Cavaliers @ Magic Live! <div align="center"> <font color="DarkRed">Cleveland Cavaliers</font> (23-35) @ <font color="blue">Orlando Magic</font> (16-43)</div> Friday, Feb. 27, 7:00 pm Eastern TD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando TV: Fox Sports Ohio Vegas Line: Orlando -2 Last 10 Cleveland 4-6 (Lost 1) Orlando 3-7 (Lost 1) Previous Game Cavaliers 84 @ Rockets 90 Blazers 94 @ Magic 91 OT Head Coaches Paul Silas/Johnny Davis Probable Starters Jeff McInnis/Tyronn Lue LeBron James/Tracy McGrady Ira Newble/Deshawn Stevenson Carlos Boozer/Juwan Howard Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Steven Hunter 6th Men Eric Williams/Drew Gooden Injury Update Cavaliers Ruben Boumtje Boumtje J.R. Bremer Magic Andrew Declercq Grant Hill Pat Garrity <div align="center">Players To Watch</div> <div align="center"></div> <div align="center">LeBron James/Tracy McGrady James: 20.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.46 steals McGrady: 27.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.29 steals</div> Keys To The Game <u>Cavaliers</u> Get Lebron into the game early offensively. Work the ball down low to Z, take advantage of Orlando's weak front line. Attack the hoop. Contain McGrady. Try to make someone other than him beat you whenever possible. Help out Boozer against Howard. Rotate over and give some help D. Control the boards on both ends. <u>Magic</u> Double team Z. Force him out of the paint. Team rebound. Everyone has to make an effort to hit the glass. Zone. Make the Cavs beat you from the outside. Attack Boozer on D. Get Howard the ball and let him work. Penetrate and kick out to open shooters. Don't let Lebron get easy buckets. Force him to beat you with his jumper. redscoon's Take Cavs have a 3 game run against the East's cellar dwellers starting tonight. After letting one slip away in Houston, Cavs need to get back on the winning track and keep working their way up the ladder in the conference. McGrady has owned the Cavs this year. If they don't contest his shots and play him physical, we could easily see another 40 point outburst from him. Howard has also killed the Cavs and has torched Boozer each outing. Thankfully for us, thats about all the weapons the Magic have. I look for the Cavs to attack the low post with Hunter having no hope to lock Z down. The Magic will be forced to sag away from the perimeter in order to be able to double down quickly. This should open up some nice looks from the perimeter. If McGinnis and Kapono (?, give him some love Silas, please!) can stick their shots, the Cavs have a great shot in this one. McGrady tends to bring out the best in Lebron, so he should bounce back after a subpar performance against the Rockets. Magic have been playing well since the break, but Z and Booz in the post are just too much. Cavs by 9. <font size="1">Please visit NBA.com</font>
Great preview redscoon! This one is one of the games Cavs should win if they want a playoff spot, and I think they also win this one, with 7 points. Going to be a quite hard game though, T-Mac is going to drop alot of points as Cavs are used to when he plays them this year, I would say 30+. Good defense is the main key to win this game, espessially LeBron on T-Mac and Z helping Boozer with Howard. If Lue gets hot, hopefully McInnis is going to put him out of the game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting insshc:</div><div class="quote_post">z should have a huge game, where's the magic's height? declercq is out...</div> It looks like Magic will get some problem with their height yes, Steven Hunter is 8 centimeters shorter than Illgauskas, and Big Z will get the best result out of this situation. For more info on both teams heigh, look below. Btw: Gooden is just as high as Andrew DeClercq is, and Gooden got better stats. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Height info: <u>Magic's height:</u> Starting lineup: Steven Hunter is 2,13 meters (7-0) and Juwan Howard is 2,06 meters (6-9) Off the bench: Zaza Pachulia is 2,11 meters (6-11) and Drew Gooden and Sean Rooks is both 2,08 meters (6-10) <u>Cavaliers height:</u> Starting lineup: Zydrunas Ilgauskas is 2,21 meters (7-3) and Carlos Boozer is 2,06 meters (6-9) Off the bench: Tony Battie is 2,11 meters (6-11) and DeSagana Diop* is 2,13 meters (7-0) *= on injurylist
The Celtics and Raptors are facing each other tonight, which team should take the win if it would be the best for Cavaliers to get a playoffspot? I'm wondering, would it be easier for Cavs to make the playoffs if Celtics win or if Raptors win?
Celtics win, the more loses for the Raps the better. Celtics aren't going to make the playoffs anyhow. I find it amusing that Ricky was happy to be traded to a "contending team". Any how. BOT. McGrady has dogged the Cavs all year. That isn't going to change tonight. He scores 40 percent of Orlando's points overall. Got to double team him. Who cares who else is left open? As long as we rotated correctly on double teams we should be able to stop their offensive groove. When an isolation play is called for TMac, somone go over and help, no one on one with him for he will dominate. Cavs by 6.
