Hey, ya’ll. We’re getting geeked already about being in the Finals and I can hardly wait for the games to begin. We had Sunday off to get our legs back under us after that Cleveland game and on Monday we just had a short film session. On Tuesday we get back to practice and then fly to L.A.
People are already wondering if we’ll freeze up because this group is in the Finals for the first time. My response to that has been that we’re a loose group and we just don’t seem to get tight in any circumstance.
I mean, think back to how my guys played without me in Philly in Game 6. Think back to how we played in Boston for that do-or-die Game 7 up there. Think back to the Cleveland series when everybody thought we’d lose and we came up big and won that one in six games.
It really doesn’t matter how many lights they put on the court for the Finals, it’s still going to be the same size court, the rims will still be 10 feet and it’s still basketball. I’m not worried about us tightening up.
We’ve won in L.A. each of the last two years and we did beat the Lakers twice in the regular season, so it’s not like we don’t have confidence going out there. You can’t put much stock in what happened in the regular season, but we know we can beat anybody when we play our game.
We know already that we’re the underdogs and nobody is going to give us a chance to beat the Lakers. But really every series that we’ve been in since the first round against Philadelphia we’ve been considered the underdog. That’s fine with us. We’ve been the underdog all year. Our job is to just go play. The only way that you gain respect is by winning and that’s our plan.
We still know we have to win to get the respect we deserve. Getting to the Finals won’t be enough. What I’ve been hearing already is that this is the first time the Magic are in the Finals and they don’t have a lot of experience. And we’ve heard about when teams first make it to the Finals they normally lose. We’ve heard it all already. Our mindset is not to say that we’re just happy we made it to the Finals. Our goal is to win it.
Everybody is talking now about whether Jameer is going to come back. We just want to see the little guy get healthy because I know this injury has been hard on him. He’s been working really hard to get back on the court, and I’m sure if the coaches think he can help us in the Finals, we might see him back out there.
Well, OK ya’ll, it’s getting closer to Game 1 and I’m ready to go. Hope ya’ll are getting ready too. I’ll blog tomorrow from L.A. and give ya’ll and update about how we’re getting ready to go for Game 1.
– D-12
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