The NBA's 2008/09 season ended Sunday night when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic, 99-86, to win their 15th NBA title. Finals MVP winner Kobe Bryant tallied 30 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocked shots to cap off a tremendous series, while the tandem of Pau Gasol (14 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks) and Lamar Odom (17 points, 10 rebounds) controlled the paint. Orlando shot 48% en route to jumping out to a 28-26 lead after one period, but the Lakers went on a 16-0 run in the middle of the second period, dealing the Magic a blow from which they could not recover. The middle periods were Orlando's undoing, as it shot 13-of-39 for 33 points and committed 10 turnovers as the Lakers took a 15-point lead into the final frame. Rashard Lewis led Orlando with 18 points and 10 boards, but shot just 6-of-19 from the field. In truth, no Magic player really delivered tonight, on either end of the court.

Be it the cloudy skies or the unusual number of Lakers fans in attendance, but this game had a certain ominous feeling to it, as though Orlando was simply fated not to fare so well. Even after the first quarter, one got the sense it would not be the Magic's night. The Lakers were quicker to every loose ball and enjoyed a heathy, 16-11 advantage on the glass. Dwight Howard couldn't buy a free-throw attempt no matter how hard he got hit--this is not a dig at the officials, who "let the players play," so to speak, on both ends of the floor throughout the game--Lewis couldn't find the range, and Hedo Turkoglu didn't have any room to shoot as former Magic forward Trevor Ariza blanketed him better than anyone else I've ever seen; and yes, that includes noted Magic-killer Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons. As has been their wont, the Lakers left the Magic's iffy backcourt of Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston tee-off, a decision that worked out well for L.A. Lee had his finest game of the Finals offensively (12 points, 5-of-11 shooting, mostly good choices), but Alston clanked his fair share of open jumpers, doing his part to help the Lakers' defense and transition game.

Another word on that front, actually. Los Angeles held Orlando to worse than 100 points per 100 possessions in 4 of the 5 games in this series, winning each of those games. The one time the Magic's offense broke through, with 108 points in 82 possessions for an offensive rating of 132.0, the Lakers themselves popped off for 104 points. This is a team that, personnel-wise, has what it takes to contain the Magic. An example: With the outcome already sealed late in the fourth quarter, Lewis drove at Gasol, whom many people including myself believed could not adequately defend Lewis in this series. Gasol didn't let Lewis get the step on him, stuck with the Magic's star forward, and cleanly blocked his running J attempt. And throughout the game, he mustered the strength to force Howard into some poor looks, holding him to 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting, all-told. Impressive work by the supposedly "soft" Euro big man.

Orlando was simply helpless tonight offensively. Howard couldn't work inside, nobody could make a jump shot, and free throw attempts came at a premium. The Magic would have needed to play lock-down defense in order to win tonight, and that didn't happen. The Lakers have Orlando's double-team schemes all figured out, and moved the ball beautifully to find the open man on the perimeter, and in this way some of what they did offensively tonight resembled what the Magic are able to do against most defenses in this league. They made Orlando pay, with 8 treys in 16 attempts. But they didn't need the long-ball to stay in the game. Gasol and his array of post moves were too much for the Magic to handle, while Bryant hit some fairly well-defended two-pointers himself. The Lakers weren't exactly an offensive juggernaut tonight, but they nonetheless got the job done against what was the league's best defense during the regular season. Tonight's game--and hell, this entire series--is a case of one team simply bringing more to the court than the other one.

So, congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers for a well-earned victory tonight and in this series. And congratulations to the Orlando Magic for a fantastic season in which they exceeded everyone's expectations. It's been one heck of a season, and although it ended with a disappointing loss, no one can take away the Magic's overall achievements. As always, keep it tuned to 3QC throughout the summer for comprehensive Magic coverage.

In a heartbreaking turn of events, the Orlando Magic squandered a 5-point lead with 1:34 to play in the fourth quarter, and later a 3-point lead with 31.9 to play in the fourth, going on to lose Game 4 of the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers in disappointing fashion, 99-91. They now face a daunting 3-1 series deficit. Derek Fisher hit the game-tying trey with 4.6 seconds to play as the Magic elected not to foul, and as Jameer Nelson inexplicably decided to play the sluggish veteran for the drive, rather than for the pull-up three. The game wasted mostly excellent performances from Hedo Turkoglu (25 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists) and Dwight Howard (16 points, 21 rebounds, and an NBA Finals-record 9 blocks). However, those two accounted for 13 of the Magic's 15 missed free throws on a night when a) they went into overtime and b) they lost by 8. Howard clanked what would have been the two clinching free throws, which set the stage for Fisher's game-tying shot.

