got really lazy on the defensive end. If we want any home of making anything happening we are going to have to be consistent on the defensive side of the ball.

I am excited to see what Briscoe does for this magic team, I for sure can see him coming in and really being able to make a path for himself in the league.

As entertaining as last night was with a 54 point performance, it’s a solid reminder that our scrappy defense that just tries to collapse on anyone who pressures may be a bad thing when it comes down to being competitive because switches happen often in it, and there are teams in this league with snipers. There aren’t many teams where guys will go off the dribble like that and be able to get space whenever they want it, I can think of maybe 4. But honestly James harden was carving us up once he got into pick and rolls too, he was throwing hook passes and having all sorts of different fun with the magic.

For those of you blowing Fournier right now, and obviously aren’t watching him on the defensive end, it’s sad. This man is not going to be someone who will be on a magic roster that’s a championship team, shit the way the team is being ran now they may never have a team that is a championship team. Spacing of the floor isn’t horrible but the floor is like super glue, and it seems as if it’s impossible for anyone to really get moving, especially when the ball gets in Fournier hands. At this point our young guys have showed some pretty good progress in ways but honestly Clifford sucks at rotations and players minutes management and it’s something that is going to plague this magic team.

Last night the basket world didn’t get a set a blaze or anything nuts like that, but I did have the opportunity to catch a couple of games last night and a couple things did really stand out. First, Luka Doncic has the ball in his hands so damn much constantly jockeying with defenders, and it doesn’t make sense why people don’t bitch about him, but the dude literally sees an inch of daylight and immediately wants to get the shot up. Off any screen as long as the person is literally just a second off, the shot is going up. This god damn wonderchild has body feints like you wouldn’t believe either and much like the affect AD had on me when he went for 50, it just stinks to see someone he so uplifting around the league and then think about the magic.

But the story from last night is how great of a game this Boston and Philly game was. You couldn’t have asked for me to come out of the game to be honest, tons of reviews over the tiniest plays, flopping like you haven’t seen before, but overall some very structured offense and guys who were very locked in over a basketball game. Although it’s a fairly big difference in who goes in at the 5s, Kanter was working his ass off last night and honestly he left a pretty good impression on me. He was always trying to be first down the floor, especially when he knew Embiid was lumbering. The Boston young guard group kind of disappointed last night but Kamba was electric. The main thing was that bling from the line Ben Simmons somehow has the stones to be fouled and just put the game out of reach. With a minute to go in the first there are spots on the court he might not hit the rim from, it’s nice that when it counts he’s a dude ready to finish, I’ll root for anyone who can put their heart in it and make it happen.

At this point, if things really aren’t going to change and I have to live with this season like this, I can finally come away with a positive. As much as beating who you’re supposed to beat and losing who you’re supposed to lose to sucks, the magic defense is good enough that it really can make any offense turn into an offense that looks as bad as ours at times. I really just watched AD go for 50 on no threes, and tonight the lakers never even looked like they would scratch 100.

At the end of the day what hurts is it honestly sucks to have no offensive fire what so ever. We have a guy who randomly throughout guys gets hard shot to go, and we have a guy who needs a lot of touches to get comfy throughout a year and some guys who are big and underwhelming with the ball in their hands. I honestly am in complete belief there is no way I have to watch a full season of this, and once my prayer is answered on this I will sleep so much easier.

There is a team in Florida that has been doing what I’ve been red in the face bitching about all season. They have a very structured offense predicated off getting downhill fast, looking to get the bigs involved early in times that they have inside position, or in times where they’ve gotten the defense to switch, but most importantly they don’t live by the three point shot, they shoot that thing when they honestly have the defense completely out of whack and when it’s been swung around to make them that way. They don’t have any forced shots hardly at all, and the offense doesn’t force guys who are generally underwhelming at being consistent to go and work their asses off to find a shot. The thing that ties everything together is they have a strong as hell ball handler, who honestly can get to where he needs one of two ways, and although he is shifty and quick generally he doesn’t need to use it often. Jimmy Butler has such incredible body control it honestly is incredible, and those mother fuckers down south last night had me so into a basketball game I had to remind myself multiple times it wasn’t just any game I was watching, it was a team I’m supposed to hate with a lot of my passion. The thing that sucks is they actually have a goddamn fun basketball team that doesn’t need to blow up the house in order to be a team I feel confident in saying can compete. I mean they have Duncan Robinson playing up and hitting big shots when needed, this team is just working miracles. At the end of the day. The magic may never be able to build a team who can weather storms like the heat did last night if they keep Clifford around, the man just places a blob formation out there around the three point line and just has guys figure it out..

I honestly couldn’t come away with more mixed emotions then what I did yesterday. Although while there were glaring issues at moments of the game, all while doing a good job of at times battling through and giving everyone hope. The three ball could not fall what so ever, another 30% night, and really even though we forced turnovers, we turned it over more than we forced it. Yes though, it was a game, there were times I felt like the game could be won, now it wasn’t exactly right up until the end of the fourth that I felt like that, but it was a lot of the second half that looked so good. Honestly, at this point if we are going to be rolling with this team for the rest of the season I need to have these guards stop taking so many of the shots honestly, I wish it were the 3s and beyond taking more volume of the shots just purely for development. And I don’t mean three balls either, a lot of room to get these guys working down hill, or even getting switches onto JI and allowing him to work on his back to the basket and scoring on smaller guys. Although Fultz didn’t really shoot it well, he stayed going down hill for the most part and I tell you, if we can get that out of him every night and just get him to have a little feel for how the floor is structured, and we really do have a point guard for the future. I still believe honestly we have a fairly big collection of guys who at the end of the day aren’t going to be who we need to win, but I can admit, at one point I didn’t even believe this team would have even the ability to make rise up to where they are now and how they are playing. Maybe they can keep the uptrend working but honestly if we just go through another year of mediocre magic basketball I will start protests outside of amway.