Wassup y’all? Here’s video from our arrival at practice on Saturday. The Sparks were playing at Staples Center on Saturday, so we had to practice at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo, CA. On my way off the bus I ran into “My brother from another mother” DJ Mbenga.
I’ll post some behind the scenes video from tonight’s game for you guys tomorrow. You guys cheer us on hard tonight. PEACE!
–DWIGHT
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We watched the tape of Game 1 yesterday and we didn’t even look like the same Magic team that had been playing so well the last couple of weeks. I can’t really explain it, but we just didn’t have the energy that we needed to win this kind of game.
We didn’t get loose balls, we didn’t rebound, we were late on our rotations and we just didn’t fight the way we should have. Our energy and effort just wasn’t there. We know how to play basketball an d it doesn’t matter who is playing against us. But as a team our effort wasn’t there. When we’re playing hard and aggressive, we can do a lot of different things.
We have to want it in Game 2. For whatever reason, we didn’t play like we wanted to win. It’s fun being here, but as a team, we’re not happy just being in the Finals.
We know what happened to the Lakers last year. A lot of their guys were just happy being in the Finals. We’re fighting for a championship here. I let the guys know last night that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Nothing is ever promised to anybody and we have to take advantage of this moment.
I think we’ll play a lot better tomorrow night. We’ve seen the tapes of what went wrong, especially on defense and rebounding, and everybody knows that we wi ll shoot the ball better. Kobe is going to make shots for them, but we have to close out harder to him and take away his rhythm shots.
One funny moment from yesterday was when a media dude asked me about the blue shooting sleeve on my arm and if it was why I was shooting free throws better. I had to laugh because I just wear the sleeve because I like how it looks. It has nothing to do with making shots or performance or nothing like that. I was wearing it in practice one day and it felt good so I thought I should wear it in the games because it might make my shot look better. To me, it was just funny that someone thought I’d shoot better because of a sleeve on my arm.
We have practice today at the Lakers Practice Facility, and we’ll work on some of the stuff that will help us tomorrow night. We’ll be a lot better. Ya’ll know we bounce back and that’s what I expect tomorrow night.
Aiiiight ya’ll, be easy. — DWIGHT
Fans: Be sure to check out Dwight on Twitter and Facebook.
OK, ya’ll I know that was ugly, but it’s just one game. Trust me, it was just one game.
We just had a really bad shooting night and it happened to come at the worst time in the NBA Finals. I think we hit like 23 shots as a team and Kobe had 16 all by himself for L.A. We’ve never had a shooting night that bad all season, so I don’t expect that to happen again to us.
Ya’ll know how we bounce back, so I fully expect us to learn from this over these next two days and come out ready on Sunday. We came back when Philly hit a couple of shots on us, we came back from Big Baby’s shot in Orlando and Bron’s 3-pointer at the buzzer. We can get this turned around too and I know we will.
The thing that upset me most was that the Lakers played harder than we did. They beat us to loose balls, they outrebounded us and outworked us. That just can’t happen. Rarely have we ever said a team outworked us, but that was the case.
L.A. did a good job digging down on me and trapping me to get the ball out of my hands. And when I did get some looks at the rim, they fouled me and put me on the free throw line. So we have to make some adjustments.
I think we need to run more and try to get some easy baskets in transition. When we run, the defense can’t set up and that’s when we’re at our best.
My guys will bounce back from this, and so will I. We know we’re a better team than we showed last night and we’ll play much better in Game 2.
Remember ya’ll, it’s just one game. It’s going to be a long series – believe that.
One last thing…I’m going to be posting videos from my NBA Finals experience throughout the series. I want you fans to be there with me along the way. We’re in this together.
– DWIGHT
Fans: Be sure to check out Dwight on Twitter and Facebook.
Ya’ll will get to see my new commercial tonight during the game. ABC took some pictures of us with the NBA championship trophy the other day to run during the games, but if you look really close you will notice that I don’t touch it.
They had seven us take the pictures (Rafer, Turk, C-Lee, Shard, AJ, MP and me) with the trophy and some of my guys were holding it and rubbing it. But I’m not touching the trophy until we win it all and that baby re ally is mine. Then it’s on, and I’ll be kissing it and hugging it and everything.
We got the silver ball last Saturday night and it was nice, but I gotta tell you that gold one is beautiful. I want one of those so bad now.
We’re glad that game night is finally here. It’s been good to get some rest these last few days, but it actually seems like two weeks since we beat Cleveland. I think guys are focused and ready to go. We know what we have to do.
Yesterday’s practice was kinda crazy because cameras were popping and reporters were lined up around the court. I think some of our guys got to see how the Finals are different with more eyes looking at us. To me, it reminded me of the all-star games and even the Olympics from this past summer. You’re constantly getting pulled around with so much stuff to do.
I think we’ll adjust to all of this stuff pretty quick. Everybody who has been following the Magic knows that we’re a loose bunch. That’s why we’ve been so good on the road the last couple of years. That why we could go to Philly, Boston and Cleveland and win on the road in the playoffs.
We just know if we play our game by running, playing defense and rebounding we can beat anybody and win anywhere. That shouldn’t be any different tonight in L.A. We’ve won here the last two years, and we know we can do it again.
OK, ya’ll cheer us on tonight because we need the support from everywhere. That love I felt in Games 6 against Cleveland was the happiest I’ve been in a long time. We need to keep it going and get a W tonight and start these Finals off the right way.
– D-12
Fans: Be sure to check out Dwight on Twitter and Facebook.
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
Fans: Be sure to check out Dwight on Twitter and Facebook.
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