Orlando Needs to Keep the Magic Alive With a Game Five Victory
Nick Anderson and free throws. Kenny Smith. The number four. A broom.
If this was Jeopardy, the answer would be, "what four things still give Orlando Magic fans nightmares?"
When Dwight Howard clanged a pair of foul shots in the final minutes of a gut-wrenching Game Four loss for the Magic, Anderson's four straight misses in Game One of the 1995 NBA Finals became a hot topic again.
Instead of Kenny Smith, it was Derek Fisher who drove daggers into the hearts of the Orlando faithful.
Instead of Hakeem Olajuwon's tip-in, it was Pau Gasol who sprinted down the floor and iced the game with a dunk.
As Howard and his teammates prepare for what could be their final 48 minutes of the season, they should heed the lesson of Anderson's infamous bricks.
Then, a roster with Shaquille O' Neal, Penny Hardaway, Anderson, Horace Grant, Brian Shaw and Dennis Scott, looked like one that could contend for a decade.
The uncertainty of Michael Jordan's return propped the proverbial championship window open a few feet further.
Orlando had defeated Jordan's Chicago Bulls and a solid but underwhelming Indiana Pacers team with Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson in the conference finals.
Surely, they could get past such teams again and again.
O' Neal spent 28 games of the 1995-96 season injured. Hardaway carried the scoring load in the dominant center's absence, and the Magic won 60 games.
What happened in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals, though, would become a familiar refrain for so many All-Star talents.
The Michael Jordan-led Bulls, fresh off the winning-est season in league history, swept the Magic out of the playoffs for a third straight year.
When O'Neal bolted for Los Angeles that summer, the championship window that seemed wide open two summers earlier slammed shut.
Hardaway fought ailments for the rest of his career and spent as much time seeing doctors as he did court time.
It took 14 agonizing years for the Magic to return to the NBA Finals.
Will this resilient but inexperienced group will ever get here again?
Orlando trails Los Angeles 3-1, with Game Five tonight, and has about as much chance of overcoming the deficit as Nick Nolte does of finding the key to sobriety in that noxious beard.
However, the Magic can at least copy last year's Lakers and send this match back to the other side of the U.S.
Winning tonight's contest is about more than pride and giving the fans one more pleasant memory.
It's understanding the rarity and enormity of the championship stage. It's preparation for a summer that could feel a lot longer than three months.
Hedo Turkoglu will likely opt out of the contract that would pay him $7 million to seek more dough. At 30, this could be the Turkish forward's last chance at a long-term deal.
Otis Smith will want to resign his team's clutch performer and crunch-time ballhandler at all costs. Orlando cannot afford to lose Turkoglu.
Small problem: with the luxury tax threshold projected to drop, it might struggle to afford the price he will command.
A 6'10" forward with such a rare and versatile skill set will draw serious interest, even from teams who lack the cap space to make a serious offer.
He can shoot, drive, pass on the go, pass out of double teams, pass in the post and throw flawless lobs. His defense is above average. Save a disastrous Game Four performance from the line, he has made 80 percent of his attempts there for his career.
Can any team, save the Lakers, not afford to at least inquire about the forward's services?
Re-signing Turkoglu will force Magic CEO Bob Vander Weide to pay the dreaded luxury tax and lose free agent reserve center Marcin Gortat.
I'm sure Stan Van Gundy loves the idea of crypt kicker Adonal Foyle in Gortat's place.
If Turkoglu's return seems like an absolution, and ownership has hinted it will pay the tax to keep this core, Magic fans need only remember O'Neal, Carlos Boozer, and Elton Brand.
Things happen, and this core could be busted up in three years, the same way the mid-90s Magic crashed and disappeared after a thorough roster whack job.
To take the Finals for granted is to embrace naivete and lunacy.
Fitting, then, since Turkoglu attributed Game Four's overtime giveaway to "our stupidness."
The Boston Celtics expect Kevin Garnett to return at full strength next year alongside Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
Though the Celtics will face their own tumultuous summer with a trade of Allen and departures of several key free agents possible, at full strength, they boast championship moxie.
If LeBron James improves his tremorous jumpshooting and GM Danny Ferry pieces together a better supporting cast sans flat footed big men, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be dangerous.
If James did not previously feel pressure to deliver a title to manic depressed Cleveland, he feels it now. At some point, a guy with that many endorsements, commercials, and accolades has to perform like a king in the Finals and secure a title.
Adding to that encumbrance is James' pending 2010 free agency. Then, if he opts not to remain with his hometown team, he could make off like O'Neal did for glitzier digs.
It would appear that the front offices in New Jersey and New York have heard of the guy.
The Indiana Pacers and Charlotte Bobcats figure to improve and contend for playoff spots next season.
Where does this leave Orlando?
As Howard stands there tonight, arms at his side, and listens to a remarkable seven-year-old croon the "Star Spangled Banner" for her ninth time at Amway Arena, he must know as that Shaq-led team should have that no question comes with a guaranteed answer.
After a Game Four in which his team made every rookie mistake possible down the stretch, Stan Van Gundy assailed the notion that experience matters at this level.
Then, for the remainder of his press conference, he cross-examined everything from his own play calling to his players' execution.
"It's just like any other game," he said.
Dear Stan, no it's not. Signed, your brother Jeff.
A heavy dose of the outside-in approach, Rafer Alston, more made free throws, and better clock management and fourth quarter defense would go a long way toward prolonging Orlando's spellbinding season.
Kobe Bryant is determined to capture his fourth ring, but his celebration can wait.
The city of Los Angeles isn't sure it wants to pay for or host a parade anyway.
Plus, champagne tastes as good on a Tuesday as it does on a Sunday.
Every Magic player must compete tonight as if he knows he will never play for the Larry O' Brien trophy again.
In rock n' roll terms, Orlando wants to become Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, not Rick Springfield or Marcy Playground.
Then again, Rick Springfield wanted to become the Rolling Stones, not Rick "I play one song every week in a mall" Springfield.
The 2006 NBA Finals offers the worst-case scenario for one-hit wonders.
The Dallas Mavericks followed that Finals defeat with a 67-win season but one of the most embarrassing first round exits in league history.
The defending champion Heat also bowed in a four-game sweep in 2007.
A season later, Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley was hunched over, his face like a 10-car pileup, muttering to reporters, "are we really eight and 39?"
If you feel ludicrous putting this Magic team in that same category, don't.
Anything is possible.
Kevin Garnett screamed it amidst a confetti shower after a 12-year wait that seemed so much longer.
For the Magic, the only possible recourse is to win tonight and extend this postseason of both melancholy and jubilation.
Anything is possible.
Anderson knows.
