re: NBA question - who was considered the GOAT before Jordan?

He fricked them at the end of game one, yeah. He had 22 points though and shot well otherwise. If the Magic hadn't allowed the Rockets to come from like 20 points down, those free throws never would've been an issue.

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He fricked them at the end of game one, yeah.

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pretty sure his FT issues didn't end in game one

He was 3-6 the rest of the series? When did the other big ones come?

I believe he dropped to about 40% one year. That's even worse than Shaq's

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and nick anderson fricked the magic

fricked them hard

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Yeah that was a choke to miss 4 back to back free throws.

But on the other side of the ball Kenny Smith put the smack down in that game from behind the 3 point line.

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Hakeem had WAY more help and a much better team. The Magic was the Shaq-Penny show. Houston had Clyde, Kenny Smith, Robert Horry, etc.

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I don't think that Clyde was on the 94 team...I think he came along in 95

And he wasn't really in his prime at the time IMO

Wait, nevermind...I'm thinking of the year before when they played the Knicks...

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No way. Orlando was favored going into the series. Shaq had Horace Grant, who complemented him perfectly at PF and was much better than Chucky Brown. Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson were excellent three point shooters who could score in bunches in a hurry.

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First of all, Robert Horry played way more than Chucky Brown, if I remember correctly.

Secondly, I looked up the playoff stats for that year, and I looks like Houston's big 2 (Hakeem/Clyde) averaged 53.5 ppg between them in the playoffs, whereas Shaq/Penny combined for about 45 ppg.

Furthermore, Houston was getting 13.1 ppg in the playoffs from Robert Horry, 11 ppg from Sam Cassell, and 10.8 ppg from Kenny Smith (that is 21.8 ppg from the PG position). Finally, don't forget Mario Elie, Houston's 3-point specialist, who was good for about 3 of those per game (9.1 ppg in the playoffs).

LINK

Orlando got 14.7 ppg from Scott, 14.2 from Anderson, and 13.7 from Grant.

LINK

The only reason Chucky Brown played was to defend Grant. But Horry played way more and actually scored for Houston.

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First of all, Robert Horry played way more than Chucky Brown, if I remember correctly.

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Horry wasn't a true a four and was better defending threes. He wasn't the most physical player and wasn't a good rebounder. Grant was better than anything Houston threw at the four -- Chucky Brown.

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Secondly, I looked up the playoff stats for that year, and I looks like Houston's big 2 (Hakeem/Clyde) averaged 53.5 ppg between them in the playoffs, whereas Shaq/Penny combined for about 45 ppg.

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That's because Houston relied on their big two more. Horry, Smith, Cassell and Horry were each wildly inconsistent. Anderson (who averaged like 16 ppg during the season) and Scott, on the other hand, while sometimes inconsistent, contributed to the best offense in the league (110 ppg). Not to mention that Penny was a good distributor, better than anything the Rockets had.

The Magic won 10 more games than the Rockets during the regular season and were the "it" team. They were favored going into the series despite the fact that the Rockets had just beaten the teams with the three best records in the league. Why? because of talent.