LeBron's Buzzer Beater evens series in Game for the Ages

Cleveland Cavaliers an improbable victory over his Orlando Magic. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) " title="Lebron's three-pointer sends Cavs to amazing win over the Magic" width="415" height="291" />

Stan Van Gundy could only shrug his shoulders after LeBron James' three-pointer gave the Cleveland Cavaliers an improbable victory over his Orlando Magic. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

All Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy could do was shrug his shoulders, as if to say ‘What can you do?’

The Cleveland Cavaliers held a 23-point lead midway through the second quarter, and, just like their 16-point lead in Game 1, it was erased. Two three-pointers by Rashard Lewis 12 minutes of gametime later whittled the deficit to six points. The Cavaliers had seen this movie before.

The crowd went silent and the Cavaliers grew tense. The Magic were in business, and everyone knew it. Two minutes had transpired in the fourth quarter when Hedo Turkoglu, one of many on Orlando that benefited from mismatches, sped past his cemented defender for a driving layup. This quelled a resurgent run by Cleveland, cutting a deficit that scurried up to twelve near the end of the third quarter to seven. The Magic’s mantra is shooting. They have a beastly center in Dwight Howard stationed in the paint, but they are most successful when their outside shots are falling. These shots fell, which is why a once substantial margin was no more. Mikael Pietrus canned a three-pointer, then Courtney Lee drove in for a layup. The game was tied for the first time. After Rashard Lewis, the hero of Game 1, knocked down a fifteen-footer, the Magic led for the first time.

The wind was taken out of the Cavaliers sails. If they wanted any shot of winning this series, they had to fend off Orlando, do what they could not in Game 1. Cleveland regained their composure, as guard Mo Williams mid-range basket woke up the crowd and lit a fire under his team. Williams wasn’t done revitalizing his squad, hitting a three-pointer on the next possession to take a three-point lead. He answered the call once more, answering Pietrus’s layup with two minutes remaining with another jumper. the Cavaliers held the lead once again, and once again it would not last.

Pietrus blocked LeBron James’ driving layup, and Lewis snatched the rebound. Eight seconds later, Turkoglu, the Magic’s magicman in the fourth quarter, nailed a three-pointer, and trotted jauntily down-court. It was a tie game. In this Game 2, Orlando had nothing to lose. Though they expected to win, as they do every game, the pressure was on Cleveland. This pressure on James and the Cavaliers, a team that boasted the best record in the NBA during the regular season, and is favored to win the city’s first championship of any kind in 45 years. I thought the Magic would contend, take a couple games, and have a tremendous chance to be the Eastern Conference representative in the NBA Finals. Yet, I did not see them taking the first two games of the series, heading home with an opportunity to sweep. It appeared, no matter how improbable, that this could be a distinct possibility, especially once James traveled, taking five steps in an attempted drive to the hoop.

There was a six-second differential between game-clock and shot-clock. If the Cavaliers didn’t do a boneheaded thing like foul, it didn’t matter what the Magic did, they would get the final shot. Well, a stupid foul was committed, as guard Sasha Pavlovic bumped Turkoglu through the lane with the shot-clock dwindling under ten seconds. This meant that Orlando, if they so chose, could run the clock all the way down for the last shot.

Turkoglu received the ball at the top, waited for a few seconds, then made his move, driving to the free-throw line. Two defenders collapsed on him, but it was too late. Turkoglu’s fifteen-footer swished through. As in Game 1, point guard Rafer Alston thrust a fist in the air in triumph. Turkoglu celebrated with his teammates, but it was minimal. Van Gundy, his assistants, and Magic stayed calm.

One second remained, and the Cavaliers, after the timeout, were to inbound the ball at midcourt. Williams was the inbounder. Lewis, dwarfing Williams by a good nine inches, guarded the inbounds. Lewis thought Williams was going to throw a lob towards the rim for James, so he blocked his viewpoint of the basket. This left the passing lane wide open for an outside shot to be attempted.

Turkoglu drew James’ assignment and, like Lewis, prepared for a lob, and cut off the lane to the basket. Orlando was right with their thinking, as James tried to shed Turkoglu and go straight to the rim. Turkoglu would not allow such a thing, as James ran right into him. James adjusted, and pushed off on Turkoglu. He quickly deterred his rout and sprinted beyond the three-point line. Williams, with the open passing lane, found him in stride. Lewis converged, and Turkoglu recovered, both blanketing James with their hands in his face. They played as well as possible under such circumstances in defending James, but their efforts were all for naught.

James rose up and hoisted the three-pointer over their outstretched fingers. The high arching 25-footer rattled in. James ran jubilantly towards the middle of the court, and was immediately swarmed by his teammates. The crowd that stood stunned just seconds earlier after Turkoglu’s shot, was again, this time in a euphoric state. Streamers fell from the rafters, as Turkoglu and the rest of the Magic could barely move, dejected. As James showed in incredible fashion, a second can make all the difference. This one, which featured a shot for the ages by the league’s Most Valuable Player, turned a presumptive, commanding 2-0 series lead for Orlando into a 1-1, shocking, mind-blowing tie.