The trickster gods of Orlando
The Magic with a stunner. Plus: three non-stunners.
The Magic with a stunner. Plus: three non-stunners.
Good morning. Punching Chet Holmgren, even inadvertently, is not okay. Let's basketball.
Light Work
With Sunday having all four Games 1 in the 1-8 and 2-7 match-ups, there was high potential for non-competitive blowouts. Both of the first two games of the day were lopsided by halftime. It happens.
In the Eastern game, Jaylen Brown looked as good as he has all season and Jayson Tatum looked ready for the grind. The latter had 21-8-4 in the first half alone.
Just four threes all game for Philadelphia. Boston hit 16.
In the second game, Jalen Green did not replicate his hot shooting from Friday and Devin Booker didn't have enough juice to keep Phoenix in the game. Seventeen free throws for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made up for iffy shooting.
It took five minutes for Dillon Brooks to pick up a flagrant. The Thunder went on a 12-2 run immediately after this play.
OKC's defense is suffocating. Phoenix's offense is questionable anyways, but they just have no room to operate against the Thunder.
Maybe Magic Is Real?
This will either go down as one of those forgotten memories of a team that pulled a single-game performance out of its arse that was erased by the events of the next four games, or this is a signal of something, either the Orlando Magic finally getting its s--t together or the Detroit Pistons being paper champions.
