I've just read the recap and now then have the time to post this thread. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"You need 22-point quarters and 15-point quarters," Cato said. "That's how you win ballgames. Offense is great, but you can't outscore everybody." Added Steve Francis, whose 23 points led Orlando: "Everybody contributed on the offensive end, but we still gave up too many points." Yet Cato had to concede these warnings would ring a little hollow on a night like this.</div> After reading this, I have to say, yeah, I agreed with what Cato said. We might have win this game and scored 129 points, but still, we let our opponent scored a lot as well. I've calculated and in these 14 games, we gave up avg 98.43 points per game, and we scored 100.71 points per game... I'm not sure about other teams in the league but I feel that yeah, we cant score so much all the time, what if our shooters are not having a good night? then we have to lose the game? If we can play like Pistons last season, when they couldn't shoot that night, they wouldn't allow the other team to shoot as well, they'll stronger their defence and make the score lower and lower. Just look at this year when Sonics played against the Nets, after shooting 18(or 15?) 3s against sixers, the Sonics looked like they've left 'how to shoot' in Philly, but then, they contained the Nets, they couldn't score, and they didnt give the chance for Nets to score but they DEFENCE and finished the first quarter by (11-7?) Yeah it's ugly to play only defence and when the Pistons did this whole last season/playoff, everybody called them ugly...but hey, winning is winning, defence is part of the game. Cato, Battie, Howard are good blockers, and Hill + Mobley + Francis I believe they're good defenders as well... IMHO, I think that we need to control the boards in every game (don't give up too many off. reb), keep this as a habit and if we can limit others chance to shoot, we get higher chance to win the ball game. that's what I think, I guess everyone have something to say...
o yeah, dun get misunderstood, I love our offence, so so so much... what I mean is...I hope our team can improve the defence, and this will increase the chances to be in the conference final
I agree with you. The key to winning games is defense. Sure people say its ugly but thats only the people who cant play defense. I love seeing good defense. If the lakers had better defense last playoffs we could have done much better.
Yeah we need to keep playing great offense and then take our defense to the next level if we want to get to the playoffs and win in the playoffs.
Well, the Magic could be playing great defense; they have the core to, but if they play lockdown man-to-man, their scoring will go down as well. So it'll be either 102-97 games or 80-72 games. Which would you, as a fan, prefer?
First off its spelled defense. Second yes i think they should improve defense. Right now they are playing offense first and then if the offense doesnt get going they should try to start playing more defense. One reason that the raptors had so many points is that they made 3 3 pointers in a row at the end of the 1st which is 9 points. The Magic cant do much to stop that. (Cuttino mobley is a good perimeter defender but he wasnt playing at the time) I think we have an ok defense. As long as we get Rebounds, Steals, Blocks and forced TOs i think we should do fine on D.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Well, the Magic could be playing great defense; they have the core to, but if they play lockdown man-to-man, their scoring will go down as well. So it'll be either 102-97 games or 80-72 games. Which would you, as a fan, prefer?</div> Well said. To me it doesnt matter either way as long as they are winning games, but liike Trip said we are very capable of playing lock down defense if that is what is needed. The Raptors didnt have that many points last night until we took out our first unit first quarter.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting OrlandoMagicFan:</div><div class="quote_post">First off its spelled defense.</div> well.... american english is defense, offense but british english is defence, offence i know it's out of topic but since you wanna pick this out i might just let you know this. the world is not only using AMERICAN ENGLISH...
Oh i see, sorry for the accusation. Are you from britain? Back on topic, Pure i agree it is just when we dont have our 1st unit in when they start scoring. I dont think its a big deal unless they have an off night and they dont play any Defense.
Nah I'm from Malaysia by the way...we learn Queen's English in school <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Pure i agree it is just when we dont have our 1st unit in when they start scoring. I dont think its a big deal unless they have an off night and they dont play any Defense.</div> big deal or not i really dont know but imo, I think a team has to keep the defence as a habit, even we're leading by 30 or 40, the defence is still a must.
Totally agree with our defense, and transition. We give up alot more turnovers than we should. With stevie its a part of his game almost, the way he plays, but take vs Portland we just gave them the ball all the time, not good.
Battie, Cato, Howard and Francis are superior defenders. Mobley, Hill and Augmon are also above-average. Thus, the team might be one of the top 5 defensive teams if they focus on defense. However, this team is also suited for an uptempo style of play, which explains the high scoring and leaky defense.
yup, so when Boston "out magic'ed" us, we still tried to match our usual tempo (and didnt do that badly with it, 101 points aint the worst score in the world, shame we leaked 115 in the process)
yep, i think we need to able to score a lot, and at the same time, we need to prevent the opponent score a lot as well... that's how the ball game should work... i agree that OFFENCE is the best defence but still...defence is important
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Devilz:</div><div class="quote_post">yep, i think we need to able to score a lot, and at the same time, we need to prevent the opponent score a lot as well... that's how the ball game should work... i agree that OFFENCE is the best defence but still...defence is important</div> Yes it is, but good defensive teams are not good offensive teams, and vice versa. If a team features a free-flowing offense, then the players would not work as hard on defense because they want to save their energy to run later on on offense. Good defensive teams, meanwhile, use a lot of energy on defense and thus run half-court sets on offense. The Magic are best suited for a fast-moving, Mavericks style offense.
Scoring isn't everything to me, we could win a game 2 to 0 as long as we played great defense and didn't make too many dumb mistakes and commit alot of turnovers I'm happy win or lose. We have what it takes to be a pretty good defensive team, we just need to somehow find a way to use it efficiently, he have shot blockers and pretty good defenders on the perimeter, all we need to do it step it up some.
I basically agree with what everyone is saying about we need to improve our defense and we have a lot of potential on the defensive side of the ball. Just remember that we have all new players that aren't used to playing with each other. (Except the Rockets trio) It will take time to be a good defense. Sometimes I see Dwight or Cato overpursue the driver and the driver dishes it for an easy layup, they don't know what all the other players can do yet. I say around the 25-30 game mark then we will start having good chemistry on the defensive end.
the orlando magic can defend the ball well when they want to cato and howard down in the post will block alot of shots francis is quick and will get steals
