10 Reason the Celtics Will / Won't Beat the Magic

[PosImpos]

My friend wrote this and sent it to me in a Facebook message.  It was a nice read, so I figured I'd post it here.  I'm gonna edit it for language, but if I miss anything I apologize.

10 reasons the Celtics will beat the Magic


1. The Celtics actually look the way they're supposed to. We didn't just beat the Cavs, we demolished them proving not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the league that LeBron can be stopped. I think LeBron will see tougher one on one defense from this point forward until he develops that intimidation factor.

2. The defense is thanks to a healthy (finally) Kevin Garnett, but let us not forget that second to Dwight Howard in All-NBA Defense Team votes was Rajon Rondo.

3. Speaking of Rajin' Rajon - Holy crap. He's clearly the best player on this team. We beat Cleveland with pretty much no help from Pierce (he only averaged 13.5 against the Cavs). Although Nelson has been phenomenal for Orlando, no player has been better for any one team through the first two rounds as Rajon, averaging 18p, 11a, 6r, and 2s a game.

4. Ray's got the touch back from downtown. Although the Celtics can't compete with the Magic from deep, they can finally add in their own variety of long-range bombs. Ray's shooting over 40% in the playoffs, and Paul Pierce (reigning three point champion, which I'm still incredulous that that actually happened during all-star break) is still above his career three point average of 36%. And anything we get from Rondo (6-15) and Wallace (5-13) is just gravy.

5. TA! How about that dunk?

6. The bench is playing like a bench - they're giving us energy. Even Rasheed. TA did a great job against LBJ and gave us something we didn't expect - offense. Big Baby came in and gave us rebounding and scoring and gave us something we didn't expect - defense, no one talked about it but when he guarded Jamison he completely shut him down with pure effort.

7. Kendrick Perkins proved last year that we won't need to double team Dwight. He can take him one on one for most of the game, plus a mixture of Shelden Williams (just to foul) and two seasoned defenders who will know WHEN to foul in Garnett & Wallace - Dwight's only shooting 49% from the Charity Stripe this postseason.

8. Size-wise we can beat them. LA gives teams so much trouble because of the combination of Pau & Bynum, well Perk & KG are pretty big as well. Perk and Dwight are almost the same size, and KG is way bigger than Rashard Lewis - and we saw what KG did to Jamison.

9. Vince Carter is no Hedo Turkoglu. I understand that Jameer Nelson is back and better than ever, but when he's out of the game (and there's no way he'll play 40+ minutes trying to hang with Rondo) and Rondo's in the game - the Magic are screwed. Both Anthony Johnson & J-Will are veteran point guards - that can't handle full court pressure from either Rondo or TA. Also: Rondo Rondo Rondo Rondo Rondo - he's not afraid of being blocked, don't expect him to play like Mike Bibby or Raymond Felton - he will attack Dwight early and often.

10. We still have the secret weapon. Although Nate Robinson is playing less than anyone expected, he is more than capable have having a twenty point game in this postseason.



10 reasons the Magic will beat the Celtics


1. Dwight & the boys haven't lost since April 2nd.

2. Kevin Garnett may have one DPOY in 2008, but Dwight's won the last two, with overwhelming numbers.

3. Stan Van Gundy has been the best coach in the playoffs thus far, sure the team's 8-0 record helps that, but it's the WAY they've been winning which brings us to number four...

4. The Magic have outscored their opponents in the playoffs by 140. One hundred and forty points. 140! They're winning these games by an average of 17.5 points.

5. I know that Charlotte can't score. And some could argue that Joe Johnson didn't show up in the series, but it's Orlando's defense that deserves the credit, I'm sick of all this talk of teams losing a playoff series - in order for one team to lose, one also has to win. The Magic held Joe Johnson to 12.8 points per game and Stephen Jackson & Gerald Wallace to 4 points less per game than the regular season.

6. The Magic might be all three pointers - but they broke the NBA regular season record for most threes in a season.

7. Jameer Nelson is healthy. In fact the Magic are entirely healthy. They may not have more talent than the Celtics or the Lakers (although this is debatable, with Howard and Lewis/Nelson/Carter - all of whom have been All Stars) but they're the team that is built the best. When Howard rests they bring in Marcin Gortat who Charles Barkley claims is the best backup center in the league. Meaning - Gortat is nowhere near as dominant as Howard, but he allows the Magic to continue with their gameplan. They don't have to adjust the way they play for anybody. In fact, this season the Magic shot 27.3 threes a game this season. They shot only 2.1 threes more a game when Dwight Howard was in foul trouble. And he's in foul trouble a lot.

