Can The Magic Finish?

The hottest topic in sports right now (in my opinion) is if the Orlando Magic can finish off the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight in a critical game 5 match up that will take place at the Q in Cleveland. The Magic came out strong snatching a game one win from the hands of the Cavs, then in game 2 (with a Michael Jordanesque shot with 1 second remaining) Lebron James snatched a victory away from Orlando, after that it has been all Magic dominating in a foul plagued game 3 and snatching a thrilling overtime victory in game 4.

After game one any analyst that you heard speak of the game said that it was an upset that the Magic wouldn't win another game in the series and the Cavs would take the series in 5. Game 2 everybody believed it. Now if you ask they will probably say that Orlando was seriously underestimated and that their 'drown you with 3 pointers' mentality is paying off. They have a complete team in my book with Howard pounding the paint and anybody that plays the forward or guard positions can shoot lights out from 3 point land. The Cavs are having an extremely hard time matching up with the Magic.

Coming into Tuesday nights game 4 Dwight Howard was tied for first in the playoffs with 5 technical fouls putting him only 2 away from a mandatory 1 game suspension which at this point in the series would really hurt. In the 3rd quarter Howard beat Cleveland's Varejao and went to the rim. As he went up he was wrapped up and held by Varejao. Howard still made the shot and out of excitement he celebrated and the officials who have been terrible this series called another Tech on Howard giving him his 6th and one away from a suspension. Which upon further review the league decided to rescind the foul realizing that it was just excitement over the play.

The officiating in this series has been abysmal at best. Too many fouls called, no calls and just an over all attempt to please the NBA and Vegas. For example in game 3 there were 80+ fouls called and 3 different people on the floor fouled out. At the end of game 4 on an Orlando inbound to possibly put the game away they threw a lob to Dwight Howard who was being backed away from the ball by Anderson Varejao. Which was clearly a foul and a no call. Since game one Howard has been beat up in the paint in a hack-a-Shaq style of under the rim play and there have been a lot of no calls, mostly in favor of the Cavs. I believe this sloppy excuse of officiating is because everybody wants to see Kobe vs. Lebron in the finals, the NBA has even started to run an ad campaign with puppets of Kobe and Lebron arguing who is the better player. That has been the match up that everybody would love to see in the finals but in my eyes if Lebron can't take the Cavs there on his own without the officials on his team he doesn't deserve to be there and the Magic do plain and simple. With the Cleveland on the verge of elimination be prepared to see the refs play the hardest they ever have tonight in game 5.

The keys for the Magic tonight are to use their pick and roll offense to open up the three and don't shy away from that formula. They also need Dwight to play solid in the paint on both ends of the ball. Defense needs to step up and stop Mo Williams and Delonte West from having 20 point games. The bench needs to keep playing solid like they have all year. We need to let Lebron score 40+, I know weird strategy but not when the Cavs are 0-3 this series when James scores 40+. Finally play with the same intensity they had on Tuesday and show Mr. Mo Williams why a second rate player shouldn't make winning guarantees.

GO MAGIC!