If you're a Magic fan, you don't need me to tell you how much this loss--if I may be frank--sucks. Going down 3-1 is bad enough, but to do so under these circumstances makes it that much worse. Consider that the Magic...

• had a 12-point lead at the half;

• were outscored, 30-14, in the third quarter;

• hardly outscored Trevor Ariza, whom they traded to L.A. last season, in that third period;

• had homecourt advantage;

• committed 19 turnovers in a low-possession game;

• held Kobe Bryant to an unremarkable game (32 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists looks nice, but 11-31 shooting most certainly does not);
  

• received almost nothing (6 points on 2-of-10 shooting, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 turnovers in 45 minutes) from Rashard Lewis, their highest-paid player;

• and now face the possibility of losing the NBA championship, on their home floor, in Game 5 tomorrow.

This game should have been in the bag. At several points. But mental mistakes seemed to get the best of them. We're used to the occasional off-night from the line by Howard, but not from Hedo Turkoglu. Maddeningly, Turk went 5-of-6 from the stripe in the first three periods, only to get the yips and go 3-of-7 in the fourth. Line drives, they were. Not even close. Maybe Turk spoke for the Magic--or at least their fans, anyway--in his post-game press conference:

"I know it's a tough loss, man. We had it but just kind of slipped away because of our stupidness."

Thing is, he's right. Take nothing away from the Lakers, who earned this win, but the Magic had this thing in the bag. The first half was a thing of beauty in terms of all-around effort and execution on both sides of the ball. More of that, and they wind up winning this game going away. They were looking at a series tied at 2 games apiece, with another home game in their pocket. Instead? The bottom dropped out in the third quarter, and even after they managed to rally back in the fourth, they still lost the late leads I mentioned above. Just... I mean, I'm not sure what you want me to tell you. About the only way this loss could have hurt more is if it somehow involved, like, Shaquille O'Neal or Grant Hill making big plays for the Lakers. Or maybe if Ariza would up hitting the game-winner. A total and absolute buzzkill.

Thanks to a balanced offensive attack and blistering shooting from the field, the Orlando Magic toppled the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, 108-104, for their first-ever NBA Finals game win. Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard led Orlando with 21 points apiece, but the Magic also got double-figure production from Rafer Alston (20), Hedo Turkoglu (18), and Mickael Pietrus (18). Orlando withstood the shooting clinic Kobe Bryant held in the first quarter, in which he shot 7-of-10 for 17 points in the final 5:41 of the period. Bryant finished with a game-high 31 points, but was not much of a factor down the stretch.

It's a good thing the Magic picked tonight to shoot out of their darn minds, because if they hadn't, L.A. would have continued to roll. I don't want to say that neither team played any defense tonight--the effort was there, to be sure--but the statistics appear to indicate that both teams enjoyed what amounted to a shootaround on offense. Orlando's game was a bit different, attempting a season-low 14 three-pointers. Orlando fed L.A. a steady diet of pick-and-rolls with Howard and Turkoglu, moved the ball well, and put the ball in the basket with apparent ease. If you're the Lakers, you just shake your head and say, "it's just one of those nights," when Pietrus hits a wild turnaround jumper from the baseline. Bryant gave the Magic the same head-shaking sensation with a number of his buckets tonight, although he executed with more fluidity and precision than Pietrus did.

There's something to be said for offensive balance, and over the last several seasons fans and media alike have maligned Bryant for his tendency to dominate the ball. I'm not sure how much of that is fair, but either way, he's sure to hear it tonight and in the coming days for taking 25 shots in this game. The two other Lakers with double-figure shot attempts--that'd be Trevor Ariza with 13 and Pau Gasol with 11--didn't combine to take as many shots as Kobe. And it's not like those guys were throwing bricks. Gasol was darn near unstoppable when permitted to touch the ball, making 9 of those shots for 23 points. He has a very soft touch around the rim, and succeeded in establishing deep post position against Lewis and Turkoglu tonight.