8. Matt Barnes is this team's utility man. He's their James Posey or Lamar Odom. He goes out and defends whoever with the same intensity every night and, although he's actually shooting the worst three-point percentage on the team, is a knockdown shooter. Repeat: Matt Barnes has the lowest three point field goal percentage on the team. That's messed up.

9. The team has, without a doubt, the best chemistry, and a lot of that is thanks to Dwight Howard. He brings all of the members of the team everywhere. They spend all of their time together, and it shows up on the court.

10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TkLRRgatIQ


Overall - I still believe it's wishful thinking for the Celtics to upset the Magic. No one though we could beat the Cavs - but we just found out their true colors. The Magic are scary, but I'm confident that this series will be an excellent one for any true basketball fan. I love defense. And that's what this is going to be all about.

[PosImpos]

Here's my response:

I won't make up my own lists, but I'll make some responses:

Response 1) The Suns have better chemistry than any other team in the playoffs, including the teams already eliminated. I'd put the Thunder after them. The Magic do seem to have great chemistry, but the Celtics seem to be back to their Ubuntu ways. Having the heart of a champion means more than being great friends and hanging out all the time anyway.

Response 2) The Magic demolished the first two teams they faced. Give them credit for that. But the two teams they beat weren't very good playoff teams, and the Hawks were clearly out of focus and disjointed in that series. They just wanted the season to be over. I think something happened with them halfway through the Bucks series and they didn't want to play after that. They only won in the first round because they had a little bit of pride left. The Celtics spent the first two rounds defending the best players in the game, and are coming off defeating the #1 overall seed led by the MVP. The Cavs definitely were dealing with their own internal issues (plus the infamous elbow) during the series, but the Celtics have overcome a lot more than the Magic have to get to where they are now.

Response 3) Matt Barnes is not James Posey, and he's no where freaking close to Lamar Odom. That said, I like him. But SVG is kinda crazy to have him cover Ray Allen (that's his plan supposedly). Barnes is not fast enough to keep up with Ray. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

Response 4) With KG getting back to his '08 form, I don't see how Rashard has the advantage in that matchup. He's not an ideal cover for KG, but if KG is really getting back even close to where he was 2 years ago there isn't a PF in this league who he can't guard and abuse on offense. According to Jackie McMullen KG was told he'd take a year to recover fully from his surgery, and it's almost a year since his surgery (May 26).

Response 5) SVG is a very good coach, but you have to give credit to Doc. Doc is doing a masterful job in this post-season. The fact that the Celtics, somehow, actually managed to "flip the switch" after playing like crap for most of the season has to be thanks in large part to his leadership. I LOVED his timeout towards the end of Game 6 vs. Cleveland... "I know you all wanna win, but you have to do it TOGETHER!" That was epic.

Response 6) Sorry, but the only reason Nate Robinson will play is if it's a blowout situation. It's a bad thing if he's on the floor - unless it's the end of a quarter with only a few seconds left on the clock and Doc is putting his 3 point shooters on the floor. Michael Finley, on the other hand, has a chance to maybe hit a few big shots in limited minutes if the starters need a rest and TA is already on the floor or there's foul trouble or something.

Response 7) I'm not afraid of Jameer Nelson or Vince Carter. As you outlined, Jameer has been playing well but Rondo has been playing better. Rondo will get a great opportunity to prove that he deserved to make the All-NBA Defensive Team. Vince Carter hasn't been this far in the playoffs before, and he will actually have to play defense against a great scorer. Paul Pierce is not going to have the same trouble against Orlando that he had when he was being covered by LeBron. Let's see if Vince can handle him. As for Pierce, after covering LeBron (and doing a great job, surprisingly), I expect him to feel pretty good about his ability to cover Vince.

Response 8 ) If we get Dwight in foul trouble consistently, we win the series. If we don't get killed on the boards, we win the series. If we defend the perimeter and the Magic don't get super hot, we win the series. There are a lot of ways for the Celtics to give themselves a great chance at victory in this series. The Magic have a very solid and obvious gameplan, but it can also be shut down if played right.

Overall, I think the two teams are pretty evenly matched, but if the Celtics continue to play like they've been playing, and they stay healthy, they will win the series. Unless the Magic get super hot from behind the arc, or the Celtics start looking more like the regular season Celtics and less like the team that beat the Cavs - then it's probably the Magic's series to lose. But I believe in this team now. They look like they have that championship fire back, and KG looks ready to win and hungry. As good as I know the Magic are, I can't help thinking that they took 7 games to beat us last year when we were missing our most important piece. Rondo is our best player, but KG makes everything possible. He's the heart of our team. We're a totally different group with him on the floor. I believe.