Well that Magic/Celtics game one didn't go at all how I envisioned (and I'm sure I wasn't the only one) Celtics came out with what looked like a good gameplan and I'll be cusious to see if Orlando comes up with a good strategy to counter. Obviously the Cavs couldn't and that's why they dropped the last 3 to lose the series, but Van Gundy is a much better coach than Mike Brown so to say I expect more would be a massive understatement. What I'm worried about is people seem pretty sure that Orlando is still going to take this series pretty easily and I'm not so sure about that. Boston seems to be firing on all cylinders right now. They even have Sheed playing some decent ball! I think I actually saw his fat ass go up for a rebound against Dwight Howard yesterday. :mj07: That said, I doubt that Orlando loses game 2 at home and I know that's not really stepping out onto any kind of limb, but I just don't know about them taking over against this Celtics team that simply seems to refuse to go quietly into the night. They look determined and seem to be peaking at the right time. And for a veteran team full of guys with championship pedigree I think that's a dangerous thing. I see that Vegas considers this series a 50/50 proposition right now looking at the adjusted series price. -110 is a HUGE dropoff from where it was before Sunday and I think that says alot about these Celtics. I probably won't touch game 2 and I should think the play is Orlando or nothing but I learned my lesson from the first 2 rounds to not go against the Celtics. I think everybody expects this group of older guys to get tired and just lay down like they did many times during the regular season, but it's clear to me that the playoffs is a totally different animal for them. It's possible that they could just be content with taking a game on the road having stolen home court and just let the Magic run away with game 2, but I'm not gonna bet against it. I could really tell the kind of mentality this team has after listening to Garnett after game 5 in the Cavs series saying that it was a must win for them because they couldn't let it come back to Cleveland for a game 7. I thought that showed a lot about where this team is at mentaly and I don't know that the Magic have this same kind of Championship mind-set. Sure they've been blowing teams out prior to this series and they've been rolling for the last 2 months or so without a doubt, but are they ready for a WAR with Boston? We find out tomorrow....
If the Celtics continue to outplay the magic for 2 or 3 quaters but ultimately wind up losing the game (like they did game 1 in Cleveland) I think they could be a pretty good bet to move on to the next round once they go back to plus money on the series price. We'll just have to wait and see.
AS FOR TONIGHT, I'm leaning strongly to the under for multiple reasons and I will most likely have a play. I just want to see if the public drives the line back up to 211 or 211.5 because it's no secret that when they see Phoenix, they like the over. There are many reasons I like the under (and don't feel like listing them all) but it basically boils down to the long layoff (I think both teams will be a little out of sync) and the fact that the early line move on the total shows that it was a huge sharp play. Also, it should be noted that Phoenix historically does not play well after a long layoff. I don't have any actual data to back this up but I did hear it from a reliable source and I think it makes sense considering the type of offense they run and the importance of maintaining good rythm, timing and flow throughout the game.
Will be back later with my play on the total.
GL
-Deez
