NBA Eastern Conference

The start of the NBA's annual free agency period has certainly brought more than enough news for guys like me to analyze. 

As we wait for the dust to settle, and see what might happen with the likes of Lamar Odom, Jason Kidd, Marcin Gortat (and even David Lee), I'm absolutely blown away by prospect of watching next season's playoffs—particularly in the Eastern Conference.

The first move made in the east was for Orlando to trade for Vince Carter.  This trade was the first blockbuster move of the recent past, and likely sparked a great deal of the moves that followed. 

After being told by Turkoglu that he will not be resigning with Orlando, the Magic were certainly forced to make a move—I'm just not sure they did what was best for their team.  At the end of the day, Vince not only has to replace Hedo, but also the players he was traded for—Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston, and Tony Battie. 

While I'm sure he won't be expected to play defense on the block like Battie was known for, the cost of bringing him in was high—and the expectations will be similarly high.  In a league where depth means everything, trading away a great deal of that depth makes very little sense to me. 

At the end of the day, Gortat is likely moving on, Hedo has reportedly signed with Toronto, and the point guard who brought the Magic to the NBA finals is suiting up in a Nets uniform. I just don't believe that the Magic have made themselves any better so far this off season.

Cleveland was the next elite Eastern Conference team to act, trading Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to the Suns for the well known Shaquille O'Neal.  This move has sparked much debate on blogs across the web, including BR, as to how the presence of both Shaq and Lebron on the court will work for the Cavaliers.

I believe that a low post presence like Shaq alongside a slashing and shooting threat like Lebron can only mean good things for the Cavs.  That being said, the Celtics with KG, Pierce, and Allen would still have been a considerable challenge for the Cavs—with or without Shaquille. 

The word is that the Cavs will not be bringing Varejao back, which makes me wonder what might come next.  Keeping Big Z as the league's most expensive backup center doesn't make a whole lot of sense. At the same time, lining up Z and Shaq at the same time doesn't seem like the best idea, either. 

Despite the fact Z has been in Cleveland his whole career, I wouldn't be shocked to see the Cavs work to deal him to a team that's looking to clear some cap space for the summer of 2010 (when Z's contract expires). 

Of course, the Cavs could always use the space, but I don't think cap space is a real issue when resigning your own player—and they should stand to offer LeBron more money than anyone, either way.

Still, you need a solid power forward on any successful team, and the Cavs don't have one.  This is a problem that needs to be solved before the tip off of the '09-'10 season.

This brings me to the Celtics, as the last of the Eastern Conference elite. 

It's currently being announced that Rasheed Wallace will be signing a two year deal with Boston for the mid-level exception. The signing is very unsurprising given the fact GM Danny Ainge brought head coach Doc Rivers—as well as Ray Allan, Paul Pierce, and KG—with him to talk Rasheed into joining them. 

It's well known that 'Sheed and KG are good friends, and it will be interesting to see how that helps to build chemistry between Rasheed and the rest of the team. 

Rasheed is really one of the original PF's who didn't quite conform to our expectations of the position when he first entered the league. 

A big guy who can shoot the three?  That was almost unheard of 15 years ago, and yet now the league seems to be full of them.

Rasheed should be able to pull opposing centers out of the paint when he lines up at the five spot to relieve Perkins. He will be a great backup for KG, as well as an insurance plan should the injuries of last season continue to plague the Celtics' star forward in the future. 

As with the Cavs however, there are some other questions the Celtics must answer. 

Number one: Are they going to be able to resign either Leon Powe or Glen "Big Baby" Davis—or both?  As I mentioned earlier in this article, depth in this league seems to be everything, and having a solid top 10 guys or so is essential in chasing that ever elusive title.

The Celtics cannot allow the signing of Wallace to take away from their ability to bring back players like Powe and Davis, who served as solid role players off the bench (before Powe saw his season end due to injury, that is).

At the end of the day, all these moves haven't seemed to have changed too much in the NBA's powerful Eastern Conference.  The Cavs and Celts still sit atop the rankings. And despite a recent trip to the finals—a run during which they beat both teams—Orlando remains third on my list. 

With the moves Detroit has made, Toronto acquiring Hedo, and the Nets adding Rafer Alston and young Courtney Lee to the mix; there will be many solid teams throughout the Eastern Conference next year. 

The playoffs should be very interesting to watch, and the expected match up in the Finals of Cavaliers vs. Celtics will be one for the ages—presuming everyone's health is maintained.

The Detroit Pistons wasted no time in signing power forward Charlie Villanueva and shooting guard Ben Gordon to kick-off free-agency, as another team tries to raise the bar in the East.

Some thought the summer of 2009 would be lackluster with teams plotting and planning for 2010 but it has actually turned out to be quite the chess match.

The Cavs made the first move, answering my prayers and making the move for Shaq—even if it was six months over-due.  Orlando followed with the acquisition of Vince Carter.  And now Detroit signs the inside-out combo of Villanueva and Gordon.

It's safe to say that the NBA's Eastern Conference has been totally made-over as we exit the decade from the punch-line that it was entering the new millennium.

The Boston Celtics are currently making the most noise over free-agent Rasheed Wallace, a push that was brought on by Kevin Garnett.  Boston has been churning in the rumor mill this off-season, but they are yet to make an actual move.

Just what Cleveland needs, the 2008 World Champs adding a 6'11" post who can shoot the three and has 153 games of playoff experience.

Actually, if you remove "the 2008 World Champs" from the previous sentence, you have exactly what the Cavs need: Rasheed Wallace.


