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.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel…
After Tuesday night’s nail-biting, heart-palpitating 116-114 Magic overtime victory shoved the Cavs to within the brink of playoff elimination, Phil Knight isthisclose to realizing that not signing Dwight will go down as Nike’s biggest mistake since being tied to child-labor sweatshops in Pakistan.
What Dwight did Tuesday is what superstars do: he took over the game when it mattered most. He scored the first three buckets in OT on dunks. He calmly swished two free throws with 21 seconds left to all but seal the game. He scored 10 of the Magic’s 16 points in the extra period and finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds.
I agree that Howard came up huge in overtime, but where was he at the end of regulation? He scored one point in the fourth quarter. One point!
George Diaz of OrlandoSentinel.com…
It’d be silly for everybody to check into Oliver Stone’s universe, where there’s a conspiracy in every plot line. If the fix was in for a Cleveland-Los Angeles Finals, it sure would be stupid to try to pull these shenanigans before an international audience dialed in every night?
But people gotta wonder.
Anderson Varejao wrestled Howard to the court with a headlock and didn’t get a flagrant foul called against him. Making it worse, Howard got a technical for getting overly exuberant after that play.
“I guess there’s no problem grabbing a guy by the neck, but if you celebrate there’s a problem,” Van Gundy said.
It got worse. James — I know this is a surprise — got a chippy call, a blocking one by Mickael Pietrus, with .5 seconds left in regulation that allowed him to send Tuesday night’s game into overtime. James constantly initiates contact as he drives his shoulder into other people, yet it’s always The Other Guy.
Howard’s technical was a bad, bad call. Hopefully the league rescinds it after reviewing it. As for Pietrus’ foul at the end of regulation, I thought it was the right call. LeBron always initiates the contact, but if the guy is out of position, he’s out of position, and Pietrus didn’t have position on that one.
Not only are the Cavs fighting the Magic, they’re now fighting history. Teams with a 3-1 lead are 182-8 (.958) in series dating back to 1947.
