Howard's Magic Ousts James's Cavaliers
Upstarts Eliminate MVP's Team in Six: Magic 103, Cavaliers 90
Dwight Howard, who led the Magic with 40 points and 14 rebounds, swoops in from behind to defend a LeBron James, center, as Mickael Pietrus looks on.
(By John Raoux -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Sunday, May 31, 2009
ORLANDO, May 30 -- As the blowout neared completion, as the finest night of Dwight Howard's career came to a confetti-strewn conclusion, the Orlando Magic center raised his thickly muscled arms over his head. The theme from "Superman" -- his theme in this building - blared over the sound system.
LeBron James was going home, one round short of his so-hoped-for duel with Kobe Bryant for everything in the NBA Finals kitty. Howard and his Magic were headed to Hollywood to face the Lakers instead, his career playoff high of 40 points and 14 rebounds -- really, his fire and force -- were the reason the Cleveland Cavaliers went down hard, 103-90, in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last night.
If Superman had spoiled rather than saved the day for every salivating hoophead not living in central Florida, he was loving every minute of it, rejoicing as the team with the NBA's best regular season record was dropped, four games to two.
When someone facetiously asked Howard how awful it was to ruin the Kobe-LeBron show, he shrugged his massive shoulders and replied, "Had to. I was getting tired of hearing about it."
At 6 feet 11 and 265 perfectly proportioned pounds, he was the man in the middle all right -- the middle of the Magic's triumph, Orlando's first trip to the NBA finals since 1995. Mobbed by teammates near mid-court, the guy who won the all-star dunk contest as a caped-crusading novelty act a year ago was now officially the most dominant big man in the game.
Rather than dissecting the rout, Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said what everyone was thinking about Game 6:
"Dwight did a hell of a job, and that was it," Van Gundy said. The coach takes an underdog team to the NBA Finals 10 years after his brother Jeff guided an eighth-seeded Knicks team to the 1999 Finals. That Knicks team featured Patrick Ewing, then an injured franchise player and now an Orlando assistant coach, whose work with Howard is apparently paying off.
Howard maliciously backed the Cavaliers front line down in Game 6, until poor Anderson Varejao or Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Ben Wallace were caught underneath the rim, unable to do anything but be dunked upon.
That impressive 66-16 record compiled from October through April did LeBron and his fading supporting cast no good in the dying days of May.
Orlando opens Game 1 of the NBA finals Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Cavaliers closed to within 10 in the middle of the third quarter with a surreal 8-0 run in 41 seconds to start the half. But for much of the night they were never in the game.
From the beginning, when Orlando opened up a 10-point lead in the opening quarter, Howard and his teammates were determined not to let LeBron bring the series back home for a deciding Game 7 in a building Cleveland had lost just three games in all season.
