Four Pair Swing Makes the Difference In Orlando
by Steve Weinman on May 25, 2009 8:00 AM EDT
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A Daily Babble Production
Given that LeBron James has never been confused for Ray Allen at the free throw line, I wouldn't call what happened in the fourth quarter in Orlando last night a full-fledged role reversal. But it had that feeling.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers trailing by six points and a shade outside of four and a half minutes to play in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, James drove to the basket and was fouled in the act of shooting. Two shots. Clang. Clang.
On LeBron's second miss, Anderson Varejao committed a foul trying to take the rebound away from Dwight Howard. With the Cavs in the penalty, the notoriously inaccurate (albeit not on this night) Howard headed to the line for two shots of his own. I wouldn't describe them as "swish and swish," but the results were just as good. Eight-point game.
Less than two and a half minutes later, after the Cavaliers had cut the deficit to four, the situation repeated itself in reverse order.
Howard drew a shooting foul from Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Again, not swish and swish, but good and good. Just as effective as swish and swish.
At the other end, the Cavs lucked out when the Magic tipped the rebound of a missed three-pointer out of bounds. Shortly after the ensuing rebound, Bron drew a tick-tack foul from Mickael Pietrus coming around a screen outside the top of the circles. Penalty situation, two shots. Miss. Miss. Orlando ball, leading by six, less than two minutes to play.
There are a lot of reasons why the Magic left Amway Arena late Sunday night with a 99-89 win, and most of the ones on the Cleveland end had little to do with LeBron James. But with the game's outcome hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter, each team's respective star contributed to an eight-point swing. The 60 percent career free throw shooter made four biggies (and 14 of his 19 attempts for the night) right around the time the man who shot a career high 78 percent this season missed four of his own en route to an 18-for-24 performance.
As promised, the Cavaliers hacked Dwight Howard all night long, and he got the job done at the stripe. In the meantime, the league's best player missed as many free throws in the fourth quarter alone as Howard did for the game. In a series that has shown itself to be far more of a competition than some idiots (read: me) predicted, that can make all the difference.
Other quick-hitters from the game that put my initial Cavs-in-five prediction to bed once and for all:
- I wish I had kept track of the number of fouls the Cavs committed outside the top of the circles as a result of poor timing on hedging when their bigs jumped out to play the high screen-and-roll, usually initiated by Hedo Turkoglu. Of the nine fouls Turkoglu drew last night, only one came in the act of shooting.
- Zydrunas Ilgauskas looks awful. He isn't moving well on defense and doesn't look comfortable shooting the ball. Rough 3-for-10 night for him.
- Mickael Pietrus continues to impress me. His slashing earned him another seven trips to the line, and he made several effective defensive plays on LeBron, including a neat block once the game was no longer in doubt. If only he would stop walking.
- Stan Van Gundy is the anti-Popovich when it comes to the dopey between-quarters interview in nationally teleivsed games. Whereas nearly every other coach in the league won't offer a syllable more than is necessary to get away from the microphone, SVG routinely goes above and beyond in offering us full paragraphs worth of a combination of raspy-voiced insight and goofiness. Last night's highlight: "If LeBron dribbles, it's a foul. He's going to the line for two shots." Count me curious to see if this earns him a $15,000 bill from the league.
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Did anone here read Sports Illustrated this week?
The cover story was about the perpetual ineptitude of Cleveland, both economically, environmentally and athletically. It’s riddled with requests from inhabitants and fans to not put the story on SI’s cover, for obvious superstitious and historical reasons.
The unenviable position that Cleveland finds itself in is all the more amusing in light of the piece.
Boston should feel little shame in having lost to Orlando, especially with its diminutive roster..
This game took a number of days off my life, but I didn't have anything scheduled.
by nachoman on May 25, 2009 8:47 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Pietrus Impressive. Refs DO favor LeBron
Pietrus last night showed again he was one of the best pickups last summer. Last night also pointed up again SVG’s mistake in not putting Pietrus on LeBron in Game 2 last shot. He can sky and he’s laterally quick and he’s not skinny – all good for dogging LeBron.
