I do not fear Howard i fear Nelson

[vgulab]

we are capable od guarding Dwight Howard. Perk,Sheed,Big Baby thay can do a nice job plus we have Shelden so i am not worried about Howard scoring. But in the defensive end i fear Howard. We will score less points in the paint so KG needs to continue to make that mid-range jumper
 Nelson could be a real problem for us. This season we have a history of point guards beating us in the regular season like Crawford,andre Miller plus he is playing terific in the playoff.
It is obvious that we have to defend the 3point line well but Doc should have a back up plan for Nelson. Maybe Tony...

[Roy Hobbs]

The problem with the Magic is that they have four guys that can hurt us.  In terms of who concerns me the most, I'd rank them:

1. Rashard
2. Nelson
3. Howard
4. Carter

Howard doesn't concern me a ton offensively (in terms of scoring); I think where he's a huge issue is with his defense, and with his rebounding on both ends.

I really do think the key to the series is containing Rashard Lewis, though.  He's a player that consistently gives the Celts fits, and who has pretty much dominated KG head-to-head lately (as odd as that is to say).  If we can shut him down, I'm very confident that we'll win this series in six or fewer games.

[vgulab]

My opinion is that they will start early to use Nelson to keep him hot. Rashard is not the same from last season so i don't think that he will score more than 20 in more than 2 games. Im not woried about Carter because Pierce did such a great job on Lebron so he will do the same on Carter but another problem could be if Howard start making FT. I hope he won't

[Who]

I am concerned about Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter. When they play well offensively, their penetration forces help defense which leads to excellent ball movement which leads shooting opportunities for everyone else.

Orlando isn't as good a passing team as they were a year ago. If you can jam those two, or contain them, then the Magic struggle to get their shooters off.

-------------------------------------------

Not concerned about Rashard Lewis' offense. He relies on others to create his shots. Stop the others, stop Lewis.

Not concerned about Dwight's offense either. The Celtics have the best post defense in the league and will not lose because of his post scoring.

[Billz401]

I hate being so optimistic but i really do like our chances this series. we have matchup advantages all across the board. Rondo is clearly better than nelson, RayRay is better than barnes, Paul is better than VC, and with Garnett now healthier ill take him over rashard any day. the one advantage they have is Dwight over perk but if you recall in last yrs series with the magic perk played dwight really good. And thats wut should help us alot because unlike other teams we dont have to double dwight in the post and leave one of their great 3pt shooters wide open. That is why they have such great 3pt shooting because most of the time they are wide open. even though we are a great team defense, we dont have to double and if every1 sticks with their man i think we have a good chance of winning.

[PosImpos]

The problem with the Magic is that they have four guys that can hurt us.  In terms of who concerns me the most, I'd rank them:

1. Rashard
2. Nelson
3. Howard
4. Carter

Howard doesn't concern me a ton offensively (in terms of scoring); I think where he's a huge issue is with his defense, and with his rebounding on both ends.

I really do think the key to the series is containing Rashard Lewis, though.  He's a player that consistently gives the Celts fits, and who has pretty much dominated KG head-to-head lately (as odd as that is to say).  If we can shut him down, I'm very confident that we'll win this series in six or fewer games.

Luckily, we have 4 or 5 guys who can hurt them.  That's what makes this such an interesting matchup.

[snively]

Well Nelson has historically struggled against Rondo, but that's on a pretty small sample size.  We did just see Rondo contain a similar offensive player in Mo Williams.  

If we can force Orlando to initiate their offense through Vince Carter, I think we can win.  As we've seen in the regular season series, Carter is still good, but he's pretty inefficient.  With our offense improved from it's regular season form and enjoying solid prospects at the 1 and 4 positions in this series (and hopefully something from Paul at the 3), we can afford to let Carter be their high scorer.  

[lon3lytoaster]

Bleh. Just play Rasheed and KG and have Rajon post up Jameer Nelson all day. It worked fine against Brandon Jennings the last game of the season against the Bucks and Jameer is a midget.

Make him work down there, and make sure Rajon doesn't go under picks, because he will kill us if Rondo does that. Pretty simple mathematics, really.

[Drucci]

The one guy that really concerns me (after Lewis, because I think Rondo will do a great job defensively on Nelson) is Mike Pietrus.

It may sound silly to fear their 6th man but he has the habit of swinging games' momentum in the favor of his team, he is clutch and not afraid of taking big shots/making big plays. He is a really good defender too and his corner 3's are really dangerous.

He killed us in last year's series so hopefully this year we will limit his contributions.

[vwoodruff]

The problem with the Magic is that they have four guys that can hurt us.  In terms of who concerns me the most, I'd rank them:

1. Rashard
2. Nelson
3. Howard
4. Carter

Howard doesn't concern me a ton offensively (in terms of scoring); I think where he's a huge issue is with his defense, and with his rebounding on both ends.

I really do think the key to the series is containing Rashard Lewis, though.  He's a player that consistently gives the Celts fits, and who has pretty much dominated KG head-to-head lately (as odd as that is to say).  If we can shut him down, I'm very confident that we'll win this series in six or fewer games.

I agree with Hobbs on the "concerned with Lewis" perspective. I may be crazy, but I think it might behoove the Cs to start Ray on Vince, Pierce on Rashard, and KG on Barnes. Thiks would give KG the ability to roam on D, and I think PP has the bulk to keep Lewis from taking too much advantage of the 4" he has on Pierce in the post.