In contrast, the Magic's heavy-hitters were more balanced with their shot attempts. Howard had just 6, but his 16 free-throw attempts give a better indicator of his involvement with the offense. Pietrus took 11, Alston and Turkoglu took 12 each, and Lewis took 14. Everyone moved the ball, and it resulted in enough decent looks to make everyone happy.

Going forward, the Magic are probably concerned that they set an NBA record for field-goal shooting yet the game went down to the wire anyway. Then again, they shot 41.8% in Game 2 and still took the Lakers to overtime on the road. It all balances out, and the series will balance out at 2 games apiece this Thursday if the Magic continue to execute offensively, and make a better commitment to defense. Seriously, guys, 104 points allowed in 84 possessions? In the NBA Finals? I know it's against the Lakers, an elite offensive team, but that's just embarrassing.

Nothing embarrassing about winning an NBA Finals game. Just 3 more of those and Orlando will have earned its first-ever NBA championship. Funny how fortunes change after 48 hours, isn't it?

The Orlando Magic recovered from a slow start in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, but ultimately fell short in overtime by a 101-96 score. Rashard Lewis led all scorers with 34 points, and single-handedly kept Orlando in the game in the second period, scoring 18 of his team's 20 points to stake the Magic to a 5-point halftime deficit. Hedo Turkoglu, too, came up big with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. But the Magic made some costly, sloppy mistakes with the ball with the game--and let's be completely honest, the entire season--in the balance. To win the title, the Magic now have to win 4 out of 5 against a Lakers squad that has flustered its offense in these Finals.

Orlando had a chance to win in regulation after a clutch defensive play by Turkoglu, as he blocked Kobe Bryant's would-be game-winning offering from behind, then signaled for timeout. Orlando had 0.6 seconds with which to work, and ultimately chose to ran a lob play, but not for the person one might expect. The Lakers, like everyone else, have seen footage of Dwight Howard's game-winning alley-oop flush against the San Antonio Spurs two seasons ago, which came on a lob pass from Turkoglu. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy anticipated Pau Gasol's walling off the paint, denying Howard access to the rim, so he drew up the lob for rookie guard Courtney Lee. Turkoglu's pass was mostly on point, but Lee could not convert the layup, and for that he is sure to take a beating from the media in the coming days. Pinning a loss on a player does the opponent a disservice by denying it agency in the game's outcome. The Lakers won this game every bit as much as Orlando lost it, but had Lee converted at the buzzer, it'd be his victory, and Van Gundy would look like a genius. But because the Magic went on to lose, Lee and Van Gundy are scapegoats for missing the shot and for playing a crunch-time backcourt of J.J. Redick and Rafer Alston in the NBA Finals, respectively. Pardon me for ranting here, but our desire to boil entire games down to one play, to pin their outcomes on a single individual, is uncalled for. Trite.

Enough of that. With regulation in the books, the Magic faced the iffy proposition of having to win in overtime on the road. As we know by the final score, things didn't turn out so well for them. They turned the ball over on their first two possessions, three times overall, and shot just 3-of-8 from the field. Y'all needle my co-writer Eddy for his frequently using the word "execution," but he has a point here. The Magic could not get things done in overtime, or for much of the game, against a long, smart Lakers defense which seems to have almost everything figured out.

It seems weird to say that when the Magic's two forwards combine for 56 points on 54.5% (eFG), but it's true. Los Angeles knows Orlando's offensive tendencies. It knows that Dwight Howard prefers to go right in the low post, it knows that Howard frequently brings the ball low enough to get stolen, and it knows that J.J. Redick is not looking for his shot at all. Howard committed 7 turnovers tonight, and to be precise, we should note that not all of them were ballhandling turnovers. And J.J. only coughed it up once, but that's deceptive, because it doesn't indicate the degree to which the Lakers were able to arrange their defense so as to cut off the passing lanes when he drove to the basket. He would have had a few layup chances had he kept driving, and looking to shoot, tonight. It's something that ABC's broadcast crew brought up throughout. And it's correct.

