Orlando Have the Finals in Sight: LeBron Can't Do It All

As the fourth quarter buzzer sounded in the packed Amway Arena, the Orlando Magic took a big sigh of relief.

The "masters of panic" had held on to another valuable playoff lead, but it wasn't Hedo Turkgolu's stellar shooting or Rashard Lewis being lights out from the three that helped them cling onto the lead.

Howard's free-throw shooting had saved the day for the Magic. A rare occurrence to say the least, Howard, notorious for clanking a mere 60 percent at the line, made 14-of-19 Sunday night. Just like that, Magic have a controlling lead in this series.

But have the Magic been lucky with their route to the Eastern Conference finals?

They dominated the 76ers early on with Howard being paired against the unworthy Dalembert. A down to the wire series against a KG-less Celtics team, who Orlando should have dealt with earlier.

Now they face a Cavs team who have no answer for Howard's inside presence and they put immense pressure on LeBron's ability to get to the basket with Howard, Lewis, and Turkgolu all standing at 6' 10" or taller.

Throughout all of Game Three, Orlando seemed in control as they took an early lead and didn't seem to lose their heads when Cleveland took a narrow lead halfway through the game.

Their calm collected play brought victory as they controlled the tempo of the game and seemed to outsmart the Cavalier's with their inside-outside game. The Cavaliers never seemed in the game offensively, seeming to throw all their energy into preventing Howard from scoring at the basket although he was only on for 25 minutes of the game. He still stuffed the stat sheet, yet again, with 24 points and nine rebounds.

The Amway Arena crowed seemed surprisingly pumped giving the Magic that extra edge over the cold shooting Cavs.

There was a confidence about the Magic—they knew who they were up against and they weren't scared.

LeBron scored 41 points in Game Three and is filling up the stat sheet every night as well as sending a last second dagger through the heart's of every Magic fan in the world, but he is by no means dominating this series.

Orlando accepts that there is no way you can stop LeBron in the playoffs—he can score at will, but what James can't do is score all his teams points and this is where the Magic have the edge.

They let LeBron work, but they limit his teammates.

This plan seemed evident on Sunday night as the Magic upped the defensive pressure forcing the Cavs to shoot just 19 percent from beyond the arc. Mo Williams, the Cav's second highest scorer, went on the night with 15 shots, and just 5-of-16 from the field. Magic limited Big Z to just 3-of-10, and Cleveland had no other major contributors outside of LeBron.

Game One saw normal production from the Cav's role players.

Game Two showed slightly less contribution.

Game Three saw almost no stat help for LeBron. The other four starters had 40 points combined and LeBron added another 41 to that score.

Magic have found the Cav's weakness and if they continue to constantly pressure and dominate the Cav's role players with athletic defenders such as Courtney Lee and Mikael Pietrus, shutting down the likes of Mo Williams and Delonte West this series will be done in six games, and the Magic will roll onto the finals.

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