Puzzle Pieces

The addition of Shaq should be enough to get Cleveland past Orlando.  But if Boston signs Wallace, it's not Orlando the Cavs will be most worried about.

See, not only will Sheed give Cleveland another counter-punch to battle Orlando, but it takes the rug out from under the C's feet in the NBA front offices’ game of cat-and-mouse.

Joe Smith was the closest thing to a true power forward that Cleveland had on the roster in the 2008-09 season.  Ben Wallace is an undersized center with no offense.  Anderson Varajao has a lot of energy, a lot of hair, and little game, and J.J. Hickson is not ready to compete at a championship level.

The Cavs actually seem to miss Drew Gooden, but he lacks the diversity that a Rasheed Wallace can deliver.

Last season Troy Murphy was the only player 6'11" or taller to average more threes per game than Wallace (1.7 3PM/G). Sheed recorded a double-double every 4.7 games last year and has averaged 1.4 blocks per game over the span of his career.

Most importantly, the four-time All-Star has appeared in the playoffs 13 times in 14 years including one title in two finals appearances.


Does He Fit?

This is LeBron James' team right?

If the Cavs sign Sheed, Cleveland will be known as "The James Gang" consisting of the most outspoken personality in NBA history, and the most expletive personality in NBA history.

The addition of Shaq and Wallace may be a bit of a reality check for James.  He will have to decide if he would rather star in the LeBron show or if he can share some of the spotlight in order to win a title—which will ultimately land him more time in the spotlight.

Some may think Wallace is too disruptive for the Cavs.  Maybe the halftime-tweeting Villanueva would have been a safer addition than Wallace, who earns technical-tweets from the refs on a regular basis.

These notions are wrong, Rasheed Wallace is a good teammate.  No, Rasheed Wallace is a great teammate.

When Sheed gets T'd its not just for show, it's his true emotions coming through.  Rasheed Wallace wants to win each and every game as much as anybody on the court and he only knows how to play the game one way—with everything he's got.

Cleveland still lacks playoff experience on their roster and Wallace fits that need like a glove.


If Not Sheed?

Cleveland hasn't been active early in pursuing Wallace and there is a chance that Sheed and Garnett plan on becoming teammates.

If Wallace doesn't choose Cleveland, all the Cavs can do is pray he goes to the Western Conference (Spurs?) where he will join a team looking to knock-off the Lakers.

The Cavs will still need to sure-up the power forward position.  Varejao has put a premium on himself, and I doubt Cleveland can afford the deals that Carlos Boozer or Paul Millsap are looking for.

Ron Artest or Shawn Marion would be the next-best options for Cleveland, they are more 3-4 tweeners but their athleticism and outside shooting would be a nice change at the power forward position for the Cavs.

At the second tier of talent the Cavs could look at Antonio McDyess, Leon Powe, Drew Gooden, and Chris Wilcox.  McDyess might be enough to push Cleveland over the edge, but it’s very questionable because he cannot keep-up with the quicker 4’s in the NBA.


The Time Is Now

The Cavs have already made the power-play for Shaq and there are no promises LeBron will be with the team this time next-year.

If Cleveland doesn't win the title in 2010, they may never bring the trophy home.

I guarantee Rasheed Wallace will help lead Cleveland to a title, and the best part about Sheed is that he will guarantee it too.

Ok, Ok, so I’m slowly starting to warm up to the Vince Carter trade. Although there has been several articles written bashing, trashing, and smashing the move, I’m beginning to see the silver lining in all of this.

While I do agree that Carter is a bit too much on the 30ish side for my liking and though I wish the team could've held on to Courtney Lee, I’m beginning to see the pros instead of the cons of this deal.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but seeing coach Stan Van Gundy and Orlando’s once prolific offense grinded to an anemic halt by the more athletic Lakers made me sick. Watching the pick-and-roll ran over and over again until I got tired of seeing the Lakers defend it better each time it was ran was tough to process.

Los Angeles reduced the once effective staple of the Magic’s offense into a useless ineffective gimmick. By the time game five rolled around, Orlando’s quality of shots out of the pick-and-roll had gone from good to simply “Stan would you please stop running this (expletive)!”

But that was the sickening part about it. Orlando couldn’t stop running that expletive because no one else on the roster was qualified to get his own shot off.

When Van Gundy became the head coach of the Magic a couple of years ago, he worked up a concoction that could best utilize his player’s abilities.

Quite genius on his part, but also quite redundant and quite easy to defend by top notch defensive teams with the right personnel.

For the last two seasons, Van Gundy has scoured his roster from head to toe. He's looked around his list of guys and still hasn't been able to find a single penetrator anywhere in sight.

Not Jameer Nelson, not Hedo Turkoglu, not Lee, not Mickael Pietrus, not Keith Bogans, not J.J. Reddick, not Trevor Ariza(yes, that Trevor Ariza), not Maurice Evans, and definitely not Rashard Lewis, thus, Van Gundy’s version of the Magic pick-and-roll base offense has been installed and ran to the max down in Orlando.

Don’t get me wrong, Nelson, when healthy, is an All-Star caliber point guard with the quickness and mindset to get to the cup.

But hovering around the 6-foot inch line means more times than not, it’s difficult for him to get his shot off against bigger opponents.

Turkoglu, the 6-foot-10 Turkish Michael Jordan, was the closest thing that Van Gundy had to a big guard so he drew up the offense to feature the silky shooting small forward as his centerpiece.