It would be best for the Cavs if the Celts won. The Celtics aren't going anywhere this season, and the Raps need to pile up the losses while VC and Jalen are out. Once those two get healthy, they'll be a decent team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting mustafa_shakur:</div><div class="quote_post">^look at Diop in that picture, lol. He strikes fear into the other team with that face.</div> pff this is a scary face Steven Hunter is taller than Andrew Declerq and way better than him aswell he plays way more defense than Declerq and is a great shot blocker , he blocked Yao Ming twice I think he will play good against Z , anyways T-Mac has been struggling for the past 2-3 games so I think he will explode offensively this game. Magic by 7.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DajuanWagner#2:</div><div class="quote_post">It looks like Magic will get some problem with their height yes, Steven Hunter is 8 centimeters shorter than Illgauskas, and Big Z will get the best result out of this situation. </div> Gotta love the Euro-friendly measurements by Norway, way to go dude! T-Mac hits 40 we're losing. If we can beat him up and "hold" him to around 25-30, we've got a chance. Somebody's gonna have to hit some threes, and unless McInnis stays hot, Kapono's gonna see some pt. I hope he takes advantage of it and keeps the pressure on Silas to play him more. Great preview btw scoon, you hit the nail on the head!
Orlando is probably going to scramble around in a zone if Big Z and Boozer get off. Once again, Cavaliers' fans find themselves asking the question "Will Silas go to his shooters or keep his starters in hoping they solve the riddle?"
Great preview Redscoon. It's another game where Iluglauskas must play the best basketball. We have height advantage, so it will be easy game for our tall guys. I think that Cavs will win this game. It will be nice effort to compare LeBron and Tracy again. CaVs bY 7 BTW, how many pages we will write today?
I would exect the Cavs to take this one, but then again, every time we expect them to win, they lose. Magic by 3 (knowing that if I pick the Magic, the Cavs will win, hehe) You guys know since the McInnis deal, the Cavs are the 3rd best Eastern team? Amazing, eh?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post"> Magic by 3 (knowing that if I pick the Magic, the Cavs will win, hehe)</div> I can really relate to that with the Jazz, so when it's 50/50 I put them to lose. I'll take Cavs by 11 in this one. T-Mac and Lebron will both get 25+ points.
Nice start by Cavaliers. James made two shoots. I think that McInnis is shooting too many times. Today isn't propably his good day. Keep it going Cavs.... Uuuuu James with 10 points . He is hot today. Give him ball !! <font color="Red">Use the edit tab bro - KJ</font> Sorry Good Job at boards. We have a nice shooting today. It will be very interesting game. Come on guys, let's show them real bball Yeah, good 2nd. James is playing very good . Z is shooting very good and Boozer is doing great job on boards. Keep it going and win is ours
Cavs up 30/25 after one James has 12 points on 6-8 shooting, he is getting o the rim at will. McGrady has 7, 1, and 2, on 2-4 shooting Boozer has 8, 4, and 1 Z has 6, 2, and 1 McInnis has 2, 1, and 5 assists Williams started the game and has played McGrady man up. Both teams shot over 50% in the quarter
Cav's are playing great. With them going into half with the lead I don't think the Magic will be able to come back. I say Cav's by 9
Cavs up 53/44 @ the half James has 19 and a rebound on 8-12 shooting McGrady has 8, 1, and 2 on 2-6 shooting McInnis has 2, 1, and 7 Lue has 10, 1, and 2 Boozer has 8, 8, and 1 Z has 12, 2, and 1 Battie has 8 and 7 off the bench Cavs are shooting 52.4% to the Magic's 47.5% Cavs have 8 fast break points to the Magic's 2 Cavs have 8 turnovers to the Magic's 6 Cavs have 32 points in the paint to the Magic's 14 Very good half for the Cavs, only problems were just losing focus late in both quarters when it looked like we could bust it open, we let them crawl back. Cavs are on their toes not letting McGrady see much daylight. Keep this gameplan, we can win, must stay aggressive. --------- Cavs up 80/66 after 3 James has 21, 5, and 3 McGrady has 17, 2, and 4 Z has 28, 3, and 1 Boozer has 10, 9, and 1 McInnis has 9, 1, and 8 Not looking good for Magic gans in this one, just too much fire power from Cleveland.
3rd quarter just ended and cavs up by 14 i would like to see kedrick in the game now hopefully or some subs to get lebron and z some rest they havent had a-lot of those.
