Does Orlando scare you?

[Who]

Orlando is going to be a much tougher series than the Cavs were.

[Fafnir]

Orlando is going to be a much tougher series than the Cavs were.

Pierce better come out of his funk Ray Allen of 2007-2008 style.

[Who]

Orlando is going to be a much tougher series than the Cavs were.

Pierce better come out of his funk Ray Allen of 2007-2008 style.

Pierce didn't play well against Orlando this season (15ppg on 35% shooting in three games). Up and down against the Magic in the playoffs last season too.

At least he won't have to deal with LeBron anymore though. Nobody takes away Pierce's usual advantages offensively as well as LeBron does and nobody works Pierce harder on the other end of the court than LeBron does. Barnes will be an easier matchup.

Still, I am worried about him. I would have liked to have seen Pierce being more successful against Barnes in the regular season. Barnes is an overrated defender who is vulnerable in isolations, Pierce should be able to be more successful against him than he has been so far this year.

[BballTim]

Orlando is going to be a much tougher series than the Cavs were.

  Orlando doesn't scare me unless they blow us out in the first game. LeBron scared me because he can beat you no matter what you do and he can be unstoppable.

  Orlando's probably better than Cleveland. They might be hotter than us but they didn't really show themselves to be much better than us during the season.

[twinbree]

Orlando will be much tougher for us especially offensively. But they're not unbeatable if keep raising our defensive intensity. I think our perimeter defense will be one of the important keys. We know Perk will show up to limit Howard.

[LarBrd33]

I don't even know.  I thought we had no chance against the Cavs after that regular season.  This is shocking to me.  I guess it's safe to say that we dogged it in the regular season.  

If im operating under the belief that this team is that regular season team... Orlando will own us.

If I'm operating under the belief that we are the team that started 23-5 and just owned the Heat and Cavs... I think we might have this series.  We took them to 7 last year without our leader.   After this series, it's safe to say that a healthy Celtics team would have easily won the title last year.

[Kiorrik]

I got no idea. All bets are off for me tbh. Our squad seems to have flipped the switch when it comes to tough Super-star focussed teams, but Orlando... well Orlando is a whole different cookie.

If anything, I'm scared of their 3 point shooting. That's the main thing. And foul trouble for our big men.

But really, if we play like this... I dunno man, we look absolutely solid!

[Who]

Orlando is going to be a much tougher series than the Cavs were.

  Orlando doesn't scare me unless they blow us out in the first game. LeBron scared me because he can beat you no matter what you do and he can be unstoppable.

  Orlando's probably better than Cleveland. They might be hotter than us but they didn't really show themselves to be much better than us during the season.

Yeah, I agree, I don't think there is much separating these two teams in either direction + I am expecting this to be a very close series.

I wouldn't be surprised if it went the full seven games.

[radiohead]

I'm just hoping that the Celtics are peaking at the right time. With KG close to being 100%, i'm guessing we could go toe to toe with the Magic. Once again, we need to at least be 1-1 heading to boston for game #3.

[openairmovie]

Going to be tougher but I see us winning in 6


Perk vs. Howard- Perks kept Howard in check every time theyve faced off

KG vs. Rashard Lewis-  No doubt, KG has this battle


Pierce vs. Barnes-  Barnes has given Paul trouble in the past, but I still see Paul as a much more dominant player than what Barnes will be in this series

Ray vs. Vince- Depends on which Ray shows up, ill give vince the advantage for now

Rondo vs. Jameer-  Come on, do I need to even comment on this one?   My only question is, now that Rondo is facing a less superior PG will his game be toned down?


Bench:

Gortat vs. Rasheed-   Again, which Rasheed will show up
BBD vs. Ryan Anderson-    BBD will take this  , played well vs. Orlando last year with big minutes and big shots

Reddick/Pietrus vs TA/Marquis?-  Ill give Pietrus the advantage for being a game breaker, but if the TA that showed up to multiple games this series, comes in to face orlando  that will be huge   Not sure if Marquis will play though


Celtics took this team to the limit last year without KG,  we have him back, we have a new dominant player in Rondo, and our bench is strong again

[Fafnir]

I think Ryan Anderson is going to give us fits, more so than Rashard.

[LB3533]

Orlando doesn't scare me because we have the best defense in the NBA.

The stats for the regular season are valid but are not true representations of the team we got playing in the playoffs right now.

We are seeing Tony Allen emerging this playoffs.

We are seeing Sheed showing hustle and fire.

We are seeing KG healthier and the whole team is active with their hands and rotations.

I really don't care that the Magic beat a very undertalented, but defensively stout Bobcats team.

We can totally destroy the Magic, because the Magic don't have proven players with heart.

The Magic's best player thinks he's a comic character.

The NBA Trophy is in the real world, not the Magic Kingdom and not Metropolis.

[MetroGlobe]

One thing that gives me faith against Orlando is that our defense has reached a pinnacle at the perfect time.  We are absolutely LOCKING teams down.  Cleveland was one of the league leaders in FG%, and we held them under 40% for extended stretches of play.  I think they were like 31% in the second half tonight, for example.  If we can play that kind of D (which is tough against a good 3pt shooting team), then we can beat anyone.

Rashard Lewis is a matchup nightmare for KG though.  Need to scheme for him more than anyone else because that's where the biggest disadvantage is.

[Who]

I think Ryan Anderson is going to give us fits, more so than Rashard.

Yeah, Anderson is going to be tough matchup for the second unit.

Neither BBD or Rasheed are capable of defending him.

[Who]

I think both team's defenses will be very effective against one another.

I'm expecting a low scoring battle in most of those games. A lot of scoring droughts from both sides.