A three-point sniper equipped with a lot of craftiness, Turkoglu embraced his new role well and the Magic rode their gimmicky offense all the way to the NBA Finals last year.

For everything Turkoglu was to Orlando, he was not the guy who could free himself from defenders without the aid of the pick-and-roll—it was never more evident than in last June’s championship series.

The rest of the guys were mainly just spot up shooters who offered little to nothing in terms of penetration.

Introducing Carter, the former one man highlight reel brought in last week to possibly replace Turkoglu as Orlando's go-to-guy.

At 32, Carter can still play—and at a pretty high level if need be. Though critics suggest he’s lost much of his athleticism, let's be honest here, whatever athleticism Carter has left is still more than what Turkoglu has possessed at any point-in-time in his underrated career.

While critics will argue that Turkoglu is able to play the point and distribute to his teammates, I deny this claim to full detail.

Turkoglu is an unselfish player and can throw the lob ball pretty well. But make no mistake about it, Orlando’s system was not predicated upon him running up the court, crossing over and slicing into the lane, dishing no look style to Howard while the defense collapsed on him.

The Magic’s system was a scheme-orientated plot designed to compensate for the lack of a penetrator by making it easy for players to pass to the open guy provided top option Dwight Howard was covered on his bull rushes to the basket.

Think I’m joking? Rashard Lewis, a career 1.9 assist man, has had more assists the past two seasons under Van Gundy than he’s ever had in any two-year period of his 11-year career.

In his last four games against the Lakers in the Finals, Lewis dished out seven,five,four, and four assists as the pick-and-roll was ran nonstop to counter Los Angeles’ lock down defenders who had the perimeter covered heavier than a hypothermia victim.

While we’re at it, we might as well dispel another myth. So Carter’s a ballhog they say? Last year in New Jersey—a dry land in terms of talent outside point guard Devin Harris—Carter averaged 4.7 assists per night. Surrounded by more assassins than a Mexican Cartel, Turkoglu barely edged out Carter with only 4.9 dishes a night.

Keep in mind that Carter played with a true point guard in Harris while Turkoglu ran with a true gunner in Nelson, making Hedo the primary ballhandler and reducing Vince to a secondary ball carrier.

Need more proof? Since the 2006-2007 season, Turkoglu’s first full time season as a starter, he has averaged 4.38 assists per game while running with third rate point men from Keyon Dooling to Carlos Arroyo to Travis Diener while Orlando has compiled a 151-95 record over that time span.

During that same stretch, Carter has averaged 4.86 dimes a game while playing alongside the likes of top tier talent at the point in Harris and Jason Kidd compiling a 109-137 record over in Jersey.

You would think the more successful the team, the lower the caliber of the lead guards, the more assists that would pile up right? Wrong!

To whom it may concern, this article is not an attempt to bash Turkoglu, but if the Magic are going to lose Hedo to free agency, this article only serves as a means to say Carter would be a nice substitution into an offense devised on scheme.

Add in the facts that Carter can create his own shot without help from a pick and is a legendary strong and acrobatic finisher at the rim, and Orlando’s offense may actually be better than it was season.

Let’s get to the real benefit of Carter’s addition.

Since his introduction into the executive office down in Florida, Orlando general manager Otis Smith has made a lot of savvy moves. If there’s one move Smith would probably like to have back, it’s breaking the bank on the one-dimensional Lewis to the ransom of $100 million.

You don’t pay a sweet shooter $100 million and play him out of position against down low bangers. The Magic’s need of a power forward was and still is a major necessity, and while the long range shooting capabilities of positions one-four are nice luxuries to have, when the stroke shooting is running on cold, you got to rely on some power.

The Finals were concrete evidence that Orlando just didn’t have enough of the hard nose mentality.

Turkoglu's lack of athleticism meant he couldn’t move over to the two-guard slot full time to make way for a true power forward. Carter’s insertion into the shooting guard role means a move back to the three for Lewis, which will relieve the slender forward of his low post defensive mismatches.

The Magic can still run the same spread-em-out lineup if they like by inserting Pietrus at the two and letting Carter run at small forward with Lewis drawing power forwards away from the rim.

Perhaps the biggest bonus in the Carter deal is that it gets Orlando off the hook from the five-six year deal that Turkoglu was seeking and places them responsible for only two more years of Carter's contract.

With Carter coming off the books in 2011, it provides the Magic with several options: They can let Carter's contract run out and go after another shot creating perimeter player through free agency, or they can move Carter when he enters the last year of his deal for a disgruntled young perimeter player or several players.

Carter has a team option for $18 million after the fourth year of his deal, which will more than likely not be picked up by any team. His salary in the 2010-2011 season will circle around $17.3 million, a pretty enticing number for a team looking to clear some cap room, making the Magic a possible heavy trade contender for the 2010 season. 

While the loss of Tony Battie along with Rafer Alston as part of the deal may hurt the Magic’s depth, keep in mind that Orlando picked up a similar sweet shooting big man in Ryan Anderson, who’s range actually surpasses Battie up to the three-point line.

Also remember that forgotten point man Anthony Johnson outplayed Alston as the team’s lead guard during several stretches in last year’s post season.

The Vince Carter trade was not the end to Smith’s summer wheeling and dealing. The Magic are officially in the hunt for a power forward.

As a man who played the position pretty effectively before an injury forced his retirement, you can expect Smith to evaluate his future four with a fine tooth comb before offering that mystery Magic man the full mid-level exception.

The Carter deal was only step one in a two part process to give Orlando that ring it has long coveted. Stay tune for step two.

