Van Gundy Says Comeback Is Possible

LOS ANGELES, June 8 -- The situation appears bleak, with his Orlando Magic becoming the 31st team to go down 0-2 in the NBA Finals. But Coach Stan Van Gundy didn't have to search hard to find a source of inspiration for his team to rally around. Only three teams in that position have come back to win an NBA championship, but Van Gundy was part of -- on the payroll, at least -- the last team to pull it off, the 2006 Miami Heat.

"I've seen series turn," said Van Gundy, who served as a consultant to Pat Riley after stepping down as coach of the Heat in December 2005. "I was still in Miami -- not doing a thing, but I was still in Miami -- in 2006 when they lost both games in Dallas and then were way down in the third quarter in Game 3 at home, came back and won that one. Dallas never won another game."

The Los Angeles Lakers are the fifth consecutive team with home-court advantage to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals. And, since the NBA moved to the 2-3-2 format in 1985, the team that has won the first two games went on to win the championship 12 out of 13 times. Dallas was the exception, losing the next four games to Miami.

The other teams to come back from an 0-2 deficit to win the championship were the 1969 Boston Celtics and the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers. "Bottom line is we came here for two games and we didn't get the job done," Van Gundy said. "You've got to take it one game at a time. Right now it's extremely frustrating not to have gotten [Game 2] because I thought we fought hard."

Courtney Lee's blown layup in the final 0.6 of a second in regulation on Sunday conjured memories of Nick Anderson's missed free throws in Game 1 of the 1995 Finals, the last time Orlando reached the Finals and was swept by Houston. The Magic has now lost its first six Finals games, which is the second-longest streak before a franchise's first victory. The Baltimore/Washington Bullets lost their first nine games in the Finals. The Bullets were swept by Milwaukee in 1971 and Golden State in 1975 then lost the series opener against Seattle in 1978. The Bullets, of course, won the title in 1978. . . .

Rashard Lewis became the 10th player to make at least six three-pointers in an NBA Finals game. The record is seven, shared by Kenny Smith, Scottie Pippen and Ray Allen. Michael Cooper, Bill Laimbeer, Michael Jordan, Dan Majerle, Reggie Miller and Derek Fisher also hit six three-pointers in a Finals game. "I felt good coming into the game," Lewis said. "I think I wanted to be aggressive early on in the game, not get shots for myself but create shots for other guys. I was able to do that. But unfortunately, didn't get the win. When you lose a game like that, the stats don't really mean anything." . . .

Kobe Bryant needs only eight points to surpass Wilt Chamberlain (652) for 18th on the all-time Finals scoring list. Bryant has scored 644 points in 28 career Finals games. Pippen (664) and Dennis Johnson (676) are next in line.