JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:
Not really, none of that changes the fact that if Donovan Mitchell was playing at near MVP level like he's shown at various times in his career (including pre-All Star break) and Darius Garland was playing at an All-Star level like he's shown at various times in his career; everything would be going a lot easier for the Cavs and for all the players that need to feed off them.
Working around that takes magic that JB Bickerstaff does not possess and perhaps no coach does in this era.
His career is resting on those two guys stringing together more than one good quarter here or there, unless the Magic just aren't ready to win outside of Florida and find a way to out brick us.
Mosley looked at what was happening with the two teams playing this series, said we're not getting it done starting Isaac against the Cavs starters, moved him to the bench, and it's paid dividends. He looked at how effective Suggs was against Garland, how effective Harris was against Mitchell, switched assignments, and it's paid dividends.
There's a big difference between college and the pros and it has to do with adjusting to matchup issues that are team-specific in a 7-game series.
Funny that the two adjustments you mentioned, were just Mosley going back to what the Magic were doing in the regular season .vs. the Cavs. The Cavs should have been prepared and ready for those.
The Cavs still dropped 60pts in the first half of game 4 and then suddenly could barely score in the second half. There's a much simpler explanation for that I keep pointing out and I just wonder how many times you need to see it play out before you're going to be ready to ignore the typical athlete BS where they define being 100% healthy as being 100% on the floor.
Tbc, I don't think Mitchell is 100% healthy, but it doesn't follow that I ascribe 100% of his play in 3rd to the tendinitis in his knee. He made a lot of poor decisions when Garland was off the floor. Turnovers, traveling, an offensive foul, and that's before you get to him forcing bad shots up against really tall defenders.
I just don't know where the belief comes from that our defense can impact what the opposing team is able to do, but somehow an opposing team's defense can't impact what our team is able to do. That's something that obviously works both ways.
