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

May 21, 2009 by AlexV · Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Basketball
Tagged: 3rd round, cleveland cavaliers, delonte west, dwitch howard, eastern conference finals, hedo turkoglu, joe smith, lebron james, mo williams, NBA, NBA finals, nba playoffs, orlando magic, rashard lewis, third round, zydrunas ilgauskas

Why the Orlando Magic can Beat the Cleveland Cavaliers

May 19, 2009 by AlexV · 1 Comment

Let's see where the eastern conference home games will be played in this year's finals.

The Orlando Magic did what many people thought they would, although not as fast as some people thought, and that was stop the injury-riddled Boston Celtics from any chances they had of repeating as champions. It may seem to some as though the Magic are not ready to stand the test that is the efficient basketball playing Cleveland Cavaliers who are led by the, this year, super-cool LeBron James. However, the adversity they faced in the Boston Celtics series (most notably games four and five) has helped them mature into a team that can definitely beat the Cavaliers and perhaps even in convincing fashion.

What about the Cavaliers looks like they should just run through the Orlando Magic with ease? That they are efficient, every player knows their place, and they all feed off of LeBron James’ confidence? Sometimes, that’s just not enough when you can’t match up well with your opponent. And I’m talking pure plain and simple physical matchups.

Let’s start with the most obvious… the 6 foot 11 inch Dwight Howard. There are three options to guard him; Anderson Verajao, Ben Wallace, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. First off, Verajao is 6 ft 11, so not bad. Anderson is very tenacious and plays with a lot of energy, but he does not have the scoring nor the speed or power to truly offset a Dwight Howard. Ben Wallace is 6 ft 9 and is a former four-time defensive player of the year. But when you factor in his digression at 35 years of age, it may be too much to ask of him to consistently keep Howard at bay. Finally, the 7 foot 3 inch Ilgauskas has the height advantage, but he is not known for his defense, nor does he have the body strength to prevent Howard from getting to the line for some free throws, and with “hack-a-Dwight” not always being a safe option, this could pose problems.

After Dwight Howard, Verajao will have to look after Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. These are two strong and tall forwards who also exceed Verajao in his strength and speed, and most obviously, scoring. Verajao can at best, produce one, maybe two nights, where he can match one of these men scoring wise, but one of two and only one or two times is not good.

But this is not all that Verajao will have to worry about. The Magic still have two more big men scoring threats that will be coming off the bench in Mikael Pietrus and Tony Battie, and this does not bode well for the Cavs, even if they are top two in the league in defense.

Raefer Alston and Anthony Johnson together can easily offset Mo Williams, who is more of a streaky scorer, and Williams’ backup, DeLonte West, who also needs space to score, or a clear lane to the hole. Whereas he could get a few lanes, he’ll have Dwight Howard standing under the basket.

This should be no easy task for either team, but what the Magic’s advantage is that they do not have to alter their game-plan or rotations too much to deal with Cleveland’s size. Cleveland most likely will have to. So, in that regard, this should be more of a strategical challenge for the Cavaliers than it will be for the Orlando Magic.