Why do bad things always happen to my beloved black and blue squad? Why?

I believe the term is Déjà vu isn't it?

You know, when you get the feeling you’ve seen this act before.

Is there any Orlando Magic fan that can honestly tell me that seeing Hedo Turkoglu (Turkey, as I like to call him) or Dwight Howard clang crucial (is there a stronger word than crucial, like very crucial or super crucial?) free throws Thursday night didn’t remind you of Nick Anderson’s shortcomings of 14 years ago?

I knew something was fishy when they had Anderson getting the crowd revved up in the pregame show.

Anderson’s four straight missed clunkers in the Finals opener against Houston still hold a spot in between the heart he shattered years ago but I thought I was long over that.

Up until last night.

I was sitting pretty watching the game. Up by a plus ten margin at the half, Orlando had outplayed the Los Angeles Lakers all the way through the first half but only had a 12 point lead to show for it.

The Magic could’ve easily been up 20-25 but the offense just wasn’t flowing as it was in game 3.

When the Lakers stormed out in the third, highlighted by some fantastic plays made by none other than an ex-Magic player Trevor Ariza (who I’m still mad we traded a promising youngster in favor of practically nothing for) who made game changing steals and swished head shaking threes, what seemed like a game we had in hand turned into a game that had our season on the brink.

Battling back in the fourth quarter I just knew we could still pull it out. We were playing solid defense but the offense just seemed like it needed a spark.

That’s when Stan Van Gundy pulled Turkey out the fridge and put him back into the lineup. No other Magic player could get his shot off against a swarming Laker defense but good ole crafty Turkey got himself to the free throw line and made some nice shots to keep the game from blowing wide open.

Turkoglu made some plays but also missed some free throws that he’s very capable of making but those weren’t the kicker for me.

Turkey was hot late in the fourth,(see why I like the name Turkey so much?) catching fire and even making me spill my orange soda after he drained a three and prompting me to send some in-your-face texts after he sliced in the lane for a nice floater had me feeling like we were set to host game 5 on Sunday with a chance to take the lead in the series.

That’s when it happened again.

Superman, the franchise centerpiece of the Orlando Magic otherwise known as the mild mannered Dwight Howard, clanked two freebies with around 10 seconds left that probably would’ve sewn up a black and blue victory.

Instead, I woke up this morning feeling more blue than anything.

Disappointed texts and messages ran to my phone wildly today, you would be surprised how many people hate the Lakers.

It’s not that all of the sudden everybody has became a Magic fan but they have for this series in spite of their hatred for Kobe and the Lakers.

I guess the Los Angeles Lakers have become the Dallas Cowboys/New York Yankees of the NBA.

Please, I only wish my Magic could reach infamous status like that. When your history of winning has reduced mere sports followers into bitter haters.

But alas, I have to settle for what has become the theme of the Magic in the NBA Finals: the propensity to choke and give games away.

It was only 14 years ago when Orlando blew a 20 point lead only to let their fate rest in the hands of Nick Anderson as he along with the rest of the Magic cast let an easy victory slip through their youthful fingertips.

And it was only 14 hours ago that history repeated itself but this time in my opinion it was much worse.

While most Magic fans will tell you Anderson’s free throws cost them that series, I beg to differ.

The 94-95 Rockets were playing outstanding basketball during that playoff stretch and had jettisoned the top three squads in the league including two 60 win teams in the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs and a third team in the Phoenix Suns that had finished one win shy of 60.

Even if Orlando had managed to win the opener, Houston more than likely would’ve pulled the series out over a younger Magic squad that had been up and down that whole post season and benefitted from a weaker Eastern Division in which their own record of 57-25 may have put them as the 5th best squad in the West rather than tops in the East.

With aid of the 2-3-2 format, three straight games in Houston, an unstoppable Hakeem Olajuwon and a bunch of role players who were sinking every three they hoisted up that year, it would’ve eventually been too much for Orlando to overcome.

This time around, one free throw could’ve changed the whole complexity of this series.

The Magic could easily be up 3-1 right now. Ever since their game 1 jitters that saw them get blasted on opening night, the club has been down to the wire in every game with the Lakers.

Kobe appears to be running on fumes, Andrew Bynum is a shell of his pre-injury self and the rest of the Lakers just don’t scream unstoppable to me.

No doubting they are a tough unit but anybody who has watched this series knows the count could be easily reversed right now.

A Laker loss last night probably would’ve sent Bryant into 35 shots a night mode for the rest of the series and would’ve put the always relaxed Magic into an even greater comfort zone.

And while the fall back crutch is it’s not over yet, I can’t help but to feel that it is.

Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to see Howard flash that teenage smile as he balances the championship trophy in the air.

It's not that i'm a nonbeliever or I lack faith in my team, its just that i’ve already seen this Magic act before.

Team has significant lead, team loses lead, team has chance to put the game away on the free throw line, team misses free throws, team loses game, team loses series.

Sound familiar? Déjà vu at it’s finest.

Do you see the look in Kobe Bryant's eyes?

If you watched Game One of the Finals on Thursday, you had to have seen this look because of the announcer's constant references to "how much he wants this championship."

While I was watching the game with a few friends, this sparked up the newest great debate between almost all NBA fans.  "Who's better, LeBron or Kobe?"

Now, of course as a LIFE-LONG Cleveland fan—not one of those Cavs fans since 2003 that you see everywhere for some reason—I am going to side with LeBron on this one.  This of course got me riddled with question after question from my friends, almost all of whom were on the Kobe side.