Every playoff loss stings. I almost wrote, "every loss," but clearly losing a mid-January game to a lottery team doesn't even approach what losing the second game of the NBA Finals to go down 2-0 feels like. If there's any consolation, it's that Orlando looked sharper tonight, and for longer stretches, than it did in Game 1. The final score and the length of the game reflect as much. But on this stage, little improvements don't mean much. Wins do. And Orlando is now in a 2-game hole with at most 5 games to play. It's not promising, but maybe tonight is a start. For instance, the Magic controlled the glass for most of the night, as Van Gundy revisited the rarely-seen Howard/Marcin Gortat pairing at center and power forward. Gortat managed just 3 boards in 15 minutes, so he wasn't his usually rebound-gobbling self. Still, their sheer size on the interior for some stretches, in my estimation, went a long way to helping Orlando muster a 9-rebound advantage on Los Angeles. Lewis did his part too, with 11 boards--5 offensive, which is 1 more than the Lakers managed as a team. It's going to take more than great rebounding to beat the Lakers, though. Actually, let's amend that statement: it's going to take more. Period. (Or, if you prefer, full stop).

In a 100-75 blowout, the Los Angeles Lakers jumped all over the Orlando Magic to take control of the 2009 NBA Finals. The score might as well have been 1000-7, though. Kobe Bryant had the best game of his NBA Finals career, with 40 points on 16-of-34 shooting to lead all scorers. As Zach Harper of talkhoops noted on Twitter, Bryant had more field goals in the second and third quarters (11) than the entire Magic team did (10). He was, despite the scoring, not the only reason the Lakers won this game. Their defense held Orlando to 29.9% shooting from the field--the worst Finals Game 1 shooting performance of the shot-clock era-- and limited Dwight Howard to 1 field goal in 6 attempts. Their 55-41 edge on the boards helped keep the ball out of the Magic's hands, either by ending Orlando's possessions after 1 miss with a defensive rebound or by prolonging their own with an offensive rebound. From top to bottom, every Laker played great, and Orlando must improve in every facet of the game if it hopes to muster a comeback in the series.

There are just so many hideous statistics I can point out from this game. The Magic and the Lakers, for instance, each had 3 players in double figures. However, the Magic's three leading scorers--that'd be Mickael Pietrus with 14 off the bench, Hedo Turkoglu with 13, and Howard with 12--managed to combine for 39 points, which is one short of what Bryant produced himself. It's not just the stats, though, which is why I'm going to try to limit my use of them (ha!) for much of this recap. One need not look at them to understand or to prove the Lakers' utter dominance tonight. It manifested itself in essentially every play made in the game, on either end of the floor, after the first quarter. Orlando led, 24-22, after one period, for what it's worth.

I tend not to buy any hype about how some teams "want it more," while others are "happy to be here," and that's why the games play themselves out. Both the Magic and the Lakers are worthy combatants for the NBA title, and both want to win. Heart, desire, other intangibles really don't matter here. Kobe did not score 40 because he wanted it more, or because he's a born winner, etc. Kobe scored 40 because he played intelligently, took good shots against reasonably good defense from Pietrus and Courtney Lee, and converted them. The Magic didn't shoot 30% because they were satisfied just to reach the Finals, or because they have stage fright, but because the Lakers contested almost every shot quickly and intellgently. Sure, Orlando had some offensive lapses, but those in and of itself are not unique to the Finals. The Magic failed to execute in the first game of the season, a 14-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks at home. But here, at the NBA Finals, the highest level of basketball competition in the world, nobody can afford to make those mistakes. Work the pick-and-roll more diligently, find more open looks, convert them... and maybe this game is closer. But, in a 25-point game, it's hard just to point at one thing and say, "well, if the losing team did that better, they'd have won."

There are a lot of things for coach Stan Van Gundy to sort out in the next two days. He'll certainly be busy. There's the issue of finding better--but not necessarily more--touches for Dwight Howard. Decry his getting only 6 shot attempts all you like, but he still shot 16 free throws and committed 2 turnovers. He had his share of touches. And the defense definitely needs work, particularly on the interior. Odd as it sounds in a game in which they only mustered 75 points, their defensive effort and intensity might be the bigger problem than their offense. Consider that the Magic were +6 on free throws and +15 on three-pointers. That means the Lakers outscored them on two-pointers by a staggering 46 points. Orlando had no answer for Los Angeles' high-low game with any combination of bigs, but especially when Pau Gasol played center with Lamar Odom at power forward. Too many open looks under the hoop.

