-He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.

This is one of my instructors favorite quotes.  And I think it was pretty telling the body language of Orlando in that first quarter and then the remainder of the game.  They did not know how to deal with adversity.  And since, as was pointed out in a recent article, Orlando was always a good adjustment team previously, that they still lost the 3rd quarter is very telling to me.  Boston's offense was "unlucky" tonight versus where we usually are.  We hit high degree of difficulty shots at a higher percentage than low degree of difficulty shots.  Which is weird.  If Boston's defense slips in game 2 but their offense improves by the same margin, we actually would be predicted to win by a higher margin.  Weird.  Anyway.

Stats that were said enough I remember them with frustration:

"Dwight Howard only missed 5 shots in that series against Atlanta"

Atlanta, as a few members of this blog have pointed out, does not have a true center.  They're like the Suns of a few years ago.  They've got a natural 4 trying to play 5.  And against some teams that works fine.  Against Howard, who's game is predicated on using his size, if he has a size advantage it just makes it easier.  He is not able to throw his weight around in the same manner against Boston who have 2 legitimate centers playing center.  He also benefited in the earlier series of getting to play against them with Bogut out.  As a side note they are going to be scary next year if Bogut stays healthy.  Dude has got game.

"This Orlando team actually set a record for 3 pointers made this season"

How many 3 pointers did they take in the process of getting all those makes?  What teams did they score the majority of them against?  Being in the East Orlando has the benefit of playing a much weaker comparative schedule than, for example, the Blazers or the Raptors.  To put it in football terms.  Throwing 2 touchdown passes against the Jets defense last year was actually a greater accomplishment than throwing 5 against the Titans.  So even though one number is higher than the other, the degree of difficulty is not comparable.   Cumulative stats are useful for certain things like predictions and so fourth.  But in terms of comparisons they are fundamentally useless because you're comparing apples to water buffalo.  Apples and Oranges at least you're comparing fruit.  If they wanted to talk about statistics adjusted to a certain number of possessions that's fine or any of the stats that adjust for degree of difficulty that's fine.  But beyond that having a record for most three point makes in a season is sort of like saying "and they're wearing new socks in the game today" to which you respond "well . . . um . . . that's nice?  Or something . . . "

Enjoyed the win hugely.  Looking forward to more and hoping they come.  I've only seen a few things go differently than I predicted in previous post, no reason for me to think this will be anything other than my prediction.