I will say that right now, if I have to pick between Kobe or LeBron to lead my team to a championship, I will take Kobe because of the fact that he's just a more experienced player and he has been there.  But, other than the experience factor, three other things were thrown out as to why Kobe is a better player than "The King."

REASON No. 1:  The Jumper

I have to give the point on this one to Bryant.  Hands down, if I need someone to hit a jump shot or somebody to go to the foul line, even though James hit two of the most clutch free throws I have ever seen in Game Four of the Orlando series, I'm definitely taking Kobe.

Over his career, he has built himself as a great shooter that can hit from just about anywhere pretty consistently.  Whereas consistency is the one thing that Bron can't quite find when he's shooting, whether it be mid range shots or foul shots.  It's just not his strong point yet.

I do think that given time, he will develop a more consistent shooting game and will end up being a good shooter because of the steady increase that he has already shown throughout his career.

REASON No. 2:  The Killer Instinct

This was something that I was a little on the fence before choosing a side.  The first thing that they said was that LeBron is afraid to take big shots and passes to his teammates, whereas Kobe would take it because he is not afraid to do it. 

Just because of the fact that LeBron is more unselfish than Kobe doesn't necessarily mean that he has no killer instinct. 

Take Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals for example.  When LeBron makes the pass to a wide-open Delonte West instead of taking it up for a tough shot, Kobe would've taken that shot. 

He just has that feeling that when he gets in the zone nobody is going to stop him from doing whatever he wants to do when he gets the ball, and LeBron will be like this, if you just give him time.  He is already starting to develop that mindset, but he is still in that phase where if he sees somebody that could have an open look, he'll let them shine.

But, when "The Black Mamba" gets that look in his eyes, he's going to make sure no one is stopping him, and everyone knows that.  Just ask Courtney Lee.

REASON No. 3:  The Rings

I absolutely cannot stand when somebody brings this up.  The fact that people think that since Kobe has three championships means he is a better player than LeBron is crazy.  The one word that makes this fact completely absurd to me is...SHAQ.

Ever since LeBron has been in the league, the closest things he has had to a dominant second option have been Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Maurice Williams.

Neither of these two can even hold a candle to the way that Shaquille O'Neal helped Kobe win three NBA Finals.  Shaq was even so good that it was Kobe that was the Mo Williams to O'Neal's James in those three Finals.

The fact that Kobe had another superstar to help him win those championships is the main reason that I am not giving Kobe a point in this debate.  LeBron has gotten his team to the Finals once, along with a trip to the Conference Finals with virtually no help compared to what Bryant got those three seasons.

I took Kobe's best of his three championship seasons (2001) and compared the stats of him and Shaq to those of LeBron and Williams from this season's playoffs.

That season Kobe averaged 29.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game; which resembles LeBron's 35.3, 9.1, 7.3 line this season.  But, the difference was that Mo logged in 16.3, 3.2, and 4.1 a night, compared to Shaq's gaudy 30.4, 15.4, and 3.2.

Tell you the truth, I have a feeling that if you give LeBron James the best big man in the league (we'll say Dwight Howard), he would have a couple of rings on his finger right now, and would be on his way to beating Kobe for another one.

Another Carvelli's Corner coming up next week, any thoughts feel free to e-mail me at MCarWV@aol.com.

Once again, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu were nearly invisible until the endgame, the Magic repeatedly made poor decisions with the ball, they got entirely too jump-shot happy late in the fourth, their baseline rotations were spotty, and they had no answers for LeBron’s bullish drives to the hoop—and they won anyway in a thrilling 116-114 overtime affair.

The Magic are proving that they certainly are resourceful. Here are the details.

With Anderson Varejao hounding Lewis one-on-one, and doing a terrific job of showing on Turkoglu’s high screens, Orlando’s dynamic wing duo was only a sometimes threat—until the fourth quarter, where Turkoglu’s ability to read and create led to three assist passes, and Lewis contributed 10 points, including a go-ahead three with the Magic down one and four seconds remaining.

LeBron James either gave too much space to Rafer Alston or was nailed by too many of Dwight Howard’s solid screens.

As a result, Rafer had the game of his playoff career—10-17 FG, 6-12 3FG, 26 PTS. It should be noted that Alston took many too-quick shots forced multiple passes, and missed six of his final seven jumpers.

But his early shooting spree carried Orlando until Turkoglu and Lewis got untracked.

James also gave Mickael Pietrus far too much room to shoot, and was guilty of too many poor closeouts. Yet in the eyes of All-Defensive Team Voters, he’s a better defender than Shane Battier?

Dwight Howard was too passive in going after entry passes, and did most of his damage against the lead-footed Ilgauskas.

Defensively, Howard was incredibly passive, took poor defensive angles on his rotations, and played with no focus—allowing Varejao to cut to the basket in early offense unopposed, and landing needlessly on the endline after coming down with a rebound (And All-Defensive Team Voters believe this guy is a better defensive player than Shane Battier?).

Yet he took over the extra period, with a drive-right, spin back left dunk, a driving dunk after Varejao tried to steal the entry pass, a tip-in, a dunked lob, and two free throws.

Anthony Johnson and Marcin Gortat made a few defensive mistakes, but each played well offensively in their brief rotations.

Truthfully though, the Magic won because the Cavaliers supposed greatness has been nothing but a myth.

Mo Williams made awful decisions, took awful shots, and played awful defense. He’s worlds away from being a championship-caliber second banana behind LeBron.