Lebron gets away with more walking (except for Game 2, next to last handle) than anyone and the block by Howard on Lebron’s 3 was a thing of beauty and OBVIOUS to the ref looking straight on. I’m not a conspiracy nut like Brickowski etc on this blog but he -for one – has been saying as much since the beginning of the year and the refs this series re making him look right on.
by Wildblu1 on May 25, 2009 9:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Pietrus is finally paying off for them, because he really didnt have a season to remember
by ohc on May 25, 2009 9:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
He had an injury midseason. He was starting prior to this and averaging ~15 ppg, so I think he did pretty well.
by kozlodoev on May 25, 2009 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Pietrus had to deal with injuries and inconsistencies in his game.
.. he’s been coming up big in the playoffs, though. That’s all that matters.
I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.
"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone
by erivera7 on May 25, 2009 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I agree. and I know his season with laced with injuries, thats why it wasnt one to remember
by ohc on May 25, 2009 8:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
No doubt.
I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.
"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone
by erivera7 on May 25, 2009 8:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Over-officiating
This game, as well as the last WCF game, both suffered from the same over-officiating that ruined any flow the games had going. I really hope this isn’t a trend for the rest of the playoffs.
Excellent article here about that particular issue: http://raptorsrepublic.com/blog/2009/05/25/what-happened-to-the-nba-i-loved/
"I was playing in the streets one time and my friend broke off a leg to a chair and threw it at another guy through his heart and he died." - Ron Artest, QB's finest
by endverse on May 25, 2009 11:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
stings a little
we should have beaten Orlando, and now it looks like we could’ve beat Cleveland.
by D Dub on May 25, 2009 11:53 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I don't know about that.
The Magic are a matchup nightmare for the Cavaliers .. the Celtics? Not so much. That’s not an indictment on Boston (given that they were a matchup problem for Orlando), just the reality of the situation.
In the playoffs, it’s all about matchups. Simple as that.
I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.
"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone
by erivera7 on May 25, 2009 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
celtics fans have to admit
celtics players played their hearts out and at the end run out of gas… losing to orlando in seven games is the most they could do …
by hiro on May 25, 2009 8:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, the Celtics have nothing to be ashamed of.
Boston played their hearts out in the playoffs and showed the heart of a champion. Respect.
I'm the other guy at Third Quarter Collapse, with a Twitter account.
"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement." - Michael Corleone
by erivera7 on May 25, 2009 8:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Pietrus/Posey
so similar… would love to have either of them.
by rickyfan3.0... on May 25, 2009 11:57 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
A this stage.
Pietrus is better than Posey at this stage. He’s more athletic and a better at running the floor.
by liamail on May 25, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Mo Williams
Where is this guy? Isn’t he suppose to be an all star? I new both Mo and Odom would come up small when it counted.
Even with all the bad calls against the Magic they could easily be up 3 zip. The Cavs are in deep trouble.
by liamail on May 25, 2009 12:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Refs suck
If you are guarding LeBron, you are “guilty until proven innocent”, except that there is no replay to prove innocence. David Stern, watch the replay of the Dwight Howard beautiful, clean and crucial block. It sickens you to see good plays called wrong. I say “crucial” since at that instant, those “FREE” three free throws could have cost the Magic the game. LeBron charged a number of times but it was called a foul. Sometimes, the ball dribbler cuts in and charges the defender like a fullback trying to bowl over a tackler and it is called a defensive foul instead of offensive.
This makes the NBA look like a cartoon or the WWE. I am sick of it. LeBron knocked a ball out of the cylinder and it was called a block. Anybody else except Kobe, it would have been a goaltend. David Stern must have put the refs on the payroll of LeBron James.
LeBron and Kobe are too good to have cruddy refs tarnish their reputation. Quit giving them calls they do not deserve!
by USA-is-socialist on May 25, 2009 1:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I Agree.
