Lil Red Machine

The Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons the Orlando Magic are not.

The Cavs have their work cut out for them now. Home court advantage? Gone. Feeling of invincibility? Gone

LeBron played his heart out. 49 points on 20-30 shooting. That’s legit stuff, on the level of some of the greatest to ever lace ‘em up. However, his supporting cast was brutal. Towards the end, LeBron realized this, and took it upon himself to try and get the job done. It wasn’t enough against that Orlando Magic 3-point shooting arsenal.

Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu are finesse players, but that’s not necessarily synonymous with being soft. Those guys came up huge. Lewis hit a dagger 3-pointer in the closing seconds to give the Magic the lead. Everyone knew it was coming, yet the Cavaliers still couldn’t close out on defense around the perimeter area. Story of the night.

Dwight Howard was a monster last night, but the Cavs are betting off just letting him do his damage. A double team against him keeps an open shooters outside. Zydrunas Ilgauskas is too slow, Anderson Varejao isn’t strong enough, and Ben Wallace is too small to cover superman. It’s going to be a long series for those guys against this monster.

Want a glass half full thought? The Cavs’ backcourt had one of their worst games of the season, and they still only lost by one. Hard to imagine Mo Williams and Delonte West playing that poorly again in game 2.