Boxslayer's NBA Finals Game 3

[Boxslayer]

16-5, +36.25, 76%

Maybe a little birthday luck on my side tonight?

5* Orlando Magic -4.5 -110

Get the blowout out of your mind. Magic traveled to the West Coast, had 8 days off, and couldn't get back into their shooting rhythm. Erase it from your memory.

All that you should remember is last game. A tough, hard fought road game, where the Magic almost came away with it straight up.

Now Orlando didn't accomplish their mission for the split, but the thing with this new format is it isn't over yet. 3 straight home games and the Magic can get back into this. No way?

Please remember the Heat/Mavs a few years ago. Miami was physically and mentally dominated by the Mavs during the regular season and post season. Miami was on the verge of getting blown out every finals game. Then Miami went home and took care of business en route to 4 straight wins. I'm not giving you some stat from the old NBA. That was modern ERA NBA.

So here comes Orlando, back home, Lakers travel cross country to the Magic backyard. Lakers are a great home team, but 16 of the 23 Laker losses this year came on the road. They were blown out in Houston by a marginal Yao-less Rockets team. The Lakers are not invincible.

Magic can't recover from that disappointing loss? Come on. They've been doing it all post-season. There isn't a more resilient team than Orlando in this post season. They survived Big Baby's buzzer beater, Philly's 2 buzzer beaters, and Lebron's Miracle. They can handle last second defeats and they bounce back better than anyone going now 6-1 after losing their previous game by 2 points or less.

This is a must-win game for the Magic, at home. It's a very good percentage in the NBA when the home team with their backs against the wall does well. Magic should shoot better in their home building, get some home cooking from the refs, and expect the Lakers to look a little more human on the road. Watch the 3-bal drop tonight for Orlando and I think Dwight Howard will step up and try to dominate as he has been criticized in Orlando for not dominating the way he should.

Expect a big night tonight from Orlando, who will scrap and claw and find a way to get the victory. I think they roll tonight and try to make a statement and make this a series.

Orlando 106
Lakers 96

 

[focker]

Happy bday box

 

[HarleyRoadKing]

Just what I was expecting Bslayer.... Got the Magic at 4 pts on the overnight line and was hoping for the Bslayer to sign off on the big play...LOL... Bring it home brother...

ps: who says gators and noles can't co-exist...lol.

 

[DChosta]

lol, shyieeet my balls feel robbed.. I knew I should've grabbed the 4 yesterday before it jumped up a half point.. haha right side today Box but Orlando just couldn't grab any rebounds in the last 10 seconds hno:

 

[DChosta]

Happy Birthday tonight btw, hope you had a great one! :cripwalk::toast:

 

[THawk+]

Orlando is soft!!! They have no killer instinct at all...

A real team would have come out and blown out the Lakers much like the Rockets did...

Happy B-day wish the shitbag Magic has a set of balls...

 

[mpn]

Ahh I had the same side Box. Tough luck.

 

[Boxslayer]

Grab a rebound and we win.

 

[grind4mine]

well, I don't usually post much, but I do always look for your posts to read as I feel that we often have the same thoughts on things and follow a lot of the same teams ( go gators!), but to counter some of the above- I saw two possible scenarios with this game- one, the magic blow out the lakers at home as they play good and LA takes the night off, and two - what just happened. and even though it sucked for our spread tonight, tonight was great news for the rest of the series...
- the lakers gave it their all tonight. they really, really wanted that sweep, and fought so hard for it. kobe played out of his mind, odom and gasol had great games, and fisher, ariza, and the rest of the bunch all played really, really well too.
so what happened? orlando took LA's best punch square in the mouth and won the game. period. just like they did in the regular season. They are the better team. period. the only times the nuggets or the rockets saw THIS LA team they were easily faltered and lost by double digits.. but not the magic. the magic showed tonight that they can match LA at their best, and LA cannot play any better than they did tonight. when both teams play the best game they can play, Orlando wins!
psychologically, I expect the lakers to really struggle with this - (finally facing true adversity for once), and expect magic to win game 4 by 12 or more.. and following that, the winner of game 5 will win the series. anyway, you made the right call, we just got a few bad breaks at the end..but I think it was worth it because this was HUGE momentum game, and I think this result was better than any orlando blowout we could have hoped for..I am personally a bit too invested as is in orlando championship futures already, but I really think there is still a lot of money to potentially be made with this team, and and I still think it is about 40% that they win this series.. you da man boxslayer, can't wait for college football season to roll around again for some more of your picks! you are one of the small handful of folks in all of teh internets that I respect enough to talk me into or out of a game. cheers, and magic will get that cover in game 4!

 

[zeeman23]

well, I don't usually post much, but I do always look for your posts to read as I feel that we often have the same thoughts on things and follow a lot of the same teams ( go gators!), but to counter some of the above- I saw two possible scenarios with this game- one, the magic blow out the lakers at home as they play good and LA takes the night off, and two - what just happened. and even though it sucked for our spread tonight, tonight was great news for the rest of the series...
- the lakers gave it their all tonight. they really, really wanted that sweep, and fought so hard for it. kobe played out of his mind, odom and gasol had great games, and fisher, ariza, and the rest of the bunch all played really, really well too.
so what happened? orlando took LA's best punch square in the mouth and won the game. period. just like they did in the regular season. They are the better team. period. the only times the nuggets or the rockets saw THIS LA team they were easily faltered and lost by double digits.. but not the magic. the magic showed tonight that they can match LA at their best, and LA cannot play any better than they did tonight. when both teams play the best game they can play, Orlando wins!
psychologically, I expect the lakers to really struggle with this - (finally facing true adversity for once), and expect magic to win game 4 by 12 or more.. and following that, the winner of game 5 will win the series. anyway, you made the right call, we just got a few bad breaks at the end..but I think it was worth it because this was HUGE momentum game, and I think this result was better than any orlando blowout we could have hoped for..I am personally a bit too invested as is in orlando championship futures already, but I really think there is still a lot of money to potentially be made with this team, and and I still think it is about 40% that they win this series.. you da man boxslayer, can't wait for college football season to roll around again for some more of your picks! you are one of the small handful of folks in all of teh internets that I respect enough to talk me into or out of a game. cheers, and magic will get that cover in game 4!

You forget a team's complaceny after a win! Every team gets complacent after a win, and every team is motivated after a loss! Lakers win game #4 IMO. Magic shot an unbelievable % in game #3= 62.5%. The lakers missed 10 Free throws. Don't go hog wild on the Magic, because they will not shoot above 60% next game, and Kobe will not miss 5 Free throws next game..

Leaning to the Lakers in game #4. Lakers after a loss this post season are 6-0 ATS winning by an avg of 16.8 points a game. Its the Lakers or no bet IMO!

 

[fugazi]

i agree, gonna go on Lakers big in game 4, hopefully they are + points.