That block call was one of the worst this year. They even went to instant reply to see if it was a three! If they can check that they why can’t they check the foul call at the same time! The NBA is blown call-tastic!
by liamail on May 25, 2009 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
total travesty
The block by Howard with it being called a foul is a travesty by the NBA. Here is a great 6’11 athletic ballplayer who makes great plays and they take his play away from him. Then when Lebron makes clearly goaltends they say it is a block. So they take an awesome play away from Howard, and give one to Lebron that he didn’t make. You know why players don’t make blocks like that on the fast break? Because its called goaltending thats why. I watched the replay of the game on TNT late last night. It was absolutely ridiculous to again watch the block by Howard. The NBA looked like waching your 10 year old kid play when the coach is the father’s son and the refs don’t know what they are doing so they favor one team over the other. It was horrible, watch the live replay of the game and you will see how embarrassing Stern and his NBA refs are.
by star18 on May 25, 2009 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Worst part...
The Worst part is that they go to the replay, to see if it’s 3 foul shots, and they have to see it’s a bad call and they can’t change it. That’s stupitastic!
by liamail on May 25, 2009 5:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
guilty until proven innocent
The same can be applied to guiding Kobe.
The block by Howard was about as clean as you can get. Shame on the refs
by 33-32-00 on May 26, 2009 7:38 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
hurrah orlando. i like everyone on that team except van gundy. now, i would really like denver to wake up and knock off the lakers, tho kobe looks great. all that olympics stuff did not slow him down.
by nazzbo on May 25, 2009 3:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
This proves it
I watched Mike and Mike in the morning at 6AM this morning. Erik Kuselias was fillilng in for one of the Mike’s. He started running his mouth about Lebron in Game 3. Everything he said was false. Everything he said was a lie. He talked about how great Lebron was and how he drove the lane on one play in the 1st QTR and dished out to an open Daniel Gibson who missed the three and how Lebron didn’t put on a look of dissapointment that Gibson missed but rather got back quickly on defense to make an awesome block on Courtney Lee that was called a goaltend. Everything Kuselias said was wrong Everything. First of all it was Mo Williams who missed the shot. 2nd of all it wasn’t even that play, it was the next play when Lee stole the ball. 3rd the play wasn’t called a goaltend it was credited a block and side out Magic. Of course the “block” was in fact a goaltend but it wasn’t called that way. Three lies in 10 seconds from an espn anylyst who supposedly watched the game. it is downright disgusting.
by star18 on May 25, 2009 4:45 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
GREAT JOB BOSTON-
going 7 against a really good magic team without KG!!
WHO’S GONNA BEAT L.A.???
i would like to see orlando win it all.
by CELTICZ4LIFE on May 25, 2009 6:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Finals
LA vs. Orlando will be a good match-up.
Orlando was 2-0 against the Lakers this year, but J. Nelson scored 27 & 28 points in those two games.
by Title 18 on May 25, 2009 6:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah Jameer was the main reason they won both of those games
by ohc on May 25, 2009 8:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Howard's free throws...
he is going to get better … his shooting motion is actually not bad and i can only see it gets better…compare to shaq’s awkward follow through…
and about the finals…i would love to see magic go on and beat both cavs and lakers… spoiling the nba/nike marketing tricks all in one go …
on the other hand… it would be interesting to see lakers v cavs just to see who gets the star treatment more … refs would be like: shit mr.stern should i call a goaltend if lebron blocks kobe?
by hiro on May 25, 2009 7:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Pietrus will return to his former self
And put together a string of low-IQ plays and dumb mistakes that will cost something significant to his team.
Until my prediction rings true, he’s been one of the most valuable players this post-season. Kudos to him,
by cordobes on May 25, 2009 9:00 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
He and JR Smith are the type who can get carried away easliy and do things that hurt the team. Remember this is the same Pietrus who missed a critical FT at the end of the Dallas-Warriors game in round 1 a couple years ago that almost cost the Warriors the series.
by 33-32-00 on May 26, 2009 7:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
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