Updates
Fri, May 22nd 2009, 22:30
LEBRON'S DAGGER DOOMS MAGIC IN GAME 2
CLEVELAND — J.J. Redick has hit his share of big shots in his storied basketball career, but even he was stunned by the game-winning dagger that LeBron James drilled late Friday night to crush the Orlando Magic.
``LeBron just hit a 27-foot … fall-away shot … with one second on the clock,’’ J.J. said, seemingly still in disbelief at the improbable jumper that James hit. ``There’s just not much more that we could have done to stop it.’’
Not long after Hedo Turkoglu had put the Magic up two points with one second remaining, James hit a last-second, 3-pointer from the top of the key to lift Cleveland to an improbable 96-95 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
It’s the fourth time in these playoffs (in six losses) that the Magic have lost a game at the buzzer. Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young beat the Magic with game-winners in the first round, while Boston’s Glen ``Big Baby’’ Davis drilled a shot from the wing in the semifinals.
But this one had to hurt the most of all for a Magic team that was one second away from taking a commanding 2-0 lead back to Orlando. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy blamed himself after the game for his defensive strategy on the final play. He correctly predicted Cleveland would try to lob the ball to James on the final play, but he second-guessed himself for not doubling James underneath and over the top.
``That one obviously hurts quite a bit,’’ Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. ``LeBron popped out and made a great shot. We should have defended it – I should have defended it differently. It’s crushing enough to lose as a coach, but when you feel like you’re the guy who could have made the difference, it hurts a lot more.’’
The best-of-seven series now moves to Orlando where Games 3 and 4 will be played Sunday and Tuesday. The Magic twice defeated Cleveland in Orlando during the regular season, leading by as much as 41 points during a 29-point rout in April.
``It’s disheartening, but getting one up here and almost getting two gives us confidence going back home,’’ J.J. said. ``I don’t think we’re necessarily going to get that much credit (for splitting with the Cavs), but I think Cleveland respects us. They know we’re capable of beating them. It’s two good teams playing really good basketball. We just have to get off to better starts if we want to win this series.’’
On a night when the Magic again fell way behind, J.J. gave the Magic some much-needed offensive spark in the first half. He made three of four shots, swished a 3-pointer and scored seven points in 9 minutes of action.
After not playing in Game 1, J.J. got on the floor in the second quarter and made an instant impact. He aggressively sought out shots and came to the aid of an Orlando team that struggled to find much of any scoring the game’s first 15 minutes.
J.J. coolly buried a 3-pointer off Turkoglu’s dribble penetration with 5:44 left in the second period to key a 12-2 Magic spurt. Two minutes later, J.J. beat Sasha Pavlovic off the dribble and hit a pull-up jumper. And J.J. short runner with 1:23 to play in the first half got the Magic within 53-42, as close as they had been to the lead since the midpoint of the first quarter.
``I was just trying to give us some kind of spark,’’ J.J said. ``We didn’t have a lot going on on either end in the first half. We gave up 56 and we had just 20 points with six minutes to go in the second quarter. I was just trying to give us a spark and really there was nothing to lose there.’’
Knowing how the Magic have responded all season to adversity – they were 20-4 after a loss in the regular season and they are 4-1 in these playoffs following a defeat – J.J. knows Orlando will respond to LeBron’s dagger of a shot.
``We’ve proven time and again this year that we’re a resilient team whether it’s comebacks from injuries or suspensions,’’ J.J. said. ``It’s not necessarily a surprise that we keep coming back in these games, but we’ve got to stop digging ourselves holes that eventually they are going to be too big to get out of. But we’ll come back from this, I know we will.’’