Credit Ron Jeremy for this one

[BballTim]

  They never go to Dwight Howard down the stretch like they should.

  Howard has a limited offensive game and isn't a good ft shooter. You can't count on him to score. Plus Perk's got his number.

[get_banners]

Yeah was about to comment about that aswell, Dwight took an abnormaly long time to actualy get to the post game press and when he did boy did he let SVG have it.

What did he say?

basically, he questioned the play calling. said they had the champs down, they had to hammer them, and instead, the plays were more to run the clock out. he said he didn't get enough touches (he didn't), saying that going into the post is a great way to stop the other team making a furious run (it is). also questioned some of the substitutions...seemed to say that whoever was giving you results, irrespective of whether they were starting or not, that's who you should stay with. whichever plays worked, stick with them. espnnews commentators immediately were like, oh snap, he just slammed his coach. he did. and SVG deserved it. plus, SVG basically complained about the refs in his post-game thing. because we totally got all the calls in this game. riiiiiiight. shaq was right about SVG.

[orrzor]

Van Gundy is just not a very good coach. Let's see what he did wrong:

1.) Left Howard in for the pass in at the end that Howard ended up having to get.
2.) He just doesn't get that Courtney Lee should be his starting SG. That's just dumb.
3.) He rides Hedo into the ground by never taking him out in the 4th and then runs plays for him at the end of the fourth when he's dead tired playing against a rested Pierce.
4.) His big/twin towers lineup worked great because the Celtics just can't defend it yet when it mattered he went to matchups against the C's smaller team late.
5.) His use of timeouts and when to take them and when not to is horrendous.
6.) He still hasn't figured out that every moment in this series where the Magic go to the paint, they dominate, and when they start chucking up threes, the C's dominate. After four full games you would have thought that would have sunk in by now.

I actually disagree about Ron's use of timeouts, at least for this game. He took a timeout every time it seemed like the Celtics were starting to put together a small run, and the crowd was getting loud, and the Magic usually came out pretty focused after the timeouts, usually scoring immediately.

Agree on all other points though, hopefully they hold up for game 6!

[Dybdal]

Bottom line of what he says boils down to this:

When your Star Player/Team Leader, comes out to a official press confrence and tells the press that he has had and will have continues arguments with his head coach about doing his job propperly and basicly calls it that this defeat was on his shoulders

Then there's something wrong, very very wrong with the Orlando Magic.

And the question he was asked wasnt aimed at getting this repons out of Dwight, he had it on his chest and regardless of the questions he got, he was going to tell the press about it, now thát says something i think.

Bonus: I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the Orlando locker-room, i dont doubt for a second that it got very loud in there.

[waltzero]

For anyone else who missed the big Shaqtus quotes during the regular season:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3953133

Reading that after tonight, all I can say is wow, has he been The Big Oracle yet?

With that rap hanging over him, ESPN may soon have the option to double down on Van Gundys. If the Magic just gave up on their coach, will they compete or fold in game 6, knowing that if they fold he'd be gone in days?

[nickagneta]

Van Gundy came out and said Game 4's loss was his fault because he drew up the double team defense on Pierce never thinking Pierce would pass to Baby. If that statement about his defense is true then the whole statement is true and Van Gundy lost Game 4 for the Magic.

I don't think there's any other way around it but to blame Game 5 on Van Gundy as his continued incompetence shone through once again in the fourth quarter as he seemed paralyzed with indecision and inaction as the Celtics made their run changing absolutely nothing and hoping the players would turn it around.

Then he goes and blames this loss on anybody but himself.

If the Magic roll over and play dead in Orlando on Thursday, the Magic ownership has to fire him.

[Drucci]

I think that, if the the Magic loses the series, Van Gundy will be fired. He often makes poor decisions (Lewis is unstoppable in this series and he doesn't get the ball in the 4th, expect to hit a brick!) and he seems to have lost (has he ever had it?) his players' confidence (see Howard's postgame comments or their general behaviour with Van Gundy).

[celticmaestro]

Isn't Ron Jeremy a p0rn star? I thought p0rn stars being mentioned was a strict no-no? Fair enough, I guess we've eased up a bit. Good to know for future reference.

As for SVG, he choked it. Shaq was right.

[BballTim]

I think that, if the the Magic loses the series, Van Gundy will be fired. He often makes poor decisions (Lewis is unstoppable in this series and he doesn't get the ball in the 4th, expect to hit a brick!) and he seems to have lost (has he ever had it?) his players' confidence (see Howard's postgame comments or their general behaviour with Van Gundy).

  The weird thing is that Lewis looks like he's hitting all of his shots but he's not. He was 8-16 last night and is just under 50% for the series. I don't really like or dislike Stan, but one of his biggest problems is that his "superstar" isn't good enough offensively that you can give him the ball and expect a basket. Howard's non-dunk shooting percentage for the series must be in the low 40s.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

Van Gundy got out coached. . . actually, he's just dumb.

No one on the Celts can stop Rashard Lewis.  He had no points in the 4th. I remember no plays run for him.

Dumb

Actually I recall two air balls from Rashard in the 4th quarter. I think they may have hit the backboard but they certainly didn't draw rim. I don't think either of those plays were ran for Rashard necessarily, but they swung the ball around enough for him to get wide-open looks which he bricked