It’s Magic: Orlando Makes Kobe-LeBron Disappear

[duncan228]

The national views.
Updated.

It’s Magic: Orlando makes Kobe-LeBron disappear (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=txnbafinalslookahead&prov=st&type=lgns)
Brian Mahoney

There will be no Kobe-LeBron showdown in the NBA finals—and that could make things tougher for the Lakers.

Instead, Los Angeles will face Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, who swept the Western Conference champions during the regular season.

The Lakers will try to prove that means nothing when the finals begin Thursday on their home floor against Orlando, which upset Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Cavaliers had the NBA’s best record, but lost both meetings with the Lakers. Had Cleveland made the finals, it would have set up a highly anticipated duel between Bryant and James, the last two NBA MVPs.

The Magic ruined that script, just as they wrecked Boston’s hopes of a repeat by ousting the defending champions in the second round. Now they look to deny Phil Jackson his 10th coaching title, which would move him past Red Auerbach for most all-time.

“To get to the finals is most definitely deserving for this team, but we feel like we still have work to go out there and do, and try to go out there and win it all,” Orlando forward Rashard Lewis said. “Getting to the finals is not enough for us.”

Orlando finished off Cleveland 103-90 on Saturday behind 40 points from Howard and is in the finals for only the second time. The Magic can become the first first-time champion since another Florida team, the Miami Heat, won the 2006 title.

The Lakers clinched their 30th finals appearance, most in NBA history, by beating the Denver Nuggets 119-92 on Friday to win that series in six games. They remained stuck on 15 championships, second behind Boston, when the Celtics beat them last year in six games.

Los Angeles is in much better shape this year. Center Andrew Bynum is healthy after missing the 2008 postseason with a knee injury, and Trevor Ariza— a former Magic player—has become a key starter after missing most of last year’s playoffs with a foot injury.

It didn’t matter who the Lakers had against the Magic this season. Orlando won 106-103 at home in December despite 41 points from Bryant, then pulled out a 109-103 victory in Los Angeles about a month later behind 25 points and 20 rebounds from Howard.

Still, Jackson said he didn’t care which team the Lakers faced.

“The only thing that makes a difference is if it’s Orlando, we make one road trip in this setup,” Jackson said after Friday’s victory.

The Magic made 12 3-pointers in each game, a weapon they relied heavily on in their elimination of the Cavaliers. Los Angeles should be better equipped to deal with the matchup problems that Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu created against Cleveland by inserting Lamar Odom, who had strong performances in the final two games of the West finals after struggling through most of the series.

Looming over the series is the large shadow of Shaquille O’Neal, who led both teams to the finals. He took Orlando there in 1995, then left for Los Angeles the following year and the Magic struggled for years after.

He teamed with Bryant to lead the Lakers to three straight titles from 2000-02, but the Lakers haven’t won another since they traded him in the summer of 2004.

Game 2 will also be at Staples Center before the series shifts to Central Florida for Games 3 and 4, and if necessary, Game 5.

[duncan228]

Updated.

Howard scores 40 as Magic make finals (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2009053019&prov=ap)
By Tom Withers

The Orlando Magic can no longer be ignored. After 14 frustrating years, a team overlooked and ignored all season sent LeBron James home and is on its way to face Kobe Bryant in the NBA finals.

Dwight Howard dominated inside for 40 points, Rashard Lewis added 18 and the Magic, a team that can make 3-pointers drop from thin air, hit 12 in a 103-90 victory over James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night.

“Total domination,” Lewis said. “He totally dominated. He carried us on his back tonight.”

The Magic will be making their first finals appearance since 1995, one year before Shaquille O’Neal bolted as a free agent for Los Angeles, leaving this Florida franchise in ruins.

It’s been a long, slow climb back, but Orlando has been rebuilt and will meet the Lakers on Thursday night at the Staples Center in Game 1.

Disney World vs. Disneyland.

“I just think this team all year long has shown an incredible amount of heart,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “This team just keeps fighting back.”

Oh, and memo to Nike executives: It’s time to break out the Howard puppet. LeBron’s can go in summer storage.

For now, the only matchup between James and Lakers superstar Bryant will have to be limited to those cute TV commercials.

The Magic made them irrelevant.

With the city’s most famous athlete, Tiger Woods, sitting courtside, Orlando made believers of all those who wondered if they were better than the Cavaliers, a team that won 66 games in the regular season, or the defending champion Boston Celtics.

The Magic made both disappear in the postseason.

James scored 25 in his worst game of the series, but the 24-year-old was magnificent for most of it, adding to a legacy still in its infancy. But the league MVP had to it alone, as Mo Williams lost his shooting touch and Cleveland’s bench was badly outplayed by Orlando’s reserves.

Afterward, James put on his headphones and stormed out of Amway Arena without saying a word.

He skipped the news conference and briskly walked down the corridor with two security guards as escorts. He plopped into a chair to be scanned for the team’s charter plane ride, grabbed his bags and was gone—a special season ending in stunning disappointment.

Delonte West added 22 and Williams, who guaranteed the Cavs would come back and win the series, 17 for Cleveland, which went 0-5 in Orlando.

During the closing minutes, James was mocked by Orlando’s crowd singing “M-V-P” as Howard shot free throws.

After Superman muscled underneath for a thunderous dunk with 2:21 left, the crowd moved into finals mode chanting, “Beat L.A.!”

Howard’s one flaw has been his free-throw shooting, but he made 12 of 16 in Game 6.

The Magic’s season hasn’t been without its share of turmoil. Point guard Jameer Nelson sustained a season-ending shoulder injury in early February, a setback that at the time seemed as if it would prevent Orlando from doing anything special this year.