Individual matchups are also a concern--what isn't a concern on defense for Orlando right now?--as Lee could not stop Luke Walton from scoring inside. With Lee and Pietrus on the floor at the same time, at shooting guard and small forward, respectively, the Magic used Pietrus to defend Bryant and Lee to defend Walton. Perhaps on paper, this matchup skews heavily in Lee's favor. However, that paper may not account for Walton's 3-inch, 35-pound size advantage on Lee, which is how he simply muscled through him for 3 baskets during that span. Overall, Walton shot 4-of-5 for 9 points. Yes, Luke Walton hit four times as many field goals as Dwight Howard did. It's no wonder why Orlando lost by 25.

Given the way this game played out, Van Gundy will face heavy criticism for putting Jameer Nelson back in the lineup. Days of will-he-or-won't-he discussion regarding Nelson led up to the Finals, and ultimately, the answer was, "he will." Jameer got off to a great start, dishing 3 assists in his first 3 minutes on the court, but his play bottomed out as the game progressed. In 23 minutes off the bench--yes, he split time with starter Rafer Alston almost exactly--Jameer scored 6 points on 3-of-9 shooting and handed out 4 assists. He was a -19 in the game, while Alston was a -6. Both Nelson and Van Gundy are certain to come under fire, but I'm not sure if it's fair. Nelson set the table for his teammates very well early on, but they just missed shots. As the game wore on, Nelson's shot came up shorter and shorter, and nobody else was making baskets, either. What, exactly, is Nelson supposed to do? His team's failure in this game does not fall squarely on his shoulders, one of which is surgically repaired. Nor does it rest squarely on Van Gundy's shoulders. Everyone is complicit. Maybe I'll let Marcin Gortat (4 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 blocks, no turnovers, lots of hustle in 20 minutes) off the hook... but everyone else needs to play better. Period. Otherwise, the Magic are going to find themselves winless in the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history. Bleak, but true.

Yes, I badly want to say that a loss is a loss is a loss... Henry Abbott points out that teams that win Finals games in blowout fashion overwhelmingly tend to win the whole shebang. The Magic are going to have to buck yet another trend if they hope to win their first title. Not too surprising, that.

With their trademark inside/outside offensive attack working to perfection, the Orlando Magic easily dispatched the Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-90, in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a game in which they never trailed. The Magic advance to the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. Dwight Howard, the "inside" part of the offense, played the game of his life and was unstoppable underneath, beasting his way toward 40 points on 14-of-21 shooting, with 14 rebounds. Meanwhile, on the "outside," the Magic connected on 12 three-pointers in 29 attempts; Mickael Pietrus led the way with 4 treys in 7 attempts. For the first time in this series, the Magic made LeBron James (25 points on 8-of-20 shooting) look human. He mostly did what he had been doing earlier this series, namely by driving to the basket and jumping into defenders as he tried to finish. Tonight, he rarely got the benefit of the whistle, attempting a mere 11 free throws.

It's certainly possible for the Cavs to win when secondary players like Delonte West and Mo Williams lighten James' offensive load, as they did tonight with a combined 39 points on 15-of-31 shooting. But nothing the Cavs could have done, short of James taking his game to an even higher level, was going to stop the Magic on a night when they got 40 from Howard and 36 from three-point range. Kevin Arnovitz broke down the offense in greater detail at TrueHoop here, but it suffices to say that this was Magic basketball at its finest. Great ball movement, great player movement, good shot-selection... the team really did not make too many mistakes offensively tonight. And, in a bit of a twist, they ran their offense almost exclusively through Howard in the post. Fewer high screen-and-rolls with Howard and Hedo Turkoglu tonight. But going through Howard worked. He dribbled through or spun around single coverage. He split or passed out of double teams. The Cavs had no answer for anything he did. None. In the most important game of his professional career, he rose to the challenge.

I'm most impressed with his passing. Cleveland didn't vary its double-team coverage much, almost always coming from the high man on the weak side after his first dribble. Dwight read and made the proper adjustments, which also has me wondering why the Cavs didn't sometimes send a help defender from the strong-side baseline, for instance. Keep him guessing.

