LeBron Saves The Day

Buzzer-beating 3 evens series 1-1

James’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted Cleveland past Orlando, 96-95, to tie the best-of-seven series 1-1.

By BRIAN WINDHORST

Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND — Well, LeBron James took the last shot this time.

What a shot it was. A shot that might go down as one of the highlights of his career.

With the Cavaliers on life support and perhaps about to go down an unrecoverable 2-0 to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, James rattled in an miracle ‘” an arcing 3-pointer less than a second ahead of the final buzzer Friday night to save the Cavs.

Just the second time in his career that he’s made a shot at the buzzer to win a game, the last of James’ 35 points gave the Cavs a 96-95 win.

It erased a terrific shot by Hedo Turkoglu, who had just hit a jumper with one second left that looked like it was going to give the Magic another miracle win at The Q.

So settle in, this is going to be a long series.

The victory had so many of the same fingerprints as the skin-tight Game 1. Complete with strong play by the Magic’s lanky wing players, wild swings in momentum and James playing the role of Cavs hero. At least this time, he was a conquering one.

He was not at the level he was in Game 1, but it was still a strong effort filled with highlights and plays that were desperately needed. It included about a dozen hard landings on the floor and more blood spilled from his knees.

His supporting cast was still not up their usual par, but the Cavs were able to gut their way through it and stay alive in the series.

Mo Williams had another poor shooting night, at times forcing the issue and still looking uncomfortable. But after starting 4-of-16 shooting he did what he has done many times this season and made some clutch hoops before it was too late.

Williams made three big shots and several times gave the Cavs the lead as he finished with 19 points.

The Cavs also got a gritty effort from Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who somehow was able to Magic center Dwight Howard to a near draw. He had 12 points with 15 rebounds as he battled and bruised with Howard all night.

Howard, thanks to some defensive techniques the Cavs employed, was not much of a factor as he finished with just 10 points and a still-impressive 18 rebounds.

Then there was Sasha Pavlovic. The major Game 2 adjustment, he came off the bench for 22 badly needed effective minutes and scored nine points.

The Cavs made a defensive adjustment to switch on screens, which can be a risky move because it creates mismatches. But on Friday it was effective for periods in keeping the Magic’s good ball-handling shooters out of the lane, which greatly helps the Cavs’ defensive system.

Plus the Cavs followed through with a plan to issue fouls to Howard when he got the ball in easy scoring position inside.

Neither was perfect, but such a defense may not exist against the Magic. Yet both decisions were both somewhat effective.

There were still numerous times that the Magic’s inside-out action with Howard and Hedo Turkuglo operating in the high pick-and-poll set caused trouble. But unlike in Game 1 when the Cavs seemed to have all sort of issues getting the Magic stars all covered at once, this time they were able to force some bad possessions.

Howard went to the foul line eight times and made just four, following about his career average.

It was the largest reason the Cavs were able to hold the Magic to a manageable 28 points in the paint after they racked up 50 in Game 1.Turkoglu was unable to create offense with his drive and kicks with less space to move. He had 21 points, but was held to just four assists after racking up 14 on Wednesday.

Rashard Lewis was still deadly with his outside shooting and gave the Cavs matchup problems much of the evening. He finished with 23 points.