Orlando Magic Blog

Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

James late three leads Cavaliers to win over Magic

LeBron James, who had yet another monster game with 43 points, made a three pointer with 48 seconds remaining to give Cleveland a two point lead, as the Cavaliers scored the last five points of the game, and were aided by a couple of questionable calls late to defeat the Magic in a game with playoff-like intensity 97-93.

Cleveland started out quick, bolting out to a 22-11 lead in the first before settling for a 28-23 lead after one. It was a 53-50 lead for the Cavaliers at the half, before the Magic took control in the third, outscoring the Cavaliers 25-13 to take a 75-66 lead, before the Cavs scored the last six points in the quarter as the Magic led 75-72 going into the fourth. Their last lead was 93-92 before James did his thing to lead the Cavaliers to victory.

Magic leading scorers

Rafer Alston: 23 points (8 of 16 field goals), 5 steals, 4 assists
Courtney Lee: 19 points (9 of 13 field goals)
Hedo Turkoglu: 16 points (5 of 12 field goals), 7 assists, 6 rebounds
Dwight Howard: 13 points (5 of 8 field goals), 15 rebounds, 6 blocks

Cleveland leading scorers

LeBron James: 43 points (15 of 27 field goals), 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, 6 turnovers
Maurice Williams: 21 points (9 of 20 field goals)

Overall Game Statistics

FG%: CLE 46.4% (39 of 84) ORL 45.6% (36 of 79)
3 PT FG%: ORL 35.7% (10 of 28) CLE 31.8% (7 of 22)
FT%: ORL 84.6% (11 of 13) CLE 75% (12 of 16)
REB: CLE 43 (11 offensive) ORL 40 (9 offensive)
AST/TO: ORL 23/16 CLE 20/13
BENCH: ORL 16 CLE 5

Other game notes and stats:

-Rashard Lewis continues to struggle for the Magic, scoring just 6 points on 3 of 15 shooting, including 0 for 8 on threes
-Lewis and Turkoglu combined to shoot 8 of 27
-The Cavaliers' starting frontcourt outscored the Magic starting frontcourt 63-35 and outrebounded them 30-25
-The Magic starting guards, Alston and Lee, outscored the Cavaliers' starting guards, Williams and Delonte West, 42-29 on 17 of 29 field goal shooting
-Mickael Pietrus led the Magic reserves with 11 points on 4 of 6 field goals, including 3 of 5 on threes
-The Magic used a nine-man rotation, with J.J. Redick not seeing any action along with Lue and Richardson
-Anderson Varajao was the only other Cavalier in double figures with 12 points
-James and Williams combined for 64 of the Cavaliers' 97 points, the other 8 Cavaliers combined for 33 points
-The Cavaliers' bench combined for 5 points on 2 of 7 shooting in 57 combined minutes

The Chicago Bulls did the Magic a big favor by defeating Boston 127-121, so the Magic remain 1/2 game behind the Celtics for the second seed in the East.

For the complete box score, click here

posted by Mike from Illinois @ 10:35 PM  

4 Comments:

  • At 12:27 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Some quotes from after the game from the cbssports.com recap:

    Stan Van Gundy, on the three second call late in the game on Howard:

    "You won't see that call again. That, I guarantee you," Van Gundy said. "You will not see, with the game on the line, a 3-second call in the last 10 seconds. That's part of the reason they're 30-1 at home. They're a very good team, and when you get calls like that [expletive], you're in pretty good shape."

    Howard's take on the call:

    "I was very surprised," he said. "I was in the lane and I got out. It seemed like their bench or their coaching staff got into the ref's ear about me being in the lane. Instead of letting the refs make the call, I guess the bench made the call."

    More from Van Gundy:

    "I kick myself on a couple of play calls," Van Gundy said. "They were coming every time he [Howard] had the ball, but we still probably should have gone to him a little bit more throughout the game, not just at the end."

     

  • At 3:51 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Even though I noted in my post that there were a couple questionable calls late against the Magic, that's not the reason they lost the game; credit LeBron James for doing what was necessary for Cleveland winning the game.

    Overall though, a solid effort by the Magic (except for Rashard Lewis); if the Magic can play that well the rest of the way, they can go deep into the playoffs.

    Lewis and Howard combined for just 19 points, yet the Magic had the lead in the final minute; that shows how well the rest of the guys played.

    Rafer Alston continues to get more and more comfortable in the Magic offense; what a game he had both offensively with the 23 pts and defensively with the 5 steals.

    Thanks to the Bulls, the Magic lost no ground to the Celtics.

    Milwaukee Wednesday night will not be easy for the Magic, as the Bucks have a lot at stake as they try to make the playoffs.

     

  • At 6:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Van Gundy should be fired.....I still cannot understand how you can have one of the most dominate big men in the league and not at least attempt to pass him the ball every possession....anyone who doubts should watch last nights game again and count how many times Magic teammates even looked into the post before jacking shots with Howard out of position to rebound because they had him setting high screen and not looking to pass it back to him off the roll...hard to demand the ball when they don't even look at you....

     

  • At 2:40 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    That's a bit extreme to say Van Gundy should be fired, but Howard should have had more than the 8 FG attempts he had against Cleveland. Van Gundy admitted he erred not having more plays called for D12.

     

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