Dwight was not the only Magic player doing damage, though. They all came through, in some way or another. Rashard Lewis' 8 rebounds, Turkoglu's 7 rebounds and 5 assists... the team's 11 offensive rebounds in 37 opportunities... they just had more than the Cavs did tonight, as has been the case for the entire series, a fact which seems to disprove the popular argument made before the series started that Cleveland would have more energy due to its breezing through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Magic ran out to a 30-25 lead at the end of the first period, as Howard matched James with 13 points. And they kept the pressure on in the second, bumping the lead to 11 points at the 7:35 mark, then to 15 at 4:21, then to 16 at 1:25, and finally to 18 with 10 seconds to play in the half. All throughout the period, I kept expecting James to go superhuman and rally his team. He never did. Not to pile on James, who had a magnificent playoffs, but he could not get anything going after that 13-point first period. In the last three periods, he shot 3-of-13 for 12 points. West had 3 more shot attempts and 8 more points in the same timeframe, which was odd to see. Most teams facing double-digit deficits, on the road, in an elimination game, would put the ball in their superstar's hands and have him go to work, especially if that strategy worked in previous games. For whatever reason, the Cavs didn't run many isolation sets for James tonight. With the way they were defending, they would not have overcome an 18-point deficit anyway. Still odd that they didn't at least give it a go, what with the season on the line and all.

Howard is clearly the MVP of this game, but let us not give Lewis short shrift either. He's a matchup nightmare for Cleveland, which has nobody outside of James who can hope to guard him. Forced into early action after Anderson Varejao got himself in foul trouble, Ben Wallace had the unenviable task of guarding Lewis for most of the first quarter. Wallace played him for the shot, so Lewis uncharacteristically put the ball on the floor and drove to the basket, either for the shot or for the kick-out. Wallace later sagged off him, so Lewis elevated for the straightaway three-pointer which rattled in. The stat sheet shows only 2 assists for him, but his passing on the interior (as a driver against Wallace) or around the perimeter (against anyone) helped keep the offense moving. Nobody held the ball too long for Orlando tonight, which forced the Cavs back on their heels. On some scores, it wasn't that the Magic caught the Cavs napping and got an easy bucket, but rather that they worked the ball around so quickly and so well that the Cavs couldn't catch up. That's a rather long-winded way of saying that Cleveland gave a decent effort defensively, and the Magic still tuned it up for 103 points on 87 possessions.

Packed with reporters, ballboys, and other guests--I believe the grandchildren of team owner Rich DeVos were present, seeking autographs from players--their locker room was excited and upbeat after the game, as you might expect. Coach Stan Van Gundy wandered in after his post-game presser, saw the commotion, and said, "Wow, it's busy in here. What happened tonight?" which drew chuckles. Reserve point guard Anthony Johnson (3 assists in 10 minutes tonight, including a killer lead pass to Howard for a fast-break dunk) was so pleased with the win that he wore his Eastern Conference Championship t-shirt out of the locker room, over his dress shirt. Howard had trouble using his phone, which had locked-up due to his receiving too many text messages. Happy times for everyone on Orlando's side.

That's what I'd like to stress now. There will be time in the coming days to size-up the Lakers. Now, though, is time to savor the win. Orlando has reached the championship round just twice in 20 years, which illustrates just how rare these opportunities are. Savor the win now, worry about Los Angeles later. As Van Gundy said in his presser:

"[Preparing for Kobe Bryant after having to prepare for James] will be a lot of fun, but I'm not doing that tonight."

Amen to that.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals takes place this Thursday evening in L.A.

Thanks to LeBron James' marvelous performance, the Cleveland Cavaliers staved off elimination at the hands of the Orlando Magic, taking Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 112-102. James tallied a triple-double with 37 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 assists. More importantly, he scored or assisted on every crucial Cavalier bucket in the fourth period--which the Cavaliers entered trailing--helping them outscore the Magic, 34-23, and thus take the win. Hedo Turkoglu scored 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting to lead Orlando, while Dwight Howard scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds before fouling out late in the game. The scene shifts to Orlando for Game 6 this Saturday.

This game resembled the previous two games in this series held in Cleveland, as the Cavs--possibly aided by a raucous crowd at Quicken Loans Arena--got off to a hot start before regressing sharply to the mean. In this instance, "hot start" means hitting 10 of their first 11 shots, and leading by as many as 22 points. Indeed, the score at the 1:47 mark of the first period showed the Cavs had a 34-12 advantage. Thing is, they didn't do anything differently on offense, except for the whole "ball going in the basket" part. Same drive-and-kick action. It added up to non-James Cavaliers shooting 27-of-52 from the field and 9-of-16 from three-point range. Cleveland has waited all series for its role-players to show up. Unfortunately for Orlando, tonight was that night. Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson combined for 35 points on 19 attempts, with 2 turnovers. They accounted for all 9 of Cleveland's three-pointers. Good luck beating the Cavaliers when they have the drive-and-kick going.

