Any notion that Cleveland was going to trample Orlando in the same fashion that it eliminated Detroit and Atlanta was dispelled in a hurry Wednesday night in the opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference final in Cleveland.
The Magic faced a 15-point deficit at intermission and the prospect of preventing LeBron James from beating them nearly single-handily.
But the Magic, most notably Rashard Lewis, hit just enough tough shots down the stretch to erase the Cavs' home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series.
Dwight Howard gets most of the media attention for Orlando, and rightfully so.
But Orlando has two very skilled forwards who are very difficult matchups for the Cavs.
Can LeBron play much better than he did while scoring 49 points (he hit 20 of 30 shots from the field; Kobe Bryant, while scoring 40 Tuesday night, was 13 of 28) and dishing eight assists?
It's doubtful. And that's not good news for Cleveland because Orlando has shown it can withstand 40-point performance by James as long as it can contain the other Cavs, most notably guards Maurice Williams and Delonte West.
This series is going seven games, I do believe.
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