Fargo's 10* NBA MONDAY ENFORCER (SIZZLING 9-1 L10) (Mon 7:00PM)
Matt is off a Sunday split and finished with a BLAZING 4-1 weekend in the NBA! Fargo is on a SIZZLING 9-1 ATS (90%) run with his NBA Enforcers after Miami WINNING Sunday and he adds to the streak on Monday! Going back to the All-Star break he remains a SCORCHING 66-46-3 ATS and has a REAL BEAUTY on Monday that you cannot miss! The MASSIVE run continues right here! Guaranteed!
Orlando at Cleveland Game 5 Preview
by: Matt Fargo Sports
Orlando Magic at Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday, May 28, 2009 10:30 PM ET
Series Clincher?
Orlando is proving to be the best team in the Eastern Conference after winning Game Four on Tuesday to take a commanding 3-1 leas in the series. The Cavaliers, the league’s best regular season team, now must win three straight games to advance to the NBA Finals. The good news is that two games will be on their home floor where they are 44-3 this season. However, one of those losses came in Game One of this series.
The Cavaliers are in a huge hole right now but they have the talent and the ability to mount a comeback but it will take a team effort. Winning on their home floor is no longer automatic but they are in good shape still. The problem is Game Six if it comes to that as Cleveland is 0-4 in Orlando this season, or in other terms, 25 percent of its road losses on the entire season have come at Amway Arena.
Being down three games to one is not impossible to come back from but the odds are not in the Cavaliers favor. Since 1947, there have been 190 series where a team has led 3-1 and of those, 182 were won by the team with the lead. That is a 95.8 percent success rate meaning history shows Cleveland to have just a 4.2 percent chance of advancing.
The Magic know the odds and they know the history but they also know Cleveland is not gong to quit, making this series far from over. “When you have a guy like him (LeBron James) on the other side of the court, you're a long, long way from it being over,” Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Back to Basics
By basics I mean Cleveland needs to start playing some defense. The Cavaliers led the NBA this season in scoring defense, allowing just 91.4 ppg and their 43.1 percent shooting defense was tied for first with the Celtics. In the first series against the Pistons, Cleveland allowed 78 ppg. In the second series against Atlanta, the Cavaliers allowed 78.3 ppg. Through the first four games against Orlando, the Cavaliers have allowed 104.3 ppg. Take away the overtime points and the average is still a gaudy 100.3 ppg.
Cleveland has LeBron James and we all know what he can do but this team prided itself on defense, just like the Celtics did in their NBA Championship run last season. The Cavaliers cannot win this series by outscoring Orlando in a shootout as the Magic have shown to have too many weapons to knock down shots. They need to defend to get back into this series and have any shot of advancing.
“When you have a team that shoots the 3-ball as well as they do and they have a stretch [the floor] big man against our two traditional bigs, it's tough,” Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown said. “Plus, you have Dwight Howard”
Orlando has been held to less than 48 percent shooting only once in this series and it has topped 50 percent twice. In the Cavaliers first game in Orlando, they held the Magic to 42.9 percent shooting from the floor including 35.3 percent from long range. They lost that game but that was because of a below average effort on offense where they shot just 37.2 percent from the floor including a putrid 19.2 percent from behind the arc.
Balancing Act
James is a great player as proven by his MVP award this season but he can not do it alone and that is visibly a big problem for Cleveland. He is the go to guy and if not for his clutch three-pointer in Game Two, Cleveland would already be making its summer plans. This series looks as though it is taking its toll on James as he looks fatigued and beat up toward the end of these games.
James committed eight turnovers in Game Four including six in the fourth quarter and in overtime. It is clear that he needs another player that is capable of making plays and right now the Cavaliers do not have that.
Almost every championship team has had more than one clutch player it could turn to. Looking back at Game Four, Cleveland turned to James only and Orlando had an answer as it was able to defend since the Cavaliers isolated James for one-on-one plays more often than not.
Orlando is showing it is the better team because it is more of a balanced team. It is no fluke that the Magic are a perfect 7-0 ATS against the Cavaliers this season. Either we have seen Cleveland win close games (two wins by 2.5 ppg) or seen the Magic dominate and win big the majority of the time (five wins by 10.6 ppg). It is hard to overlook the fact that Cleveland is 15-3 (14-4 ATS) following a loss this season so don’t discount it quite yet.
