Orlando rode a strong first half performance to an 18-point halftime lead, and held off the Cavs’ late charge to win Game 6 (103-90) and clinch a date with the Lakers in the Finals.

Dwight Howard had arguably his best game of the series, posting 40 points (14-21 from the field, 12-16 from the free throw line), 14 rebounds and four assists. The Magic overcame substandard shooting from Hedo Turkoglu (3-12, 10 points) with fine play from Rashard Lewis (6-13, 18 points) and Mickael Pietrus (5-10, 14 points).

For the Cavs, Game 6 was more about their failure to have an answer for Howard than it was about getting poor play from LeBron’s sidekicks. Delonte West (9-19, 22 points) and Mo Williams (6-12, 17 points) both played pretty well and shot a combined 5 of 7 from long range. Anderson Varejao (7-12, 14 points) also had a solid game. However, the rest of the Cavs shot a combined 5 for 17 (29%) for 12 points.

James had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and shot just 40% from the field. Most players would be reasonably happy with a night like that, but the Cavs needed more from LeBron in an elimination game on the road. Still, he averaged 41.2 points (on 50% shooting), 8.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists in the series, so it’s hard to fault his play.

Looking ahead, the Lakers match up pretty well with the Magic in that they have a couple of big men in Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol that will try to slow down Howard. Bynum in particular needs to play well and it’s not clear that his stamina is strong enough to play a ton of minutes. Gasol isn’t strong enough to handle Howard one-on-one, so when Bynum is on the bench, the Lakers will probably have to throw some double-teams at Orlando’s big man. Meanwhile, Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus will be asked to watch Kobe. If they can slow him down and the Magic continue to hit their threes, they’ll have a good shot to upset the Lakers.

Check back later in the day for a complete breakdown of the challenges that the Cavs face over the next year or so as they try to pick up the pieces and re-sign LeBron.

Facing elimination, the Cleveland Cavaliers did what they needed to do tonight by winning Game 5, 112-102. It wasn’t always pretty, but a quick start put the Magic in the hole and a brilliant fourth quarter from LeBron James put Orlando away. He posted 37 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, and was directly responsible (either by making the bucket or the assist) for 32 straight points spanning from the late third quarter to the late fourth.

The Cavs started out the game on fire, scoring 26 points in the first six minutes, while holding the Magic to just eight points during the same time frame. To put that lead into perspective, at that point the Cavs were on pace to win the game by a score of 208-64. Wow.

But the Magic are nothing if not resilient, and a terrific second quarter trimmed the lead to one at halftime. It looked like the Magic would once again take the game down to the wire, but Lebron’s wonderful performance in the fourth quarter gave control back to the Cavs.

Mo Williams’ fine play in the first half (18 points) allowed LeBron to conserve his energy somewhat for the stretch run. He broke out of his shooting slump, hitting 6 of 9 three pointers and finishing with 24 points. The Cavs also enjoyed some good play from Zydrunas Ilgauskas (6-8, 16 points), Delonte West (6-13, 13 points) and Daniel Gibson (3-5, 11 points). The Cavs shot 50% from the field and 50% from long range.

What’s scary for the Cavs is that it took this kind of performance from LeBron and most of his supporting cast and the game was still close late in the fourth quarter. Dwight Howard (24 points) and Hedo Turkoglu (29 points) played well, but Rashard Lewis (15 points) and Rafer Alston (3 points) combined to shoot just 5 of 23 from the field.

With the win, the pressure is back on the Magic. Nobody really expects the Cavs to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series (that’s not to say it can’t be done), but with a potential Game 7 back in Cleveland, the Magic will definitely want to wrap things up in Orlando.

Game 6 is Saturday at 5:30 PM ET.

John Hollinger writes that the uptick in free throws this postseason is nothing new.

This phenomenon has gone on since prehistoric times as clubs enforce the no-layups policy with greater zeal, and garbage-time situations become fewer and farther between. These playoffs’ free-throw rates have increased over the regular-season rates similar to past seasons’ rates, even though high-foul teams are overrepresented this time around.

Denver led the NBA in free-throw attempts per field goal attempt this season by a wide margin.

Orlando averaged .351, good for third in the league, with center Dwight Howard leading the league in free-throw attempts.

Sum it up, and that’s six conference finals games with an above-average number of fouls, but we also have a far greater sampling of 67 games from the first two rounds of the playoffs. And in those two rounds, we had no deviation from the historic trend whatsoever. The only noteworthy development is a phenomenal increase in the frequency of technical fouls, with 1½ being called a game in this postseason, compared to less than one per night just here years ago.

But as far as live-ball action goes, the evidence for the “refs gone wild” theory is skimpy at best. Basically, we’re getting all bent out of shape over a six-game sample when a sample of 10 times as many games shows the opposite conclusion.

