Photo credit: Doug Benc/Getty images
Saturday night Dwight Howard took over game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals scoring 40 points and snagging 14 rebounds as the Magic defeated the Cavs to advance to the NBA Finals. Orlando is witnessing the birth of a megastar in Howard. Lebron James and Cleveland are going to witness Superman and the Magic play in the finals from their living rooms – where they belong.
Before the Eastern Conference Finals began, the Magic were criticized for not beating a wounded Boston Celtics team in less than seven games. Conversely, Cleveland was hailed as an unstoppable force coming off of first and second round sweeps. The talk of Lebron James being better than Kobe, and of a potential sweep was on the lips of the analysts at ESPN. The lone exception was Charles Barkley, who picked Orlando to win the series. Apparently Sir Charles had studied the match-ups while other analysts were watching puppet shows.
The Magic won the season series against Cleveland, almost sweeping it with a tight game on the road. Why did the Magic have such success against the Cavs? The Cavs are not nearly as effective when playing other good teams. Cavs fans may say, “We played our worst games against the Lakers and the Magic!” Well, yes, because they forced you to play your worst games.
Lebron is a superstar, and maybe the best basketball player of all-time when his career is complete, but that is not enough against the truly great teams of the NBA. During the regular season, the Cavs were only .500 against the other seven teams in the Conference Semi-Finals. That is nothing to tip your nose at, but it is certainly not the clear-cut dominating kind of record one would think after hearing all of the playoff hype.
Part of the creation of that façade was the weakness of the Eastern Conference. Three of the four best teams in the league, before Kevin Garnett got hurt, were the Magic, the Cavs, and the Celtics – beyond that, there wasn’t much else to compete against. The Cavs were average against talent, and dominant over weakness.
The primary reason they lost the series against Orlando is that the Cavs only had one of the six best players on the court. The Magic starting five would all start over everyone on the Cavs but Lebron.
The Magic are a formidable team that no one would give credit all year. “Let’s see ‘em do it in the playoffs.” Done. Now watch them in the Finals. In Howard, Orlando has an unstoppable force on defense and a very unfriendly contender on offense. The league has yet to find kryptonite for Superman. There is not another big man in the league who can play with Howard. Because of this, teams have to double him, often with their power forward.
The opponent’s power forward usually guards Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu, both stand at 6’10. Unlike many men their size, when they are left open as result of a double-team, they can drain anything from anywhere on the court. As Dwight draws the double, Hedo or Shard get the open three. And if not them, one of the other Magic shooters, Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, Mickael Pietrus, JJ Redick, or Anthony Johnson can all hit the three.
So what do you do with a team that has one unguardable big man and seven guys that can drain jump shots from anywhere on the court? That is what Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers will be trying to figure out before they meet the Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals.