Delonte West also fired too many blanks (0-3 3FG), but made up for it with hounding defense on the much bigger Turkoglu, a pair of clever post moves against Turkoglu, and an array of gutsy drives into the teeth of Orlando’s defense.

Because Varejao was chasing Lewis and Turkoglu on the perimeter, his rebounding was a non-factor—2 REB.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is too slow to handle Howard one-on-one, and he’s unable to show on Orlando’s screen/roll game. Whenever Ilgauskas is in, the Magic attack his leaden legs to create open looks.

Wally Szczerbiak was useless, while Daniel Gibson’s pair of threes canceled out his porous defense.

Joe Smith played only four minutes for reasons only Mike Brown knows.

And while LeBron certainly had an exceptional game, his jumper only connected on five of his 15 attempts, and he made a slew of careless passes into walls of Orlando defenders, committing seven turnovers overall in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Those turnovers down the stretch were more costly than his playmaking was beneficial.

How can Cleveland get back into the series?

• Get more touches for Delonte West in the post or going to the basket to make Turkoglu work extra hard on defense.
• Play Joe Smith more in place of Ben Wallace, and involve him and Ilgauskas in screen/fades to take advantage of Howard’s unwillingness to show on screen/rolls.
• Keep Pavlovic and Szczerbiak on the bench and play a three-guard lineup with West at the three. He has the toughness and the smarts to handle bigger players.
• Unless Ilgauskas is on the floor, trap Turkoglu’s high screen/rolls aggressively where he might turn it over. If Ilgauskas is on the floor, have West go over the screen with Ilgauskas hanging back, inviting Turkoglu to finish with his right hand at the rim.
• Attack the paint as often as possible to frustrate Howard and get him in foul trouble.
• Most importantly, West and LeBron have to become smarter decision makers (at both ends) and must make their jump shots.

If these adjustments can’t be made, then no matter what perceived success the Cavaliers had this season, or what imaginary corner they turned, the fact will be that their team was critically flawed with Orlando exposing those flaws.

If Cleveland can’t recover, their season will be a total failure.

For the casual NBA fan, the Bobcats improvement from season four (32 wins) to season five (35 wins) may seem minimal, but for the Bobcats, it was a season defined by more than just the final win/loss record. 

The season started terribly. After the first 23 games of the season, the Bobcats had a record of 7-16 with no sense of a turnaround coming, and then quite possibly the best trade in Bobcats history went down.

The Bobcats shipped out Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley, and a second-round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. The second the trade went down, the Bobcats were laughed at by many fans and writers, who saw the trade as a dumb move on the Bobcats part, but looking back, how wrong they were.

After two more losses gave the Bobcats a record of 7-18, the Bobcats began to turn things around. The team finished the rest of the season with a 28-29 record, which included a franchise-record six-game winning streak. Although a great turn around, this may not equate to high expectations for next season until we make a deeper analysis.

Before the trade, the Bobcats were 7-16, as mentioned before, while post-trade the Bobcats were 28-31. However, of those 23 games before the trade, 14 were home games. That comes out to 60.9 percent of their games up to that point being home games. Post-trade, of the 59 games, 27 were home games. That comes out to 45.8 percent.

Next, taking a look at the Bobcats' win/loss record, we can see that they were 23-18 at home and 12-29 on the road. In the 14 home games before the trade, the Bobcats were 6-8. Meaning, they were 17-10 in their home games post-trade. This tells us before the trade the Bobcats were a terrible 1-8 on the road, while post-trade the Bobcats were 11-21. Not great, but a substantial improvement.

Based on the math in front of us, had this post-trade team been able to play those first 23 games, they would have won nine home games (17x14/27) and three road games (11x9/32). That equals a total of five more wins, which would have been just enough to squeeze the Bobcats into eighth place in the playoffs over the Detroit Pistons, who won 39 games.

There were other factors that could have improved this hypothetical record, as well. Gerald Wallace, D.J. Augustin, and Bell all missed significant time throughout the season. Not that injuries don't happen to all teams, but it is noteworthy that they all missed time post-trade, not before. This is obvious for Bell, not so much for Augustin and Wallace, so I'd like to point that out.

In addition, making trades leaves a team short-handed for a game or two -- between bringing in Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, DeSagana Diop, and Vladimir Radmanovic, the Bobcats were short-handed quite a bit. Also, in the final two games of the season, Brown played the bench just as much, if not more, than the starters.

Not that other teams may not have done this, but the Nets' starters played throughout, and Stan Van Gundy played his starters more than Larry Brown did his, as well.

And unfortunately for Bobcats' fans, the team folded down the stretch of their first ever playoff chase by finishing the season 1-7. What the coaches, management, players, and fans can hope for is that this will be used as a learning experience and next season the team will finish 7-1.

So, looking forward to next season, how can the Bobcats improve?

Finding a backup shooting guard should be priority No. 2. There are three ways to go about doing this: a trade, free agency, and the NBA draft.

I'm betting on one of the latter two. At pick No. 12, the Bobcats should have an opportunity to take Gerald Henderson if they so choose. In free agency, Anthony Parker could help a ton. If nothing else, by simply being a second shooting guard on the roster.

Yes, you heard that correctly. The Bobcats did not have another shooting guard on the roster after Bell, which partly contributed to the bad finish; Bell missed the final six games of the season and only played 20 minutes in the prior game—a loss to Miami.

As for priority No. 1, re-signing Raymond Felton. He's the captain of this team, a leader on the court, and he plays hard game in and game out. However, this isn't improving, but retaining. Which is all right, because it can be just as important. And in this case, it is.

