Eastern Conference Finals Match-up: (1) Cavs vs. (3) Magic

[Stress Fracture]

Well, it's official, ORL going to the ECF since 1995. Well, i go for Magic in 7. Orlando can match-up with the Cavaliers. No one from the Cavs can stop Superman

[MikeMan™]

Magic in 7 if Dwight won't be in foul trouble early and if they drain three's .
Cavs in 6 if no one can defend James and the Cavs backcourt .

[tee-pane]

Cavs sweeping once again!

[MikeMan™]

Cavs sweeping once again!

Detroit and Atlanta are wimps against the Cavs but Orlando !? duh , !? They'll put up a fight . There's no sweep happening here buddy .

[tee-pane]

Cavs sweeping once again!

Detroit and Atlanta are wimps against the Cavs but Orlando !? duh , !? They'll put up a fight . There's no sweep happening here buddy .

Idk, the Magic should be pretty tired after a 7 game series, while Cavs are fresh.

[Dan's Brain]

Cavs in 5, but with no double digit victories this time around. The Cavs can just Hack-a-Howard their way through this series.

[AMenace]

Cavs in 6, I think that Orlando is significantly better than both Atlanta and Detroit, so no sweep happening here.

[benji]

Cavs in 6 if no one can defend James

So you're going with the Cavs in six.

[MikeMan™]

Cavs in 6 if no one can defend James

So you're going with the Cavs in six.

Yeah , no one in the Magic line-up can defend James .
( Turk and Pietrus are the only players on the Magic roster they can throw on James , and James will kill them )
Magic must play Zone . Dwight as the last wall .

Cavs sweeping once again!

Detroit and Atlanta are wimps against the Cavs but Orlando !? duh , !? They'll put up a fight . There's no sweep happening here buddy .

Idk, the Magic should be pretty tired after a 7 game series, while Cavs are fresh.

So is Boston last year .

[dopeboy]

Cavs in six. Orlando is playing good basketball lately, especially in game 7, but they won't be hitting those 3 pointers against the Cavs consistently. So I'm going with the Cavs.

[Killer Crossover aka OG]

Cavs sweeping once again!

Really mmh I hope not

[C-77]

Cavs in 6 i really think Orlando is playing great basketball right now

[MikeMan™]

Cavaliers in 6 .
Sorry Killer Crossover a.k.a. OG , our team is still not ready for the Big One !

[MikeMan™]

http://www.nba.com/2009/playoffs2009/seriesEast7/05/18/cavs.magic.preview/index.html
This might be a good guide for you guys .

[chocofrap]

Orlando is not Atlanta nor Detroit..

Orlando is a good team, and no way the cavs will sweep them.
But cavs CAN defeat them..

Cavs @ 5/6

[bee-boy]

Cavs in 7

[Killer Crossover aka OG]

Cavaliers in 6 .
Sorry Killer Crossover a.k.a. OG , our team is still not ready for the Big One !

Maybe you have right and the first both games going to the CAVS but this year is Orlando really hungry like LeBron
and definitive has the Orlando Magic-Team much better alternative Players as well, we'll see MikeMan

[NovU]

No one from the Cavs can stop Superman

I seriously don't know about that. The cavaliers were the number 1 ranked in points allowed during the season and so far in the playoffs, even better 11 under their season average.

It's obvious, the Magics are going to struggle finding ways to score. Both Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson improved and now they can keep their opponents in front of them, not allowing easy pass bys. Besides, team defense has been gelling all year long, I don't see how the Magics will be able to throw high percentage threes which have been their key to the success. Indeed, Dwight is a monster, but he's not Shaq of prime. He can be stopped on offensive end with bit of efforts. It's his rebounding skills that's going to be hard to stop but then again, the Cavaliers are generally a better rebounding team than the Magics. While the stars like Hedo and Rashard can be locked down by James, James will be really hard to stop for the Magics, creating match up problems. In the end, the Magics will have tough time finding answers. They won't have any easy penetrations, nor too many uncontested threes. Especially, at Cleveland the homecourt for the Cavaliers, I think the Magics will really have a tough time. Only if the Magics find a way to defend James effectively and hit a good number of threes, I think the Magics will win 1 or 2 games.

[Andrew]

At the risk of selling the Magic short, Cavs in 5. Orlando is too good to be swept in my view but even if fatigue isn't a factor then their difficulty putting away the Celtics in the form of blown opportunities is at least a concern and there shouldn't be as wide a margin for error against Cleveland. The Cavs might not have a particularly legit defense against Howard but Varejao can flop with the best of them and if Howard doesn't get the touches then he's not going to be able to make them pay anyway.

[kibaxx7]

I'm going with Cavs in 6, I think the Magic can win a couple of games.

[Brave Sir Rubin]

Magic in 6, and not just because I'm a Magic fan.

(well, mostly because I'm a Magic fan, but still...)

The matchups work towards our advantage, at least some of them.

Cleveland doesn't have anyone who can stop Howard (please don't say Varejao or Wallace), and Lewis is quicker than any of their forwards.

Hedo seems to be getting his game back in rhythm (together with the entire team).

Alston and Johnson are good enough to maintain Mo, at least partially.

The only obvious problems are Zelly and James. Zelly really opens up the floor and forces Howard to play outside the post. The obvious solution would be to place someone else on Zelly or to play more zone (which isn't Orlando's forte). Having someone else guard Zelly could mess up the offensive rotation.

I don't really know who can guard James. We can gamble with J.J. yet that's one hell of a gamble. Pietrus could probably keep up, yet he can't guard him all game. My bet would be a double-team just like we did against Pierce in the last couple of games of the Boston series. I don't know how effective that will be. James will probably be explosive, and that will probably cost Orlando, but at the same time, the Cleveland defense will not be able to handle Orlando's shooters.

Cleveland also has a deeper bench, which could pose a problem, especially with the outside shooters, yet the Magic are a shooting team themselves, and Lee could beat any Cavs bench player off the dribble.

The Magic will win this game in 6 if Hedo keeps on shooting, Lewis keeps on playing a very aggressive game, and Howard establishes a strong post dominance. (In other words, no idiotic sky hooks from the free-throw line). This might sound as wishful thinking, but people really don't give the Magic enough credit. We're next to unstoppable when we're truly on like we were in game 7 last night.

I'm gonna go watch the home games at the arena. Already got some tickets for nice seats (got the hookup on some disabled seats, which have wonderful legroom and center-court view).

I don't really know what we'll do if James explodes. This is the series in which he could drop some career playoff highs. It's all good as long as we keep the rest of the Cavs out of the game.

The Cavs are the easy choice here, but the Magic may just surprise you people.

[Oakrhum]

Cleveland in 5 games. Orlando will just spoil the sweep in the 4th game.

[Andrew]

Cleveland doesn't have anyone who can stop Howard (please don't say Varejao or Wallace)

But like I said, Varejao can flop with the best of them. If he can do that and get a couple of calls on Howard early on, he takes an early seat and the Magic can't exploit that advantage. It's not shutting someone down in the traditional sense but I'd be surprised if they couldn't get it to work at least once in the series.

[diddy]

cavs are well rested and really angry, and i think Magic has 0 chanses, but i love Orlando much more then Cleveland, thats why i will go with them, Magic in 7!

[MikeMan™]

Varejao can contain Howard with his excellent defense ( flopping )
If Superman II is in foul trouble early , the Cavs will rout them out .