NBA - Cleveland Cavs v Orlando Magic

28 May 2009

Preview By Tipster Jumbo (New Zealand)

The Cavs tried everything to win Game 4 and again fell short to a Magic side who just seem to believe right now in themselves,now the Cavs have to win to stay alive here and once again that will not be easy,although the Cavs are at home and should be able to play to a good level but whether that will be enough or not remains to be seen.

Orlando moved within one win of ending its 14-year finals drought on Tuesday night in a 116-114 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals and are looking to put LeBron James and his not-so-supportive cast to an early summer break.Cleveland's match up problems are glaring: Height, depth, speed. You name it, Orlando has it over Cleveland.When the Cavs have concentrated on stopping Howard down low, the Magic make 3-pointers (they hit 17 of 38 in Game 4), and when Cleveland focuses its defense on guarding the perimeter, Howard destroys them near the basket.Things are just not looking good for the Cavs at all and unless they can change this series dramatically they will be gone tonight.

The Cavs tried and did get a lot closer than they have done before but once again when the clutch came only Le Bron could be found and the others went missing again,West and Williams played way better than they have been but their bench is being out scored by the Magics and the Cavs just look like a team who are always looking for their main weapon which has already shown it does not work against this Magic side and yet they continue to go there which is just stupid,the Cavs at least tried to shoot more and did have better shot selection in Game 4 but still it didn't work,3 times the Cavs took a 10 point lead and 3 times at the beginning of each quarter they were pegged back and overrun,Cleveland did show some fight coming back from 10 down with time running out to force OT but they still didn't have the right pieces of the puzzle to get the win,hard to know exactly where the cavs can go to from here and it must be getting to them,but game after game they have a lead and game after game they are caught in the dying seconds.

The Magic are now 9-1 ATS against the Cavs and have been the better shooting team in 7 of the last 8 matches between the two sides,add in that the Magic have won 2 of their last 4 in Cleveland and their biggest losing margin in those games has been 4 points and the Magic seem to really have it all over the Cavs in almost every faceit of their games.

In the NBA's 62-year postseason history, 190 teams have taken a 3-1 lead in a series and 182 of them have won. More daunting for the Cavaliers is that the Magic have won 10 of the past 14 meetings between the teams, and were one of three teams to win at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena this season.

The Cavs left Orlando and returned home after Game 4 looking to find some magic of their own.and they need to or tonight the best team in the NBA for the Entire season will be gone....Good Luck.