Having a training camp with all the new acquisitions throughout the season will help, too. This is certainly true for the bench players, who were the Bobcats' Achilles heel this season.

Improvement from Radmanovic and Diop, the development of Alexis Ajinca, the continued development of Augustin, and a career resurrection from Sean May would certainly help.

All-in-all, by this time next season, the Bobcats may be playing a game instead of watching one.

I didn't think game one of the Eastern Conference Finals could live up to what we saw last night, and for the first two quarters I thought I was right.

That was until Orlando woke up and started giving it to the Cavs, culminating in one of the better conference final games I've ever seen.

Here are some thoughts I had (too big for tweets... plus after eight texts in five minutes that shit can start to get annoying *cough* BILL SIMMONS *cough*... and hopefully, smaller in scope than last night madman rantings):

Most call him Michael Pietrus, I call him "The LeBron Stopper"

OK, nobody will ever live up to the ridiculous "Kobe Stopper" nickname that Rueben Patterson gave himself, but still, it's got a ring to it.

Anyway, Pietrus (as well as Anthony Johnson on a couple possessions) played incredible defense on LeBron who, up until the fourth, was having maybe the best playoff game in NBA history.

A lot of that should be credited to Pietrus who was about the only Orlando player that didnt look totally terrified of taking a charge on Bron Bron.

Cavs Have a Major Problem as Playoffs Progress

They were terrible offensively at the end of the game, and here's why: their late game offense is as follows: give 'Bron the ball, guards spot up in corners, watch and repeat.

While this may work sometimes, I just don't think it's a reliable end of game offense to run when you absolutely need a bucket, and we saw this when West made one three off a LeBron drive but then missed the final one that would have put the game away.

A good comparison is Boston, who generally plays final possessions in tight games better than anyone. They have a Pierce isolation option at the elbow, but then they also run Allen off of screens, or can have Rondo go to the bucket.

Honestly, if I were Mike James I might consider putting the rock in Mo Williams's hands a little more down the stretch, and seeing if he can break down Rafer (which he seemed to be capable of all night) and then getting the ball to LeBron as the defense collapses.

This is because most of his easy, monster dunks come when he is cutting off the ball as opposed to going 1-on-5.

The Matchup Issue

Frankly, the Magic did very little to exploit the awful matchup problems the Cavs have when on defense, especially in the first half (which Chuck pointed out at halftime).

Varejao has no business guarding Lewis, and he can't for that matter, as we saw on the game winning shot. West is too small for Turkoglu, which interestingly enough didn't play out in Hedo's scoring,(because he's uncomfortable exploiting the mismatch in the post) but instead in the passing game where, playing a sort of point-forward, he repeatedly threw the ball easily over West for wide open Howard dunks.

Hedo, after all, had an astonishing (for him) 14 assists. Yes, LeBron playing Alston early allowed him to cheat off Rafer and get some amazing blocks from the help side, but in the end he had to switch onto Turkoglu in order to stop the bleeding, thus expending more of his precious energy.

On a side note, Alston really needs to take LeBron off the dribble if he's guarding him, and then dish when he draws the second defender. Alston sort of gave up that attack after his layup got stuffed by 'Bron in the third quarter. However, Hedo picked up the slack and forced the switch anyway.

Furthermore, Z just can't guard or box out Howard, nor can he defend the pick and roll at the top of the key. Offensively, exploiting these mismatches is what brought the magic back into the game and what will make or break the rest of the series for them.

Their easy second half scoring also tempered the Cavs' transition game and thus helped their defense dig in.

Van Gundy made some great adjustments at halftime I have to say. And playing Pietrus (who is really looking like a baller all of sudden), Gortat and AJ when he did really paid off.

Bad Officiating

I think that the officiating from this game was way worse than last night's game between the Nuggets and Lakers. Literally, Howard committed an ACTUAL foul on 2 of his 6 fouls, AT MOST. The first offensive was very iffy, but let's say arguable. The second was a joke, and almost looked like they meant to call a travel but had a brain cramp and forgot the word for traveling and so they just called a phantom foul instead.

The third involved LeBron tripping on a spin move past Pietrus and falling into Howard who was standing still. The fifth was a clean block where Howard "brought his hands down on the ball" over LeBron.

Of course, when LeBron did that in the first half and actually made contact there was no call. And the sixth was just blatantly bogus, with Howard jumping straight up in the air and LeBron getting bailed out.

On the other end, Mo Williams picked up three inexplicable fouls in 10 seconds, putting the Magic in the penalty well before they deserved to be there.

Here's an interesting thought about NBA officiating. What if they called the entire game like they call the fourth quarters?In other words, they let the flow of the game continue, in place of calling ticky tack fouls, bailing out off balance penetration, and giving players unnecessary personals—kinda like they do at the end of games when all of a sudden the game becomes really fun to watch because the officials aren't dictating the flow of the action.

Why should that only happen at the end of games, and why should officiating change based on the score and clock anyway? Who knows—let's just blame David Stern again and call it a night. That always makes me happy.

Another thing that makes me happy are incredible NBA playoff games and both conference finals series have delivered. I actually jumped up, pumped my fist several times, and yelled (indirectly I'll admit) in Varejao's face (drawing a smirk from my girlfriend, who was reading the fourth Twilight book on the couch next to me—my turn to smirk) when Rashard hit that money three to win it.

