Cavaliers Keep Their Finals Dream Alive

James Notches Triple Double, Cavs beat Magic 112-102

What a crazy game. You’ve got to love playoff basketball. The Cavaliers came out of the gate absolutely on fire. They raced out to a 32-10 lead, propelled by a barrage of Mo Williams three pointers. Williams, who has struggled mightily this postseason, finally looked like the Robin he’s supposed to be to LeBron’s Batman. Williams finished with 24 points and 6 made three pointers.

It looked like no contest, like the desperation of the Cavs was going to end this game less than 12 minutes after it began. But this series has been tight, and the Magic have shown an astounding resiliency. They came back from big early deficits in Games 1 and 2, and they did it again in Game 5. After being down 32-10, the Magic closed out the first half on a monster 45-24 run, closing to within one point at halftime. It was a remarkable run; it was like watching two different games.

The Magic got back in it with a swarming defense that caused one turnover after another. Hedo Turkoglu was spectacular during that run, and finished the game with 29 points. Like Williams, he had been struggling with his shot all series, and his play was a major bright spot for the Magic, despite losing the game. He was finally able to take advantage of his mismatch with the much shorter Delonte West guarding him.

The Magic kept their momentum going as the third quarter opened with a 9-0 run to take an eight point lead. Then it was time for a Cavs run. “Boobie” Gibson provided a spark off the bench with 11 points, but the rest of the bench really let down the Cavs. That will be a storyline to watch as the series continues. As the game went deep into the fourth, it looked destined to come down to another last second shot. With under 5 minutes left it was 94-93 Cavaliers.

That’s when LeBron James happened.

Cleveland’s next scoring plays went like this: LeBron assists on a Gibson 3, LeBron makes a pull-up jumper, LeBron gets into the lane and makes a short jumper, LeBron James makes a pull-up jumper from 22 feet, LeBron makes an insane pass to Varejao for an and-one. During that time Orlando scored once, an and-one by Pietrus; the score was 107-96. Game Cavs.

Cleveland’s offense in that stretch was ridiculous. They would spread out, LeBron would have the ball at the top of the key (or just beyond the three point line) and he would just create. Everyone else would just stand there, watching him. So he made pull-ups, dribble drives, last second dishes to a cutting Varejao, he did absolutely everything and just flat out won the game for them. It was reminiscent of the ECF Game 5 performance against Detroit, where he scored like 25 Cavaliers points in a row to end the game.

LeBron finished the game with a triple double: 37 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists. You just cannot ask for anything more from a basketball player. Oh yeah, and he played all but 2 minutes, including the entire second half.

All of the Cavs starters played well, while the Magic got another big effort from Dwight, who had 24 and 10 before fouling out in the fourth. The only other spark (aside from Hedo) was Pietrus, who continued his outstanding play this series. He scored 13 points off the bench, and is now averaging 14ppg in the series, while guarding LeBron James better than anyone else on his team. A very impressive feat.