Day 37 of the NBA 2k9 Playoffs

Originally posted May 27, 2009 11:00 AM PDT

LeBron getting knocked out before the Finals? Looks likely. The Magic took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals with a 116-114 OT win over the Cavs.

RECAP: Cavaliers 114, Magic 116

• Orlando Magic blog, Third Quarter Collapse recap and morning after report.
• Cleveland Cavalier blog, Fear the Sword: Broken, Beat, & Scarred
• Wow. Dwight Howard in OT was huge. 10 points plus some big defensive plays in the paint. They finally went to him in the post and he just dominated Anderson Varejao.
• Tons of 3’s for the Magic! Wow. They wound up at 17-38 (45%) and at one point were 15-30. Alston, Pietrus, Hedo, and Rashard all sitting and waiting on the arc.
• Rafer Alston was big tonight and kept the Magic in the game during his hot streaks in the 2nd half. He finished with hitting 26 including 6 threes.
• Mickael "Stop Calling Me Michael" Pietrus was huge off the bench as well forcing LeBron James to work hard on offense (despite scoring 44). He also contributed with 17 and hitting 5 threes.
• The Cavs offense stagnated when they started to settle for jumpers rather than going into the post or attacking the bucket. That’s when the Magic took the lead in the 4th and again in OT.
• LeBron James, meet Dr. Tom Amberry
• LeBron James, 8 turnovers? Too many minutes and not enough help.
• Mo Williams, if you're going to make a guarantee you might want to show up for once in the series. 32% shooting for the series ain't gonna cut it.
• Somebody help LeBron! He's averaging 42 points, 7 boards and 7 assists!
  

Back to LA we go. The best of 7 series is now a best of 3 series after a split in Denver gives LA home court advantage once again.

Things to look for:

• Dahntay Jones dirty plays. His intentional trip got upgraded to a flagrant foul. Is he trying to purposely injure Kobe or is he trying to draw Kobe into another technical? Hopefully he's not trying the former and the latter isn't going to work.
• Pau Gasol is going to get more involved. He just doesn't get enough shots against a Denver defense that is "holding" him to "just" 62.5% shooting. Hello Laker guards, Chris Anderson can't guard him one on one.
• Less fouls. The refs are calling a ridiculous number of fouls which are leading to a ridiculous number of free throws. I'm sure that the players are playing harder and there's more contact, but let some contact go and just be consistent with how much contact you allow. Please? I don't want to see a free throw contest. Unless it's like this or this.
• Laker point guards. Who's going to not hurt the team? Who can guard Chauncey Billups?
• Prediction: Gasol with 30 points and 15 rebounds
  
• Pick: Lakers