Open Game #4 Thread – Los Angeles Lakers at Orlando Magic

There are 10 ballots. 1 ballot is the fans vote, the other 9 are from the media.

He was winding down…for his standards at least cause he was probably still averaging like 20 20. And they did have Baylor with him at that point….and I think there were fewer teams.

And everyone now is mentioning how there wasn’t a free agency around the time of Wilt and those guys. So I dunno about those. But I wonder what pick he was now…if there was a draft and all that.
But I’m not all that suspicious.

accidentally say “Miller” instead of “Nelson”? Without any video playback easily at hand I’d have to say it is a 50/50 chance.

But, that inbounds play to get Fisher the 3-pointer, coupled with Nelson not fouling…..damn Phil has still got it.

Wasn’t JR completely spectating during those years?

Doc made that mistake but not in the post season. But even Larry Brown in the finals made that mistake vs the Lakers.
Doc Rivers told his team to foul whoever inbounded the ball that one game 4 he said after the game. Sometimes its a brain fart Ray Allen-Paul Pierce a number of guys had a chance to foul Ben Gordon and he danced along the three point line and nailed the tieing shot. I think sometimes its easy to get caught waiting so you can react when its really the defense in that situation that has to just act and not think. Its not as easy as some say you kinda have to have faith-plan- and sometimes experiencing that situation.

He had 2pts and 3ast is 26 minutes. In the entire 4th quarter and overtime he had 2 assist, both on passes to Howard. He did not make any shots. Howard may have some early success along with Nelson, but he played the last 30 games of the season and the entire playoffs without him, and somehow managed to survive.

I don’t buy this claim that Alston is the streakiest player in the NBA. I’ve never heard anyone say it. It is kind of rebutted by the fact that Alston had a good 1st half but bad 3rd quarter. Alston is one of the more aggressive scorers the Magic have and is one of their best pentrators. I remember Jackson screaming at one point that the Lakers are getting killed by penetration. Alston was a big part of that.

The thing about substituting is that it is made more glaring because Nelson isn’t in game shape and not substituting was already a problem once in the finals. He has been out of action for a long time and was noticeably winded in the 1st half of game 2. When you add in the fact that he is already a below average defender, I think you have to be aware of that if you are an NBA coach. You have to go offense for defense in that situation.

On the whole, I think the entire Magic team choked, including the coaches. Pointing out Van Gundy’s mistakes doesn’t absolve Howard, Turk or Lewis. Even good coaches make mistakes. Unfortunately for the Magic, he made some bad mistakes in a critical time in the game. But they should have fouled Ariza as soon as he crossed half court. They should never have doubled Kobe in the back court. They should not have drawn up an inbounds play that involved Pietrus shooting a contested 30 footer at the buzzer. This is type of stuff we criticize VDN for all the time. Why should SVG be immune?

I’m not a member of the media, so my piling on criticism won’t likely matter one way or another. I thought that this was blog where people gave opinions, my mistake.

Both points 1 and 2 are a fail on your part. You again fail to point out a single play Nelson made. You know why? Because he didn’t make any plays. 2 pts, 3 assist is 26 minutes. 0 points and 2 assist in the final 17 minutes. And he played awful defense. So despite your assertions, Nelson’s mere presence on the floor has very little to do with Turk driving and scoring or Howard rebounding and scoring or Pietrus knocking down 3’s and defending. He had almost nothing to do with the run, evidence by the fact that he only contributed 2 assists the entire 4th quarter. I bet you are a big fan of raw +/- as well.

Where did I say the game was lost on a single play? That is pretty much the opposite of what I’m saying when I argue that Alston should have been subbed in for Nelson at some point.

The fact that I was unable to change your opinion doesn’t matter one iota to me. If you believe that someone criticizing SVG and Nelson means that they ignore the mistakes of Howard, Turk and Lewis, than that only proves you are incapable of holding two abstract thoughts in your head at once. I didn’t bring up the free throws to placate your idioicy. I brought up the foul shots to acknowledge the truth of what was happening on the court. The Magic lost the game for a variety of reasons, but my point was that SVG was behind many of the most critical errors. I don’t have to “objectively distribute the blame” – they aren’t in little league. Its SVG’s job to coach the team. The team did not play particularly smart down the stretch and SVG made numerous bad decisions that cost his team.

I mean, how am I full of shit? Dude, you don’t even make sense. You claim that I put all the blame on SVG, than say I’m full of shit because I brought up the missed free throws (not to mention I also pointed out that Lewis played awful as well in MY FIRST POST). So if I brought up those things, how did i put ALL the blame on SVG? You are contradicting yourself. I’m glad we had this conversation. Now I just know to ignore your posts in the future.