Code Blue? That’s Orlando’s attempt at a playoff slogan — they’re apparently indifferent to the fact it sounds like a new flavor of Mountain Dew. Or, as the guys over at Human Victory Cigar point out:
In a surprisingly candid move by a pro sports franchise, the Magic have adopted Code Blue as their motto for the playoffs this year. You may be familiar with this term, as Code Blue is used in hospitals to alert medical personnel when a patient has stopped breathing and has no heartbeat.
Touche.
Okay, scrimmage season is over, now the games start to count. The Pistons kick off the postseason with the Magic, a team they swept in the regular season. There’s a good chance Detroit can make it eight straight, but I’ll be surprised if the Magic simply roll over — don’t forget, three of Detroit’s wins in the regular season were by five points or less.
We’ve already heard Jameer Nelson chirping, and now Dwight Howard and Grant Hill are talking big:
“It’s nothing scary,” Howard said. “It’s all new to us, but any mountain we’re faced with we can overcome.” …
“We’ve got to believe we can beat them,” said Hill, who spent his first six seasons in Detroit. “They’re beatable.
“They have experience. They’ve won championships. We know all that. But either you go out there and feel like you can win the series and give yourself a chance, or you’re defeated before the series starts.”
Admittedly, as bulletin board material goes that was pretty weak — I wouldn’t expect most players to really say anything different. Plus, I’m actually really excited to see what Hill brings to the table. There’s been talk that this might be his final season, and if that’s the case you have to figure he’s going to leave everything on the court, especially considering he’s going up against his former team.
Some links for you to peruse before the game: my FanHouse preview | Human Victory Cigar’s preview | Darko Will Begrudgingly Play Today | 93 Million Dollar Questions
As always, leave your thoughts on the game in the comments.
The playoffs are finnaly here! It felt like Christmas this morning.
-T
Good first Qtr. Sheed is playing great. Inside - outside and in the flow of the offense. We need to keep them off the glass though.
Hi, I’m a Magic fan who’s here not to create any hostility; I just have a question. Why do the Pistons fans hate Darko so much? Is it because he turned out to be a bust (though I hope he just needs more playing time to develop his game)? Or did he have some bad parting words as he left the Pistons? Do the Detroit players have anything against him or is it just the fans?
I think regular fans have a beef against him because some say his effort wasnt there and they think we could of had wade, melo, or bosh instead of him. Personally I pull for him and I like him. He didnt get time to develop here and I think this year would have been his year if he were still in a pistons uni but I hope he does good in orlando.
And what was with that call on chauncey, he barely backed down and Dooling flops and its a call?
Nice to start with a W! Getting off to a good start helped, but honestly the Magic really just looked over-matched. Winning a game when shooting 49% compared to 58% doesn’t happen often.
I just turned on NBA TV for the post-game show and Jerome “Junk Yard Dog” Williams is on as an analyst! Wow.
I saw JYD on a commercial for the Raptors the other day and was shocked by his giant horse-sized veneers. He had some snaggleteeth before, but now he looks like The Mask.
i haven’t watched the game yet (working on a saturday…ugh), but why was flip murray a dnp-cd? was he late? suspended for getting shot at? what’s the word?
JackDutch-
I don’t know the answer, but you can see the starting guards played heavy (and effective) minutes. Hunter only had 7 minutes of burn himself and Delfino was playing well. Could be he just wasn’t needed. (also maybe to exploit the matchup against Jameer Nelson?)
Marie: all fans don’t hate him — I’m with Matt G., I like him and I hope he does well. That said, he didn’t do himself any favors by not trying hard every time he got on the court. He would often act embarrassed to play garbage time minutes and rarely showed much enthusiasm.
Also, it’s easy/fun to boo opposing players when you’re at the arena, I think. Case in point: Ben Wallace. I’d venture to say most fans really appreciate what he did for Detroit, but he still gets showered in boos when he comes back.
JackDutch: I didn’t hear anything about Murray. The starters played big minutes, but bear in mind that on these nationally televised games the timeouts are definitely longer (the first half seemed to stretch on forever.)
Plus, there was an odd stretch in the second half where play stopped for what seemed like a good five minutes as they cleaned up a spill in the front row (I think Howard kicked over someones beer or something).
Also, I think Q was right: may as well exploit the Jameer matchup as much as possible.
Code Blew
I was looking at your posting, Marie, and as a Deeeeeeeeeeee-troit Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-sket-ball fan, I decided to let you know why here in the “D” Darko gets no love:
1.) We spent lots of dough, and all he gave us was blond hair.
2.) When Darko left the Motor City for blue skies and DisneyWorld, he did have some choice parting words for a city that really did attempt to adopt him in the early stages.
3.) The boy used to miss dunks all the time. Man, how does a seven foot, 245 lb. man miss a shot thats only three feet above his head? He ain’t even gotta JUMP!
Now, to borrow the Piston’s current slogan: Its time to go to work!
Considering both Dyess and Big Shot were cold last night, I’m happy with the win, and I think it will get easier to beat Orlando over the next few games…
Marie,
it’s impossible to convey the richness of our negativity about Darko. And it’s not all directed at him. It’s about thousands and thousands of posts in more forums than we can count, rehashing the same old arguments. We have Darko Fatigue.
We’re tired of talking about him. We’re tired of hoping for him, of hearing explanations and theories. We’re tired of the really severe haters who rant about him picking up high school girls, smoking cigarettes and being gutless … and we’re also tired of the Darko lovers who think he has amazing talent but excuse his failures as if he’s a fragile infant. Whatever you’ve read, believe me — we’ve read 100 times more.
Plus nothing stings like virtue unrewarded. For nearly three years our team was all patience and restraint and the right way, breaking him in gradually. Darko was paying dues, practicing against the best and having nothing handed to him. So many of us on Pistons boards busted a gut trying to be the same way, looking for positives and finding them in a made layup here or a garbage time appearance that wasn’t a sleepwalk. But it wasn’t happening, and the fact that the guy never showed a happy or energized expression on his face during a game eventually wore us down. We’d held a winning Pick Six in our pockets for three years, and when we tried to cash it all the runner-up prizes turned out to be way better.
There is an old Warner Brothers cartoon about a guy who finds an old box with a singing frog inside. When he’s alone, the frog is amazing — singing, dancing, tightrope walking, everything. But the guy goes broke trying to make him a show biz act, because the frog just sits and croaks when anyone else is watching. Eventually the poor destitute bum puts the box back with the frog inside, and someone else finds him and runs off to make his fortune. That’s our experience with Darko, right there. And some Magic fans are starting to feel the same way.
I, personally, am glad to see Darko growing into a fine young big. This playoff series is only the beginning… I wonder what he’ll do to the Bulls in round 2?
LanierFan - That comment was like so much sonorous poetry. Probably the most beautiful thing I’ve read all day. Thank you!
Detroit might have had a good first game. Magic couldn’t hold the ball very well at start and pretty much the whole game plus couldn’t hit a free throw all game.. They seemed nervous that they were in the playoffs. Detroit is def. the better team, but so what… GO MAGIC!