The bottom line is that teams and players don’t care if the refs call it close or loose, they just want consistency throughout the game. Officials can’t “let guys play” in the first quarter and then start calling ticky-tack fouls late in the game. The players adjust based on how the game is being called early on, but if that changes throughout the course of the game, all hell breaks loose.

Brian Windhorst of Cleveland.com…

What you have here is a team playing at its peak playing against a team on its heels. It is a rather classic situation. The Magic are not a team of destiny, they are a loaded team hitting on all cylinders. It is rather impressive you have to admit. The Cavs were going to have their hands full beating the Magic just playing to their season averages. Playing the way they are now, it isn’t happening. Remember that 4-1 Pistons series victory over the favored Lakers in the 2004 Finals. When Kobe Bryant hit a miracle shot to win Game 2? That is what this feels like watching.

Michael White of the Magic Basketblog.

MJ himself could not win a title with the stiffs LeBron is carrying.

The Cavs might come back and win this series, but how in the world have they gotten this far with such a laughable supporting cast?

Imagine if Van Halen was just Eddie and 3 Michael Anthonys? You might still get “Eruption,” but you’d never hear anything close to “Hot for Teacher.”

The refs are better friends to him than the schlubs who share his uniform.

Think about the players Jordan, Bird and Magic ran with. DJ. James Worthy. Pippen. McHale. Even Horace Grant. If James had just one player of that caliber, he’d probably already have a ring and be working on another.

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Despite some poor play down the stretch in regulation, the Magic survived another test from the Cavs, winning Game 4, 116-114, in overtime.

The Magic had a six-point lead with 4:18 to go in the fourth quarter before this series of possessions:

3:28 Hedo Turkoglu misses 13-foot jumper
3:15 Rafer Alston misses 25-foot three point jumper
2:55 Hedo Turkoglu traveling
2:29 Rafer Alston bad pass (Anderson Varejao steals)
2:03 Mickael Pietrus misses 24-foot three point jumper
1:43 Dwight Howard misses free throw 1 of 2
1:43 Dwight Howard makes free throw 2 of 2
1:10 Rafer Alston misses 24-foot three point jumper
0:45 Hedo Turkoglu misses 25-foot three point jumper
0:07 Mickael Pietrus misses 24-foot three point jumper

So in those nine possessions, the Magic scored one point (Howard’s free throw) on 0-6 shooting from the field and two turnovers. They found themselves trailing by a point with four seconds to play. Then Rashard Lewis hit a very difficult three pointer to give the Magic a two-point lead. It’s quite tough for a right-handed player to square up on his right foot and make a long shot like he did. On the Cavs next possession, LeBron took the ball to the hole and got the call when he collided with Mickael Pietrus in the lane. He hit both free throws to force overtime.

In the extra period, it was the Dwight Howard show. He posted 10 points, including two clutch free throws with 0:21 to play to give the Magic a four-point lead. On the Cavs’ next possession, he had an amazing block on LeBron’s drive to the rim. The extra period was a defining moment for Orlando’s big man.

With the Cavs trailing 3-1, it’s looking like there’s a good chance that we won’t see that Lakers/Cavs matchup that everyone was expecting. Howard and Co. have used this supposed inevitability as motivation and they now have a great shot at making the Finals.

For Cleveland, LeBron isn’t getting much help. If you remove his field goal attempts from the equation, the rest of the Cavs have made 90 of 220 shots (41%) in the series, and that’s poor accuracy given how much attention the defense is paying to the Cavs’ superstar. Mo Williams is averaging 17.3 points per game in the series, but he’s not scoring efficiently. He went 5 of 15 from the field in Game 4, which puts him at just over 32% for the series. That’s not going to get it done.

The Cavs have two of the last three games at home. If they can get a win in Game 5, the pressure is back on the Magic, who will treat Game 6 like it’s a Game 7 — they won’t want to go back to Cleveland. The series definitely isn’t over, but the fat lady is stage right warming up those vocal cords.

In his latest PER Diem, John Hollinger thinks that the Cavs should think about going small.

Thus, the Cavs must go back to the drawing board, and it’s time for them to unearth the one tactic we didn’t see Wednesday night: going small.

This may be the only way for the Cavs to survive. It’s easier to double Howard with quicker, faster players, while James can slide up to the 4 and lock up Lewis. The Cavs haven’t used that plan much this postseason, but it may be the only way they can guard the Magic in this series. Such a lineup might require them to play Sasha Pavlovic, because Wally Szczerbiak can’t guard Pietrus, and that’s a terrifying thought. But anything would be preferable to the way they’ve been chewed up during the teams’ first four meetings.

