LeBron James was spectacular again with 44 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists; but yet another amazing 3-pointer at the end of the game (4 seconds remaining in OT) couldn't save the Cavaliers as Orlando now has to win just 1 of the next 3 games to advance. The Cleveland Cavaliers led by 8 at halftime but their lead had diminished by the 4th as Orlando (who began to take over in the second half) had chipped Cleveland's lead down to 1 at 79-78. The Magic got ahead by as much as 8 in the fourth but couldn't hold on late. Orlando was down 98-97 with 6 seconds left until Rashard Lewis made a turnaround 3-point jumper that gave the Magic a 100-98 lead with only 4 seconds remaining. Then the referee's got involved and bailed the Cavs out with less than a second remaining (0.5). LeBron James drove wildly to the basket and it appeared as though he had tripped over his own feet while simultaneously losing the ball and pushing his defender (Mickael Pietrus) to the ground. Of course, King James got the call and made both free throws including the second which hit every part of the rim before going in, tying the game at 100 all with 0.5 to go. Then, on the other end, Orlando had one last shot to prevent overtime. It appeared as though Dwight Howard was clearly fouled by Anderson Varejao on a lob attempt to the basket, but the refs swallowed their whistles and Overtime was guaranteed.
The OT period was extremely close and the largest lead was when Orlando pulled away and got up 111-105 with 1:12 remaining in overtime. LeBron James immediately brought the Cavs back to within 2 after he got a dunk and made 2 free throws in less than 30 seconds. Orlando responded by going into the paint to Dwight Howard who got fouled and made both of his free throws to give the Magic a 113-109 lead with 21 seconds remaining. Howard made another great play, this time on the defensive end on a James drive to the basket, as he completed capped LeBron which resulted in a jump ball. The Cavaliers managed to steal the tip from Orlando as Delonte West ended up with the ball. James subsequently missed a 3 pointer but Zydrunas Ilgauskas got the offensive rebound and was fouled. After 2 made free throws from Big Z with 7 seconds remaining made it 113-111 Magic, Cleveland quickly fouled Rashard Lewis on the in-bounds play with only 1 second going off the clock. Lewis made both free throws (making it 115-111) and the Cavs took a 20 second timeout with 6 seconds remaining on the game clock. Then it was time for another Horse shot from the King. LeBron James put up a fall away into the Orlando bench three pointer that somehow went in and made it a 1 point game with 4 seconds left. Rashard Lewis was fouled again and only hit 1 of 2 free throws but Cleveland had no more timeouts and couldn't advance the ball. This resulted in a 38 foot shot from LeBron that grazed the left side of the basket to end the game; 116-114 Orlando Magic. Dwight Howard had 10 of Orlando's 16 total points in Overtime after scoring only 4 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters combined.
Orlando's Dwight Howard had 27 points (62.5% shooting), 14 boards, 4 assists, and 3 blocks but the real hero was Rafer 'Skip To My Lou' Alston who had 26 points on 10 for 17 shooting and also went 6 of 12 from distance to lead Orlando's 3 point brigade. The Magic had 80 total field goal attempts for the game. Of those 80, nearly half were from three (38) and Orlando made 17 of those (44.7%) to break their previous franchise record for made three pointers in a game. Who says "jump shooting" teams can't win in the playoffs?
Cleveland, on the other hand, had over 50 points in the paint but were dreadful from behind the arc as they only hit 6 of the 22 three's they attempted (27.3%). Although LeBron was a monster scoring the basketball, on the boards, and in getting his teammates good looks at the rim; critics will note that he did have 8 turnovers for the game including 6 in the 4th quarter and Overtime combined.
- Only 8 teams in NBA history have come back from being down 3-1 in a 7 game playoff series.
No comments:
Post a Comment