Matt Fargo Sports Past Articles
NCAA Preview: New Mexico St. Aggies
2011 College Football Previews New Mexico St. Aggies Offensive Starters Returning…7 Defensive Starters Returning…7 Looking Back… ... read more
College Basketball Top 25 Matchups
Matt will be taking a look at the weekend top 25 matchups in college hoops every Saturday. This week has four games featuring a matchup of teams from ... read more
2009 SEC (East) Preview
The SEC has long been considered the toughest conference in football and rightfully so. It has produced the last three National Champions, Florida twice ... read more
2009 Big XII (North) Conference Preview
As strong as the Big XII South is, the North is just the opposite. There are good teams within the division no doubt but it is unlikely that any team ... read more
2009 Big Ten Conference Preview
Many say that the Big Ten was in a down year in 2008 considering only five teams finished the season ranked in the top 50 in the national power ratings. ... read more
All Matt Fargo Sports Past Articles
Matt Fargo Sports Past Picks
NBA Basketball
San Antonio Spurs @ Los Angeles Clippers Sunday May 20, 2012 10:30 pm
We won with the Spurs on Saturday and we will go right back with them on Sunday. It was not a good day for the Staples Center home teams as the Clippers and Lakers blew a combined lead of 37 points and the former hurt the most as the Clippers are now down 3-0 in this series and you ... read more
NBA Basketball
Miami Heat @ Indiana Pacers Sunday May 20, 2012 3:30 pm
We lost with the Heat in Game Three which was pretty much a must win spot for them and now this one turns into a definite one. A loss here and the series isn't over for Miami but it is pretty close so its needs to tie this one up before heading back home for Game Five. The Heat have ... read more
NBA Basketball
Oklahoma City Thunder @ Los Angeles Lakers Saturday May 19, 2012 10:30 pm
The Lakers were able to climb back into the series last night with a win over Oklahoma City to pull to within a game. It will be short-lived though as these teams play again Saturday in the second of a back-to-back playoff set at Staples Center. It was obviously a must win for Los ... read more
MLB Baseball
Texas Rangers @ Houston Astros Saturday May 19, 2012 7:15 pm
The Rangers took the opener of this series last night to improve to 25-15 overall including 14-6 on the road. Those 14 road wins are tied with Baltimore for the most in the American League and they have built a five-game lead in the American League West. Derek Holland gets the call ... read more
NBA Basketball
San Antonio Spurs @ Los Angeles Clippers Saturday May 19, 2012 3:30 pm
This is a big weekend for the Clippers which would love nothing more than to sweep the two games played in Los Angeles to even up this series but it simply will not happen. They likely will not even win one of the games as they are clearly overmatched against one of the most efficient ... read more
NBA Basketball
Boston Celtics @ Philadelphia 76ers Friday May 18, 2012 8:05 pm
We played on the Sixers Wednesday and they certainly came up small as Boston was able to grab back the home court edge after a home split in the first two games. This makes Philadelphia in a prime situation on Friday in a chance to even up this series at home. The Sixers were embarrassed ... read more
MLB Baseball
Baltimore Orioles @ Washington Nationals Friday May 18, 2012 7:05 pm
Jake Arrieta has been either really good or really bad this year and I expect to see the latter tonight. He is coming off consecutive horrible starts at home against the Rangers and Rays to push his ERA to 5.21 on the season and while he has been better on the road, this is not the ... read more
MLB Baseball
Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Diego Padres Thursday May 17, 2012 10:05 pm
The Dodgers are finding life without Matt Kept pretty tough. Since going on the disabled list with an injured hamstring, the Dodgers have managed to score only six runs total, going 1-2 in the three games he has missed. They have dropped the last two and with the loss last night, ... read more
NBA Basketball
Miami Heat @ Indiana Pacers Thursday May 17, 2012 7:05 pm
Miami let one get away in Game Two as the Heat lost at home to the Pacers and thus, lost home court advantage in this series. They need to get it back and it needs to be done here in the first game in Indiana because being down 2-1 with the possibility of being down 3-1 is not the ... read more
MLB Baseball
Chicago White Sox @ Los Angeles Angels Thursday May 17, 2012 3:35 pm
The Angels took the opener of this two-game set last night and they go for the two-game sweep this afternoon before heading out on a 10-game roadtrip. They have obviously been one of the biggest disappointments is baseball this season but they are far from out of anything with so ... read more
All Matt Fargo Sports Past Picks