Cavs Have a Better Chance to Win Than Lakers Do

Despite all the issues that the Cavs have matchup wise on defense, and "LeBron-watching" wise on offense, I still think they have a better chance of winning this series than the Lakers theirs.

In close games, the Cavs (the better team talent-wise) have about a 50 percent chance of winning because of their aforementioned problems, but (as we saw in the first half) they are very capable of blowing the Magic out, especially at home.

They are just too good as a team when everything is clicking and they are moving the ball and running. And their crowd (when it doesn't fall asleep, seriously, that third quarter was embarrassing for Cleveland fans) is a huge factor in home games.

I'm thinking the Cavs win the rest of their home games in this series (two of the three by a healthy margin) and then play three close games in Orlando, stealing one of the three(they are not gonna ever be blown out in this series, not with LeBron able to take over at any time).

So I still think Cavs in seven (I'll be rooting for the Magic every game of course) but it could come down to an incredible game six in Orlando if they are down 2-3 at that point...which would really be scary for LeBron and Co.

Of course, it never goes down how we think it will, and that's why these games are so fun to watch.

Why I Dislike LeBron—Sometimes

I dislike him sometimes because every defender that's ever guarded him refuses to hammer him in the lane or take a charge when he's coming full speed for a dunk (yeah I know how bad it would hurt), but I gotta hand it to LeBron who (except for that flop on Pietrus's offensive foul) played an incredibly physical, competitive, emotional game for every second he was on the floor.

When he gets the full killer instinct at the end of games (and he's almost, almost there) he will be by far the greatest to ever play the game, and I will be able to say I saw him come into his own. Which is amazing.

Can't wait for tomorrow night. Thinking about getting a K-Mart kissy lips tattoo to commemorate my excitement—wait, no I'm not.

When the National Basketball Association Conference Finals tip off later this week, four teams will test their level of cooperation, unselfishness and teamwork. One issue that apparently will not get in their way is diversity.

Two new studies have shown that an NBA team's level of racial or ethnic diversity does not have any significant impact on its winning percentage or its players' split-second decision making on the court.

These reassuring findings on player unity contrast with a 2007 report showing same-race bias among NBA referees when making foul calls.

The demographics of the NBA have changed dramatically over the last 40 years. African-Americans make up about 76 percent of the league's players, while Latinos and Asians account for three and one percent, respectively.

According to the NBA, 77 international players from 32 countries contributed just over 17 percent to team rosters. There are not only potential ethnic and cultural barriers, but also language differences that may impact a team's chemistry.

For any organization, results matter. However, few groups of co-workers have their teamwork watched, measured and analyzed to the extent of an NBA team.

Diversity measured 

Paul Sommers and Jessica Weiss of Middlebury College wanted to see if the level of an NBA team's diversity affected its ability to win.

For the last three complete NBA seasons (through 2007-08), players who had at least 800 minutes of court time were divided into one of five racial or demographic groups; African-Americans, Caucasians, East Europeans, Asians, and other foreign-born players who did not play either high school or college basketball in the United States.

Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) to measure diversity, a number was assigned to each team for each season. An index of 1.0 would indicate a completely homogeneous team, while more diverse teams would score lower (between 0 and 1).

When the HHI was regressed against each team's regular season winning percentage, no significant correlation was found. In other words, a team's diversity did not help or hurt their success on the court.

As supporting evidence, the last three NBA champions, the Boston Celtics (2007-08), the San Antonio Spurs (2006-07), and the Miami Heat (2005-06), had dramatically different HHIs of 1.0, .360, and .781, respectively.

What about that language barrier? If communications suffered, then there should be passing mixups and team turnovers should rise.

To find out, Sommers and Weiss divided the teams into two groups, more diverse and less diverse at the median HHI for the league. Over the three seasons, there was no significant difference in total turnovers between the two groups.

The findings were detailed in last month's Atlantic Economic Journal.

Carrying that on-court cooperation theme even further, Brigham Young researchers searched for same-race bias in NBA players when passing to their teammates.

To put it bluntly, would a white player subconsciously prefer to pass to another white player if given a choice and, conversely, a black player to a black player?

In an exhaustive study, Joseph Price, Lars John Lefgren and Henry Tappen dug into six seasons of NBA data to look at every assisted basket and recorded the race (noted simply as "black" or "not black") of the passer and the scorer.

They also noted the other three players on the floor when the basket was made. Of course, there were numerous decision variables that the researchers had to eliminate to isolate just racial preference.

The conclusion: No same-race bias was found in the passing patterns of NBA players.  Study details are available from the Social Science Research Network as part of their working paper series.

Referees don't play fair

Joseph Price is known for his controversial paper in 2007 that concluded there is significant same-race bias shown by NBA referees.

In that study, more than 600,000 officiating calls over 13 seasons were analyzed to see if white referees would call fewer fouls on white players than black players and vice versa (black referees whistling black players).

They concluded that the difference was "large enough that the probability of a team winning is noticeably affected by the racial composition of the refereeing crew assigned to the game.”

In fact, their data showed that players earned up to 4 percent fewer fouls and scored up to 2.5 percent more points on nights in which their race matches that of the refereeing crew.

From a team perspective, the bias factor may change the outcome of two games out of an 82-game season. For some teams, that may be the difference that keeps them out of the playoffs.

Please visit my other sports science articles at Sports Are 80 Percent Mental and Livescience.com

Only six teams are left in the NBA's annual rendition know as the Playoffs and as two Game Sevens conclude only four will remain after Sunday. The postseason is littered with talent on every team at every position.