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Behind the Box Score, where the defending champs are rolling - Ball Don't Lie - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports
Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! Sports comments on the Orlando Magic's demeanor.
No team looks as focused, no team looks as good. Put it this way - they're the only team that has me looking forward to the typically pablum-infused halftime or between-quarter interviews from players and coaches. There's just a calm about them that lends itself to articulation. It's almost, like, what's the opposite of a master of panic?
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Respect due: Jameer Nelson's great leap forward - Ball Don't Lie - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports
Dan Devine of Ball Don't Lie highlights Jameer Nelson's strong performance during these playoffs.
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2010 NBA Playoffs: Most Valuable Players - ESPN
... as do some of the experts in this ESPN roundtable. John Hollinger and David Thorpe rank him as the MVP of the entire playoffs, while Marc Stein, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Arnovitz also give him a shoutout. J.A. Adande, Henry Abbott, and Chris Sheridan were the only panelists not to include him. Here's Thorpe:
From Game 1 of the playoffs, he has been "the guy" for Orlando. His shooting, passing and scoring have all been at the elite level. More importantly, he's been the driving force in the locker room and on the court, as the "owner" of all that is good in Orlando.
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Basketball-Reference.com Blog " Blog Archive " The Most Lopsided Series Sweeps of All-Time
Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference uses a series of metrics to determine where the Magic's sweep of the Hawks ranks among history's all-time sweeps. "By any measure," he concludes, "the 2010 Magic's victory over the Hawks was one of the absolute most dominating single-series performances in the history of the NBA."
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NBA Playoffs: Magic decimate Hawks again, get second straight sweep - ProBasketballTalk
Rob Mahoney of ProBasketballTalk writes that the Magic "have a very good chance of winning the first championship in Magic history" if Dwight Howard can avoid foul trouble in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Basketball Prospectus | Articles | Playoff Prospectus: Fo-Fo-Fo
Bradford Doolittle of Basketball Prospectus says Orlando "should be considered the odds-on favorite to win it all" after its sweep of the Hawks.
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Bill Simmons: NBA playoffs, Round 2 awards - ESPN
Bill Simmons discusses the Magic a bit in his second-round playoff awards column. He gives five reasons why the Magic won't win a title. Only one--that they are incredibly similar to the 2002 Sacramento Kings--has any remote relation to the actual sport. The fact that Matt Barnes "had a crucial dinner scene in 'Basketball Wives' two weekends ago" means he can't guard Kobe Bryant, if I'm reading reason no. 2 correctly.