Cavaliers-Magic Game Six: Dwight Howard Officially Becomes Superman

Orlando’s Game Six 103-90 victory over Cleveland was wrought with surprises:

• The ease which Orlando executed their offense and controlled the game with.
  
• Ditto for how they succeeded in turning LeBron from an MVP into a run-of-the-mill All-Star.
• The complete lack of focus, intensity, and desperation on the part of the visiting Cavs.
• The exceptional officiating on the part of the referees.

Most of all though, Dwight Howard was the biggest surprise, playing with a post presence and a defensive maturity unseen, not only through his early years in the NBA, but this very series!

At times, his offense over the first five games would come and go against Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace (Zydrunas Ilgauskas was consistently abused), while his baseline rotations were shaky and his concentration level substandard.

Hence his being out of position on so many LeBron James, and his propensity for picking up needless fouls.

But in Game Six, Howard truly was the "Man of Steel," with 14-21 FG, 14 REB, 5 AST, 2 TO, 1 BLK, 40 PTS.

Whether with his back to the basket or facing up, Howard disintegrated Ilgauskas’ inept defensive efforts, and was simply too strong for Varejao to handle.

Ben Wallace was able to poke away an entry pass and overplay Howard’s spins limiting Howard’s success, but in time, Big Ben was also worn down by Howard’s relentless assaults.

Defensively, Howard’s rotations were much more alert. He was able to get to spots in the paint before LeBron, forcing him to finish with his left hand either around or through Howard. This early recognition prevented Howard from picking up needless fouls and contributed to James’ miserable day.

What else did Howard do? Whether doubled on the catch or on the move, he recognized open shooters and made appropriate passes. While he only registered four assists, numerous kick-out passes made their way around the arc to open shooters in the corner.

He even made his free throws—12-of-16.

In Orlando’s most important game of the series, Orlando’s "man-child" finally grew up into a man.

There were plenty of other heroes.

Rashard Lewis came out more aggressive than in any other game of the series—draining triples, blasting past Varejao’s close outs, driving the baseline, and attacking the offensive glass. Most of his damage came early and sank the Cavs into a pit they couldn’t dig out of.

Mickael Pietrus played effective defense on LeBron (no small feat!) and plugged his triples—4-7 from three, 14 PTS.

Courtney Lee likewise played effective defense and hit his pull-springer.

Anthony Johnson made mostly good decisions and played good defense. He was on the floor the majority of the second quarter when the Magic pulled away. His unselfishness, adequate defense, and vision were more beneficiary to the Magic than Rafer Alston’s two quick jumpers, hence AJ’s plus-minus of plus-10 compared to Alston’s plus-6.

Marcin Gortat challenged every shot in his vicinity, while Hedo Turmoil (5 AST) kept the whole shebang moving.

In a losing effort, Delonte West deserves a gold star for his exceptional defense on the much bigger Turkoglu, for his fearless penetrations into the paint, and for being the only Cavs player who performed above and beyond what was needed of him.

Give Mo Williams the biggest goat horn. His defense was inadequate the entire series, and in the first half, when the Cavs needed him most, he contributed only three meager points. The series proves that Williams isn’t well-around enough or consistent enough to be Robin to LeBron.

Not that James doesn’t deserve goat horns either. His notorious jump shot connected only four times on 11 attempts. He misdribbled a number of times, with one resulting in a turnover.

He was frustrated on his layups by having a player at the rim stronger than he was, resulting in a number of uncomplicated misses. And at the end of the game, LeBron seemed too willing to hope for his under-performing teammates to shoot their way out of their slumps instead of trying to take over himself.

Defensively, his closeouts were porous and whichever player he was defending had no troubles torching him one-on-one. Part of his defensive troubles were no doubt caused by his fatigue and the fact that he had to do virtually everything for the Cavs himself.

But on a day the Cavs needed him to be a king, LeBron was merely a duke or an earl.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas was useless throughout the series. While Big Z has given his heart to the Cavs franchise and has persevered through numerous debilitating foot injuries, he’s strictly a bit player at this stage in his career.

With so many frontcourt players— Ilgauskas, Wallace, Varejao, Joe Smith—who are unaccomplished post players, Cleveland essentially is a three-man band of James, West, and Williams, and backcourt players don’t put nearly as much pressure on teams as accomplished post threats do.

This is why at least two of those players should go, and at least one bona fide pivot player needs to be brought in to augment LeBron.

The Cavs were too nonathletic, too reliant on James, and featured too many inadequate players who couldn’t come through, to say nothing of their wholly inadequate bench.

Those same downfalls were the same concerns pundits had for the Cavs before the season started, and obviously, they weren’t corrected as evidence by Orlando’s success. This means that Cleveland’s season, despite their high win totals and dominating early playoff performances, was a total failure.

And Orlando will try to keep the Magic going with a Hollywood-Disney feature presentation.