Getting Ready for the Playoffs

By Adonal Foyle

Hi Everyone,

I'm sorry I hadn't had much time to update my website. Even though I haven't played this season, I've been keeping myself pretty busy. I'm working hard in practice and I'm doing all I can to prepare the team for the playoffs. I've also been busy raising money for my Kerosene Lamp Foundation.

Right now, we have a firm grip on the second seed in the Eastern Conference. But there's still plenty of time for other things to happen. We may not know who we face in the first round until the final day of the regular season. But we'll be ready for whoever that team may be.

We had a great run last year. Obviously, it was disappointing that we weren't able to bring a championship back to Orlando. But we needed to see just what type of work and effort it took to make it to that level. Now that we know what it takes, it's now up to us to try and not only make it back there - but take that last step and bring that title home.

Right now - from 1 to 12 - we have one of the best teams in the league. And I'm not just saying that just because I'm on the team. I'm saying that from an objective standpoint. We have a lot of depth and the question has to be how can we translate that into wins. If the regular season shows any indication of what we might do in the playoffs, we're going to be fine. That said, we going to go into these last two weeks of the season basically sharpening our skills. More importantly, we're going to work hard to lock up that second seed in the playoffs. If we can do that, it will help us tremendously in terms of homecourt advantage. So there is still a lot to play for during these last two weeks of the season.

There are still some areas we need to improve on. For one, we must be better, individually, on defense. Getting back on defense is part of it, but we really need to just get down on our man, lock him down and do whatever it takes to win that individual battle. Teams will come up with certain schemes to win the game, but you also hear about teams losing because their star player was held to single-digit points. And a lot of that has to do with really playing good defense against him. That's a huge deal. So manning up and playing someone straight up is going to be key.

The next thing we need to learn is how to put a team away when we have their backs against the wall. When we have our foot on their throat, we need to know when to move in for the kill and avoid any big runs so they can come back. Last year in the playoffs, we saw all of our opponents make huge runs to get back in the game. This year, we just want to get better at keeping the peddle to the metal when we are in control.

All in all, it's time to get serious. We have a lot of fun together and we enjoy each other. But right now, we have to know how to turn that switch and get serious. We're the defending Eastern Conference champions. Nobody is going to take us lightly. They're coming after us - and we have to be ready for them.

- Adonal