Last night in the NBA opened many people's eyes to one or two things – either the Miami Heat are all hype or the Orlando Magic are the real deal and are heavy contenders in the East.
I believe the latter to be true. The Magic not only beat the Heat last night, but they beat them in the most incredulous fashion. They came back from down more than 20 points to beat the NBA's most talented team. This is not an easy feat and couldn't be done by any team, except a team that is a true contender for the NBA championship.
Now, yes, the Heat have lost a number of games to teams this year, and have struggled to beat teams that are over 500, but I don't want to pay attention to that. Last night the nail was in the coffin for the Orlando Magic, and they could have easily packed it in and said, “Hey, we'll get 'em next time.” They however didn't do that. They were resilient. Ryan Anderson, probably the most underrated player on the Magic, hit two consecutive three's in the third quarter that gave the Magics life.
Gilbert “Gun” Arenas played like the player people thought he would be by hitting shot after shot with no regard. Jameer Nelson played very well. He is definitely not one of the top point guards in the league, but there are days when he plays, that he deserves to be consider one of the elites and last night's performance was one of those nights. On one particular play he beat his man off the dribble and drove from the side straight at Chris Bosh and laid it up high off the backboard, leaving Bosh defenseless and earning the Magic' two points. Nelson is a great point guard and the NBA needs to realize that.
Dwight Howard played well and hit his free throws. When the playoffs come around and Howard is hitting his free throws over 65% the Magic will be hard to stop and every playoff team in the NBA knows that. Teams this year will not be able to play Dwight like Hack-A-Shaq in the late 90's and early to mid 2000's.
This year's playoffs are setting up to be one of the finest. The Spurs look tough, Lakers look questionable, but still tough, and Mavericks can't be counted out. The Celtics are tough, Magic are tough, and the Heat haven't been tested in the playoffs yet, so nobody knows what we're going to see from them when it's crunch-time.
My best guest right now for the NBA finals has to be, Spurs and Magic. I can't see either of these teams losing before then. Everyone knows that Kobe is the best player in the NBA, hands down. But having to preform at the top of his game in the Conference Finals every night will be hard to do. Paul Gasol has been timid at times and unless he plans on changing that in the weeks to come, the road for the Lakers this year will end in the Western Conference Finals.
As for Boston, they traded their size and for speed. Size is what got them to the NBA finals last year and they were only four points away from bringing Boston another title. That's only two missed jump shoots, which could of been fixed. I just don't see them having an answer from Dwight Howard this year now.
Therefore, Dallas and the Miami are the wild cards in the NBA elites, maybe they will mix it up, or maybe they will just fall flat on their faces. Then LeBron James and Mark Cuban can hold a press conference together this off season where James can pick a new team and Cuban can complain about how the referees suck.
Mr. Felder
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