Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat: Stan Van Gundy To Blame for LeBron James' 51
We all witnessed LeBron James play a near-perfect first quarter (literally, he shot 11-11) scoring 24 points and making it look more like he was in a pregame shootaround, not the nationally televised prime time game it was. Yes, the Magic cut a 21-point fourth quarter deficit to three, and actually had a chance to tie it up late, but the hole was dug too deep early and the Magic were doomed from the start.
Many people want to talk about how "motivated" LeBron was after Dwight Howard mocked his pregame chalk toss while also posing for team pictures, like LeBron once did in his Cleveland days. But let's get real here, LeBron needed no more motivation.
Between Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy's offseason comments about LeBron leaving the Cavs, he was ready to play basketball. Not to mention this was a huge game in the East and no truly competitive player should need off-court actions to motivate them.
The real problem points toward the overall defensive game plan in stopping LeBron. Did Stan Van Gundy really feel Hedo Turkoglu would be able to stop or even contain James? Hedo is a descent team defender but the thought of him guarding LeBron one-on-one had disaster written all over it.
Once the Hedo experiment failed, Van Gundy chose to bring in second-year power forward Earl Clark to have his shot at LeBron. This is where one really has to question Van Gundy. Earl Clark is a 6'10" power forward who, like any other power forward, had no chance at stopping the best player in the league.
My question to Van Gundy would be why Quentin Richardson, Orlando's best perimeter defender, didn't start the game against LeBron.
When Q-Rich finally checked into the game late in the first he didn't stop LeBron but he was at least keeping LeBron in front of him and was clearly the Magic's best bet to contain LeBron.
Why Stan thought Hedo and Earl were his best options to stop LeBron is a head-scratcher.
Van Gundy tends to get to caught up in his usual rotations and Q-Rich should have seen the court a lot sooner than he did, if nothing else than to try and contain LeBron, who was clearly getting whatever shots he wanted early on in the game, setting the tone for the Heat.