Thing is, the Magic nearly did it. Much will be made of their losing the lead in the fourth quarter, and maybe some people will attribute it to having to use so much energy just to get back into the game. That's partially true at best. Cleveland, simply put, played its best defense of the series. The open looks to which Orlando became accustomed in the first four games were no longer there, save for Turkoglu, apparently. Howard had a tremendous game down low as the Cavs mixed-up their double-team coverages, hoping to confuse the Magic's center. Funny that it was Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas who ended up being confused. Their abject refusal to wrap Howard up, as coach Mike Brown instructed unequivocally, was amusing. Kelly Dwyer touched on this point after Game 4, but it bears repeating: Wallace greatly overestimates his own defensive abilities. He cannot play Howard straight up, and although people have tried to tell him that, it's simply not going through. The Cavs repeatedly allowed Howard to finish at the basket after an offensive rebound or deep post catch. Usually, that's a bad sign for any Magic opponent.

So give Cleveland credit. A lot of it. It forced the Magic to play a lot of individual basketball tonight, with only 10 assists on their 28 field goals. Nothing came easy for them, particularly for Rashard Lewis and Rafer Alston. Those two players were the heroes in Game 4 for their timely three-point shooting. Tonight? Not so much. Not at all, in fact. Lewis hoisted 13 shots--the first time he's managed double-figure shot attempts since Game 2--and made just 4. Compounding the issue was his inaccuracy at the foul line. Orlando went 28-of-41 at the line tonight, so it was a team-wide malaise, but Lewis' 4-of-7 showing there did not help the Magic's cause.

Then there's Alston. Nobody expected him to duplicate his 26-point performance from Game 4, or even his 18-point performance from Game 3. And as much as I want to write, "but nobody expected him to shoot 1-of-10 and go scoreless for the last 47:42 of the game," it's not exactly true. Rafer has shot 6-of-27 in the three games in Cleveland this series, which has me wiping egg off my face after highlighting his usually outstanding marksmanship in The Q over the last several seasons. Poor shooting, poor decision-making, and poor defense from Rafer tonight. Not even Anthony Johnson's steady play--yeah, he shot 2-of-6, but it seemed better than that--mitigated Rafer's poor showing.

Rafer's poor play had me questioning why he was even on the floor with the game on the line during the fourth period. Either he has it or he doesn't, and tonight, he didn't. Quite obviously. The Magic have had some success with Hedo Turkoglu running point-forward, using Courtney Lee as the nominal point guard with Mickael Pietrus in the backcourt. Very, very surprised not to see that lineup on the floor late in the game, and I can't think of any disadvantages to using it, frankly. Lee can handle either Williams or Gibson, with Turkoglu trying to check the other one as Pietrus works (futilely?) to defend James. And before pointing out that Turkoglu hasn't the quickness to effectively defend those guys, let me remind you that they're essentially stand-still shooters in late-game situations, as James gets the ball at the top of the key and goes to work. He's the one doing the driving and the kicking, not them. Turk, at 6'10", has the size and length to effectively close out on either player. So again, I ask: "why didn't the Magic go point-guard-free at the end of the game?"

What it really boils down to is that James, who is magnificent in his own right, finally got a boost from his teammates. Gibson's hot shooting is no surprise, given that he is a career 43.9% three-point shooter in home games. The Cavs laid it all on the line tonight, as they had to, and for that you doff your cap. With that said, do not buy the line that the pressure is on the Magic to win Game 6, because they want to avoid a Game 7 in Cleveland. The latter part of the statement is true--they wanted to avoid a Game 7 tonight--but the former is not. The Cavaliers cannot afford to lose again this season. The pressure is still on them to win, and it really is that simple. They may indeed win out. For all the (deserved) talk about the Cavs' lack of an answer for the Magic's offense, these teams are about as evenly matched as possible. As I Tweeted earlier, the Magic hold a scant 2-point advantage in this series after 245 minutes.

As if you needed me to tell you this series would be a doozy.

Led by Dwight Howard's 27 points--10 of them in overtime--and Rafer Alston's career-playoff-high 26 points, the Orlando Magic surged past the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime, 116-114, to take a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Orlando trailed by 8 at halftime, yet Alston's 15-point third quarter helped Orlando draw to within 1 heading into the final period of regulation. The Magic weathered another onslaught by LeBron James, who led his team with 44 points, 12 boards, and 7 assists. His pair of free throws with 0.5 seconds remaining sent the game to overtime knotted at 100.