But general manager Otis Smith acquired guard Rafer Alston in a trade with Houston. Alston, a former playground legend, fit in perfectly. In the opening round against Philadelphia, the Magic lost the opener before rebounding and winning a close-out Game 6 on the road.

Then, following Game 5 of the Boston series, Howard called out Van Gundy for not getting him the ball enough and challenged his substitution patterns. The Magic shook off that spat, too, winning two straight, including Game 7 on Boston’s parquet.

In the conference finals, they beat Cleveland with a devastating mix of inside power and outside firepower.

All year, the Cavaliers ended their pregame huddle the same way, with James leading them in a cheer he used with his high school team.

“One, two, three,” James said.

“Hard work,” they replied.

“Four, five, six,” he offered.

“Championship,” they yelled.

But there would be not title, and once again Cleveland fans will feel nothing but heartache as they wait for a team to end the city’s 45-year championship drought.

Everything that could go wrong did in the first half for the Cavaliers.

They couldn’t stop Howard in the paint and when Cleveland’s defense focused its efforts on containing him, the shoot-first-ask-questions-later Magic worked the ball around the arc and took turns launching 3-pointers while building an 18-point halftime lead.

On Cleveland’s last possession before half James drove the lane and missed a short runner while being knocked to the floor.

He sat there in disbelief, looking for a call, looking for help, looking lost.

Cleveland’s coaching staff stormed off barking at the officials and coach Mike Brown was assessed a technical.

When the Cavs came back out after halftime, Howard was practicing free throws. As he walked toward Cleveland’s bench, injured forward Lorenzen Wright, dressed in a suit, jumped up and grabbed the net to try and knock out one of Howard’s attempts.

The shot dropped in anyway, another symbolic moment.

A little more Magic.

Notes

Woods, who shares a Dec. 30 birthday with James, was back after missing Game 4. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was also in the house. … If the Cavaliers were tight before their biggest game this season, they didn’t show it. At the end of the morning shootaround, James and a few teammates whipped a football around the court. James was an all-state wide receiver in high school. “He thinks he’s a quarterback,” Brown said. … Orlando is 4-2 in its history in Game 6s. … James expects he and Howard—Olympic teammates—meeting in the postseason could become an annual event. “It’s not the first time we’ll see each other on this platform,” he said.

[duncan228]

Updated.

LeBron not enough to save Cavs from elimination (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-lebron-nohelp&prov=ap&type=lgns)
By Antonio Gonzalez

LeBron James walked off the court, head down, brushing off a few pieces of confetti. He ignored the few taunts by Magic fans and took one last look at the crowd without muttering a word.

Not to anyone.

A scintillating series by the NBA’s MVP was washed away by his not-so-supporting cast, as the Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated Saturday night with a 103-90 loss to the Orlando Magic in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.

James dressed quickly in the locker room, put on headphones and went to the team bus without talking to reporters. In obvious frustration, he let his play do all the talking.

James had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in his least spectacular game of the series. He went scoreless in the second quarter, allowing the Magic to go ahead by 18 points at the half with little help from teammates.

“We can’t put it all on him,” Cavs forward Joe Smith said. “He needs some help.”

James averaged more than 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the series, performances that are almost unmatched in league history. But he is starving for a wingman.

Still.

All-Star Mo Williams was supposed to provide James with a go-to scorer. The Cavs were counting on Delonte West to be a prominent shooter under pressure, and a healthy Zydrunas Ilgauskas was expected to be a solid inside presence.

None happened. Not when it counted.

That league-best, 66-win regular season disappeared against a Magic team that accounted for six of the Cavs’ losses this season, counting the playoffs. While West (22 points), Williams (17 points) and Ilgauskas (2 points) helped the Cavs trim the deficit to 11 in the third quarter, they again leaned heavily on James to make a comeback that never really felt close.

“You need a total team effort to win,” Magic forward Rashard Lewis said. “LeBron’s a great player, but at the same time, you need more than one guy. You need five guys. You need guys coming off the bench.”

For Cleveland, a city desperate for a championship after a 45-year drought, it’s the same old story—wait until next year. Even King James needs help in his court.

If not for some jaw-dropping moments by James, the Cavs might not have even extended the series as far as they did.

His unforgettable, buzzer-beating 3-pointer saved Cleveland in Game 2. James had 21 points in the second half—17 in the fourth quarter—in Game 5 and had a hand in 31 straight Cleveland points. He finished with 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists in that game to become the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1963 to have such numbers in a playoff game.

But trying to carry an entire team proved to be too much.

“I don’t think it was just LeBron that was tired,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “I think it was everybody out on that floor. And LeBron logged 45 minutes for us.”

James has all summer to think about the series.

The Cavs will surely try to sign James to an extension this offseason before he can opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010. Whether the Akron, Ohio, native will re-sign now—or ever—with the Cavs will remain a mystery until then.

He might want some help first.

The Cavs were desperate for baskets throughout the conference finals, often letting James go 1-on-5 against the Magic in hopes he could find a way to win. But that only worked for so long.

“It’s very frustrating,” Williams said. “I think we both had a 50-50 chance of winning this series. I don’t think we was overmatched. They put us in a tough predicament.”

[Budkin]

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u274/JoeCool-23/bronnonono.gif

[NewJerSpur]

Damn, Howard was a beast....thank goodness they let him play.

[ducks]

James averaged more than 38 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the series, performances that are almost unmatched in league history. But he is starving for help


jerry west scored 75 more points then him in a 6 game series

[Libri]

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u274/JoeCool-23/bronnonono.gif

I'm wondering if they are going to make new puppet commercials.