can't believe it was that close at the end. a little deja vu on the dribble in, pull it back out, shoot a 3 play by francis. if only you could pause time and there were bets on such things, i would've flown to vegas and laid everything i had on a francis airball trying to turn towards his offhand on that last 3. and it was. nevertheless, considering this was the 6th game of their brutal 6 game west coast trip and that the spurs are a dominant home team, i can't believe it was a 3 point game. great effort by the whole team, especially on defense for once. and since when has francis become so friggin' money on free throws. he's turned into larry bird. 88% on the season, a 14-14 game a while ago, 9-9 today, and he's hit the last 10 free throws in the last minute of a game that i've seen (4 against new york, 4 against someone else, 2 with 32 seconds left today). must be something in the water b/c career 75% ft shooter grant hill is also in the mid 80's on ft % this year.
Being tired and not having Cato hurts them. Cato usually gets the toughest defensive assignments which would have been Duncan with Battie getting the backup minutes.
Orlando is a good team. The last 2 minutes of the game was comical to me. First, there's Cat dribbling the ball off of his foot on a fast break. Next, Steve travels and puts up a wild shot, but gets much love from the refs. Last, steve dribbles the ball from 8 seconds before putting up an airball. It brought back much memories. This orlando team has impressed me though. Cato, Howard and Hedo are great role players, you add Steve, cat and Hill to them, and they look real good. Howard is improving very fast too.
cat didn't dribble off his foot. he was barely ahead of devin brown who tipped the ball and caused cat to lose it (and there were like 4 minutes to go when that happened). the last two minutes saw the magic brick two nice jump shots while malik rose came off a pick and nailed an 18 footer like he was allan houston or something. then francis got away with a travel (though it's never called) and orlando made a nice stop then francis did what he did. i don't see how it was comical or brought back memories outside of the last shot.
Maybe you are right, Cat didn't literally dribble it off of his foot. They didn't show replay, and the announcers said he did. Sometimes "dribbles off of you foot" means you committed a careless turnover, just a figure of speech. "ankle breaker" doesn't really mean brea....never mind, I think you get the point. You are probably right about 4 min to go. I don't remember. I still find it comical because it looked like us last year. Cat "dribbles the ball off of his foot" on a fast break. Cat shoots a fadaway and miss. Steve travels(luckily not called) and puts up a wild shot. 10 seconds to go and down by 3, Steve goes in the paint, and comes backout to shoot an airball. It didn't bring back memories for you? It did to me. I was not bashing SF and Cat. That's just how they play.
Good game and the last minutes of it were kinda sad. Francis money from the free throw line but horrible from the field. The Magic have lost 3 in a row.
I was at the game last night. Francis seems to be feeding off of Grant Hill. They work very well together. Cat had a nice game as well. Tony Battie was impressive in the first half. He was hitting jumpers from 15-18 ft., rebounding, and playing fairly good d on Duncan. Dwight Howard just looks lost. He has some nice posts moves and plays hard. Watch out for him in a couple of years. The Spurs really found someone in Udrih (sp). He's quick, can handle the ball, is smart, a great passer and can hit the open jumper. He also has no problem getting into the lane. He's exactly the pg the Rockets need. Too bad there is no chance of the Spurs letting him go. BTW...it was my first time in the SBC center. It is an asthetically pleasing buliding. However, I am not very tall and I was completely cramped in my seat. The concourses are way to narrow and only having 2 entrances is a bad idea. It took forever to get out of the place. Plus the traffic leaving since there is no good way to get out of the area.
see this is what piss me off when the they lose it is same ol knuckleheads but when they when it is always because of some one else.
that is just the case in this BBS isn't it? I put this loss down to the funny rotation by the coach.... sometimes the 2nd unit Davis put on the floor is a joke.... I think at one point the 5 players on the floor was Nelson, Hedo, Augmon, Bradley and Kasun.... they was in there for a few minutes where Spurs pull off in the 2nd Quarter..... its not easy to get a win in SA.... the game being this close is really consider a good news for Magic.... plus, there are on the last game of their 6-games west coast trip.... fatigue? maybe....
