Uptown wrote:Amare and Howard do not cancel each other out as you suggest because Howard is much better defensively and is a much better rebounder. Orlando pieces are more talented and its to the point that Orlando doesn't even need Howard to score much to win ball games whereas if Amare isn't scoring for us, we lose.

Howard also had more minutes played and has more help than Amar'e. I think Howard for the most part is mostly canceled out by Amar'e in a Series cuz I think Amar'e will always end up scoring more than Howard. That's just my opinion.

To me the fans have to make up their minds what they want. This team was completely redone and it's a good team. A lot of fans didn't even think we'd be this good. Now that we're better than some expected it seems like there's this notion that we are in a rush now to keep up with the Jones's.

Despite losing to the top teams, we at least saw that this team has the heart to fight and compete with them. We knew they weren't as good, but we see they're much closer than many thought. I mean we were at 98-96 against the Magic and don't tell me that we couldn't have won that game at that point!!! Last game with the Heat we got to within 97-94 with 2 mins to go. That's not a game where we didn't have a chance to win. I wish people would stop painting it as if we've been totally outclassed in every matchup. What has happened is that we've dug a hole and had to climb out of that the last 2 games. LET'S NOT FORGET THAT THESE WERE ROAD GAMES!!! Against 2 of the best teams in the League.

The question isn't if we're Elite, cuz we know we're not. The thing is that the Magic basically are the same as us, but with better overall talent. They play 4-1 and have more scoring off the bench not more defense. So they are basically designed to outscore teams now just like us. In fact if we shot better at the FT line and grabbed just a few more defensive boards we win that game. The Magic defense wasn't exactly stopping us.