The Post Game - Magic versus LeBrons

Ah, now this is more like it. I call mulligan over last week's mishap against the C's. The Magic had a shot to redeem themselves once again on national TV and they took initiative.

The first half was somewhat worrying; Ben Wallace setting screens to open up the lane for LeBronze and one too many dunks, and Wally Szcezerbiak of all people was scorching Turkoglu to go a perfect 5 of 5 from the floor. The trey's weren't falling for the Magic, who were an ugly 3 of 11 from behind the arc at one point. The Cavs stretched their lead out to 10 at about the halfway mark of the second quarter. It was around then that the Magic Men had enough of that nonsense and took care of business by slashing it to a one point deficit right before halftime.

The second half would be a thing of beauty.

I'd say the ship began to sink when coach Mike Brown exploded out of his seat over a supposed no-call on Turkoglu for putting his arm against LeBron. Brown got hit with a technical as one of his assistants had to hold him back. Amidst this tussle, Mo Williams blew his lid giving another technical against Cleveland. Orlando made both technical free throws and scored a bucket, padding out their lead by an extra 4 points just because the Crabs couldn't stop whining about why their mangod LeBronze wasn't entitled to every call.


Everything after that was gold. 'Bron was forced to settle for scrappy jumpers after getting embarrassed by a Howard block and several botched drives. The Magic focused primarily on locking things down on the defensive end. 75-year-old veteran Anthony Johnson was somehow able to stay in front of the younger Cavalier point guards and shut them down. The frustrated Cavs kept forcing their jumpshots while the Magic eventually regained their three-point shooting touch to bolster their lead to a comfortable 25. The Magic defense held the Cavs to 32 points the entire second half. That's how you keep a team honest.

The victory could not have come at a better time than the night that both Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson were named to the NBA All-Star team. The never happy Stan Van Gundy even had to concede that it was a "good" night. Unfortunately the boys from Cleveland were less than satisfied:


Said LeBron James: "It just shows the disrespect that basketball in Cleveland continues to get. I haven't seen the All-Star list yet, so I can't comment on who's in it. But it's definitely disrespectful that we continue to do work every year with nothing to show for it. They always say when you win, individual accolades will take care of itself. But sometimes it doesn't happen. "

“You want me to tell you like it is?” Williams chuckled. “Then I’ll tell it like it is. It’s a tragedy. How many players get into the game, and how many players did the Magic get in? They’ve got three players, and we’ve got the best record. Not just in the Eastern Conference, but in the whole league… Best team in the world, and we got one player.”

Mo Williams had a chance last night to prove what a tragedy it was. He delivered 12 points on a blistering 4 of 15 shooting AND a technical foul! You're doing a hell of job Mo. And LeBronze mediocre performance combined with his propensity to whine about non-calls even annoyed ESPN of all outlets:




Put up or shut up, as the kids say.