Friday, May 22, 2009

Orlando Magic shock the Cavs ... and the world!

Yesterday the Orlando Magic pulled off a come from behind win on the road in Cleveland to win the first game of their NBA Eastern Conference Finals match-up with LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

I followed the yahoo scoreboard at work yesterday and when I got home I was pumped to find the replay of the game on One HD (I love you).

While John Rillie chose to focus on Dwight Howard's dunk that stopped the game, for me it was all about basketball shooting.

The knock on LeBron James has been his poor jump shooting (and free-throw shooting) but that was evidenced last night. I got home in time for the second quarter and LBJ was on a role sticking jumper after jumper. When his shot is on he is virtually impossible to guard. Despite missing his first four field goal attempts, LeBron finished an impressive 20 of 30 from the field including 3 triples.

The real hero of the night tho was Rashard Lewis of the Orlando Magic. Shard also started the game slowly but after half-time could not miss. It took a while for the Cavs to adjust and by the time they did, it was too late, he was on fire. He scored 17 points in the second half, 11 in the final quarter and was 7 of 7 from the field after the main break.

The final quarter was great to watch with the lead going back and forth between the two times. In the final minutes it was big shot after big shot being hit which is great to see from a shooting perspective. Unfortunately for Delonte West, it was his shot from the corner in the final few seconds that proved the difference and the Magic hung on for the win.

The crew at Dime have a good breakdown of the game itself and Rashard's shooting performance.

Here are the highlights from the game if you didn't catch it:


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