Orlando Staves off Cleveland’s first half Big Push – Ready to create one of their Own Now

Last night at 8:30pm on TNT the Eastern Conference Finals began as game one between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers ensued. In the early-going, it was the Cleveland Cavaliers looking like the three-balling Orlando Magic hitting big three after three which was mostly a result of a tenacious defense. However, the Magic weathered that early storm, reduced a 63-48 halftime deficit to a 78-82 deficit by the end of the third quarter before finally pulling it out in a 107-106 victory. To me, Cleveland’s heartfelt early spurt resembled a game seven emotion. Too bad it wasn’t game seven and there are at least six more to go.

 

What this tells me is that the Orlando Magic, with a great third quarter, and a great display of what they are capable of as an entire unit in the second half (as opposed to the first half when it was almost the “Dwight Howard Show” for them) that they can handle the Cleveland Cavaliers quite convincingly if they just keep this up throughout an entire game. However, the biggest factor for me is that Cleveland was allowed 63 first half points with guys like Mo Williams, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Joe Smith, and of course LeBron James being seemingly on fire all at the same time. However, you really cannot expect too many of these guys outside of maybe Williams and James to be so hot or possess the ability to be at any given time.

 

This is why I believe that game one was merely a warm up for the Magic which they somehow managed to escape from victorious. Now, Cleveland may be struggling to keep scoring for the remainder of this series, and if LeBron James had to be forced to score 49 points in a game that his team was up by thirteen points at half time, and still loses, that does not bode well for the favorite Cavaliers.

 

I’m predicting the Orlando Magic winning game two in a much more convincing manner than their one point slide-by on Wednesday night.