Believe It Or Not, The Pressure Is On The Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic pulled another rabbit out of their hat's last night when they held off the Cleveland Cavaliers to take a strangle hold on the series.

Yeah, they are up three games to one. Yeah, they are in the driver's seat. Sure, they only have to win one of the next three games, while the Cav's have to win all three games to advance.

The pressure is still on the Magic though.

I understand that it may be hard to wrap you're head around that comment. You say to yourself...

"NO WAY! Cleveland is under pressure, not Orlando"

Or

"How can they be under pressure? The Cav's were the overall 1 seed, not them"

I get all of those points. They are very valid points too. Here's where I am coming from though when I say that.

There is nothing harder in sports, than closing out a team in a playoff series. You are trying to end not only that team's season, but every player on that team's dream. This is why they practiced twice a day during August. This is why they ran wind sprints at six in the morning. This is why they watched film for five hours a day.

Now you're going to take that all away from them?

Game Five is Thursday night in Cleveland, at "The Q". Every basketball fan understands exactly that means. If you don't, it means this:

• 39-2 in the regular season. The second loss came without LeBron James and Mo Williams.
• 5-1 in the post season.

That means that the Cav's were a sick 44-3 at home this year. I understand that the one home playoff loss came against the Magic. I get that. I also get that it took a miracle from LeBron to win Game Two and basically avoiding a sweep. We all understand that.

Here's where the pressure comes in.

If Orlando comes into the game tomorrow night, feeling like it's not really a "must win" game, because they still have Game Six at home, they are in trouble.

Orlando hasn't exactly displayed a "killer instinct" in these playoffs thus far.  Sure they have had huge wins, in close situations.

However, in their second round match up with the Celtics, they also blew a 28-point lead, all the way down to three. Then a few games later, they blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead versus them, losing that game.

Then there was their first round match up with Philadelphia. They blew double digit leads in Game One and Game Two. They lost Game One because of it, when Andre Igoudala hit a jumper with a few seconds left. They held on in Game Two.

Last night versus Cleveland, they blew a few seven and eight point leads late.

Did they win some of those games where they blew those leads?

Yes.

This is different than those series though. This is the Eastern Conference Finals. The winner advances to the NBA Finals.

If they lose Game Five tomorrow night, the series will be 3-2, with them still leading. That would mean they would have a chance to close it out at home, on Saturday night, in Game Six.

That is when all the pressure in the world would be on them.

It would be their last home court game of the series. If they win that game, they'd be in the NBA Finals. If they lost that game, they would have to travel back to Cleveland, to face LeBron James, in a dreaded Game Seven, in his building.

I don't have to tell you what that means.

So, to the Orlando Magic, don't think this series is over yet. It's just starting.