I know the Cavaliers are upset to be down 3-1, but they should at least take solace in the fact that they forced the Magic to overtime, on the road, despite yielding a whopping 17 made three-pointers. On the other hand, there's really no excusing how wide-open they left the Magic on a lot of those threes. I suppose they can live with some of Alston's looks because he is the Magic's poorest outside shooter in the rotation, historically speaking, but they consistently left Mickael Pietrus open in the corners, his favorite places to shoot. Cleveland dared Alston to win the game for Orlando, and he delivered more often than not. 26 points on 10-of-17 from the field and 6-of-12 from three-point range. Taking what the defense gave him, which is to say taking a lot. Stellar play from Orlando's deadline-day acquisition.

And this is how Orlando wins games. Simply too many weapons for the Cavs to match. Alston, we've mentioned. Howard, we've mentioned. Pietrus scored 17 off the bench, making 5 three-pointers. Rashard Lewis scored 10 of his 17 points in the 4th period, including what would have been the game-winning three-pointer were it not for James' late free throws. Hedo Turkoglu had 15 points and 8 assists. The Magic look every bit like the better team in this series, having pushed the league's winningest team to the brink of elimination, and nearly having swept it.

None of this is meant to gloat. I agree with Dwight Howard when he says, "It is no time to celebrate."

Howard, though, should absolutely be proud of his performance, particularly when it happened most. He might have silenced the critics who said during the Magic's previous series against the Boston Celtics that he could not be a go-to player. The Cavs do not have anyone capable of pushing him off his spots, and it showed on the Magic's second, third, and fourth possessions of the overtime period, which resulted in two dunks and a layup. Later on, he tipped in a missed Turkoglu layup. And with the Magic clinging to a two-point lead with 21 seconds to play, he calmly sank two free throws to help put the game away. His defense was huge, too, forcing a jump-ball against James and not committing what would have been a crucial three-shot foul against him on the Cavs' ensuing possession.

For the first time in this series, James got some offensive help from his teammates, and it resulted in arguably the Cavs' best-played offensive game against the Magic... although they once again fell into the stand-around-and-watch-LeBron offense late. Delonte West worked hard for his 17 points. He had his step-back jumper working and repeatedly attacked Alston in the low post. James, too, made the most of his post-up chances against Pietrus. But apart from Daniel Gibson's two three-pointers in the waning minutes of the first half, Cleveland got very little from the perimeter. Mo Williams scored 18 points, but got 8 of those at the foul line. His 5-of-15 mark from the field is more indicative of his offensive play in this game. He's sure to hear it from the media, and maybe even from his teammates, after he failed to make good on his guarantee to win Game 4.

114 points on 99 possessions for Cleveland, which would appear to indicate the Magic played poor defense. Maybe that's true, as they managed to lose track of Anderson Varejao under the rim a few times. But at least acknowledge that the Magic didn't allow their offense to do what they wanted to do, namely drive-and-kick. As John Krolik of Cavs: The Blog indicates, 5 of Cleveland's 6 three-pointers came off the dribble, while the other was a well-contested look.

What's clear about the Cavs, more than anything else, after this game is the following: they're not sure what else they can do in this series. Coach Mike Brown dusted off Wally Szczerbiak, who did not play in Game 3, and put him out there for 21 minutes. Gibson made a cameo in the first half of Game 3; he played 22 minutes tonight. Meanwhile, Sasha Pavlovic earned a DNP-CD tonight after playing 25 minutes in Game 3. I don't mean to demean Brown's coaching, but it's rather telling that he still can't decide on a rotation that works against the Magic. It's his team that's being reactive, and not proactive, in this series. And that's one reason why it's in a 3-1 hole right now.

This game was unique in that both teams had their chances to put the other away. Cleveland couldn't capitalize on its 8-point halftime lead, while the Magic themselves led by 6 with 4:18 left in regulation. For the first time in a while, the Magic nearly gave a game away, which was legitimately surprising to see given their recent history. But no, there's no reason to question their playoff moxie now.

The Magic head to Cleveland and will try to finish off the Cavs this Thursday night. Another effort like tonight should get it done.