As I was watching game 2 of the eastern conference finals I thought to myself "Cleveland is playing really well and they are only up by 8, that is not good". Then before we know it the Magic made a huge run again and put all the pressure on the Cavs. You could feel the pressure all the way in Phoenix as both teams made big basket after another. So we fast forward to the end of the 4th quarter, with the game tied at 93, 30 second lefts to play and the Magic have the ball. They pass the ball in and then inexplicably Sasha Pavlovic commits a foul and the shot clock resets, so the Magic now have the last possession. As they always do they put Turkoglu in an isolated spot at the top of the key, which gives him room to work. He takes it to the top of the key and pulls up and nails the jumper with 1 second left to give the Magic a 95-93 lead. At this point I was thinking "I am actually not surpised by this at all, Orlando may be the better team in this series or its just a serious match up issue for the Cavs". Either way the Cavs were going to go down 0-2 and the fans knew and I knew it. I haven't seen a stadium go silent like that in a long, long time. The Cavs still had 1 second and they still have Lebron James. For whatever reason the Magic had Turkoglu on Lebron (not Pietrus) and Lebron easily broke free for a contested fade away 3 and he nailed it! I could not believe it. The first words that came to my head were unreal and just simply amazing. That one shot not only saved the Cavs season, but it saved a city from walking off the ledge. It reminds me a lot in terms of importance to the shot Robert Horry hit in game 4 of the western conference finals vs the Kings. If Horry misses that shot the Lakers go down 3-1 and ultimately lose that series. This shot has the same feeling. Now the question is can the Cavs use this momentum and take game 3 in Orlando. If one team can come back from a shot like its the Magic. They have recovered from Iguodala's game winner, Thaddeus Young's game winner and Big Baby Davis' game winner. Game 3 will tell us a lot about where this series is heading.
What the Lakers did in game 3 was simply awesome. Its about time we start giving some credit to the Lakers. Over the course of the playoffs everyone has said "They have no killer instinct" or "They don't play with heart". Well last night the Lakers played a great road game with a lot of heart. The Lakers certainly proved to me that they know how to win on the road and they are better than any other team in the league at doing so. They kept it close all game, and in the 4th made a last surge. Jordan's Bulls were the masters of this and hopefully a win like that can bring a team even closer. I do however expect the Nuggets to rebound for game 4, because the Lakers look tired and beat up. Winning 2 consecutive on the road, especially in Denver is a daunting task. Win or lose game 4, the Lakers showed me a lot of heart and signs of a championship team.
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