The puppet show is over, but don’t tell Dwight Howard that—he’ll soon be in puppet lore if he has his way.

The much-ballyhooed Nike advertisements featuring puppet versions of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James rubbed him the wrong way, and the big Magic centre won’t soon forget.

In short, the ads were thinly-veiled in their preference for a Kobe-LeBron finals, and Howard wasn’t pleased, saying him and the team used them as motivation to knock off the heavily-favoured Cavs.

“Every time I look at TV, it seems like that’s all anybody is talking about (a Lakers-Cavaliers finals). It’s like nobody is even giving us a shot at winning this series and we’ve used it as motivation,” he said in his blog after Game 3.

Fast-forward to last Saturday’s Game 6, in which the Magic delivered the knockout blow, completing the shocking upset of the heavily-favoured, 66-16 Cavs.

Or was it really shocking? This is the same Magic team that dismantled the defending-champion Celtics in the second round—albeit without Kevin Garnett and backup centre Leon Powe—in one of the toughest places in the league to play a Game Seven.

OK, but the Magic lost starting point guard Jameer Nelson for the season in February (though he may yet try to play in the finals), and weren’t exactly playoff battle-tested like the more veteran Cavs and Celtics.

And signing Rafer Alson, who has a bit of a spotty history with both on- and off-court issues, wasn’t a sure-fire way to plug the hole.

But plug it he did as the mercenary point guard, helping to feed the three-point blitzkrieg that has produced the unlikeliest (or very likely, however you view it) finalist out of the East, based on the road the Magic had to take.

As for the Lakers, this finals business is becoming old hat. It’s the 30th time in 61 years of existence that L.A. will represent the West at the dance, including Bryant’s sixth and coach Phil Jackson’s 12th.

The six-game defeat in the finals to the Celtics last year has left Kobe and co. with a bad taste in their mouths, and added even more experience to a category where they edge the Magic.

In oddly similar circumstances to the Magic in Round 2, the Lakers defeated a stronger-than-expected Rockets squad that was missing Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.

The third round had many picking the upstart Nuggets, older and wiser with the acquisition of veteran guard Chauncey Billups—but again, experience had the edge in a decisive Game 6.

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