I know the Cavs like the idea of allowing James to roam by having him defend Alston, but he’s the only player on the team qualified to check Lewis. I’m a huge fan of Anderson Varejao’s defensive expertise, but this is a bad matchup for him. He isn’t used to defending the 3-point line and had trouble getting back to Lewis on the pick-and-pop plays on which Orlando devoured the Cavs during the second half. And if Varejao guards Howard instead, he may be able to flop himself into a few offensive-foul calls — which is vital, because putting Howard on the bench is about the only way Cleveland can stop him.

I guess it’s worth a try. Having Zydrunas Ilgauskas cover Dwight Howard one-on-one did not work. Going small would allow the Cavs to double Howard more quickly with smaller players and the theory is that he’d give the ball up. The problem is that the Cavs would be replacing one of their better players (Ilgauskas or Varejao) with one of their…um…more questionable players (Szczerbiak, Pavlovic). This also means that Joe Smith would see fewer minutes in favor of Szcerbiak or Pavlovic and that’s not a good thing.

In a great back-and-forth second half, the Magic finally upended the Cavs, 107-106.

The Cavs jumped out early but the Magic settled down in the second quarter and kept the game reasonably close. They would have been down by 12 at halftime if not for a three-quarter-court heave by Mo Williams that put the Cavs up 15.

One thing that jumped out at me is the way that the Cavs matched up at the beginning of the game. They put Delonte West on Hedo Turkoglu, Mo Williams on Courtney Lee and LeBron on Rafer Alston. As good of defense as LeBron has played this season, the Cavs actually think West is their best perimeter defender. He’s smaller than Turkoglu, but that doesn’t really matter because Turkoglu doesn’t post up. West can hug him on the perimeter and contest his jumper and use his quickness to keep him from getting to the hole. Meanwhile, it’s highly unlikely that LeBron will get into foul trouble covering Alston.

Conversely, Stan Van Gundy should really think about switching his front court matchups by putting Howard on Anderson Varejao and Rashard Lewis on the more perimeter-oriented Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Lewis would be at a size disadvantage, but it would allow Howard to stay closer to the rim since Varejao doesn’t spend a lot of time on the perimeter.

For much of the first half, Dwight Howard couldn’t catch a break inside. The refs were letting the Cleveland bigs abuse him, but called him for a couple of ticky-tack offensive fouls, which kept him in foul trouble throughout the first half. If the refs are going to let defenders hack away, then they better let Howard use his strength when he has the ball.

The Magic proved during the Boston series that they are a resilient team. They are not easily rattled and they don’t get down on each other when things aren’t going well. Orlando went into Dwight Howard repeatedly in the third quarter and cut the Cleveland lead to four at the end of the quarter.

The final period was nip tuck the whole way. LeBron fouled Howard out of the game (undeservedly, I might add, as Howard jumped straight up) on a three point play that put the Cavs up two with 0:25 to play and then Lewis hit a huge three to put the Magic up one with 0:14 remaining. The Magic doubled LeBron right away and he gave the ball up. The possession ended with a missed corner three by West, a jump ball and then a Mo Williams attempt off the jump ball that was thisclose to going in.

The Magic continued to fight and took advantage of a Cleveland team that seemingly put it into cruise control at halftime. The Cavs tried to turn it on again in the fourth quarter but Orlando made enough plays to steal Game 1. LeBron finished with 49 points, eight assists, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Mo Williams chipped in with 17 points. Howard had 30 points and 13 boards before fouling out. Rashard Lewis went 9 of 13 from the field (including several clutch shots down the stretch) for 22 points and Hedo Turkoglu scored 15 points while dishing out 14 assists. The Cavs bench was thoroughly outplayed; they were outscored 25-5.

If tonight is any evidence, this is going to be an interesting series.

The conference finals are set, so it’s time to update our playoff power rankings…

Note: Click on the team name to read a short offseason blueprint.

R.I.P.

16. Pistons
15. Sixers
14. Heat
13. Mavericks
Even though it ended with a disappointing finish against the Nuggets, the Mavs made a pretty nice run this year. Mark Cuban’s payroll this season ($94.7 million) was ridiculous, but it’s not clear that he really gives a damn. He wants an NBA title and seems willing to pay for it. That said, Jason Kidd is a free agent and will have to take a big pay cut from his 2008-09 salary ($21.4 million). Kidd is 36 years old, but he’s still a top 15 NBA point guard. But how much longer can he play at that level? By letting him go, they’d be setting themselves back a year or two as they try to find a replacement. The Mavs really shot themselves in the foot when they traded away Devin Harris. Brandon Bass is also a free agent and according to his PER (16.49) and the eye-test, he’s an above-average power forward. He’s starter-cailber or a great bench player for a good playoff team. It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of contract he gets in this economy.

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