Orlando, Fla. - The Orlando Magic is known as a 3-point shooting team. It's a group of long and lanky shooters who can knock it down from long distance in the clutch.
There have been daggers from Rashard Lewis and heartbreakers from Hedo Turkoglu in this Eastern Conference finals. That is why the Cavaliers opted to leave point guard Rafer Alston wide open for most of Game 4 on Tuesday night.
"I'm probably not the most consistent one out of all the bunch as far as making 3s," Alston admitted.
Cleveland tried to capitalize on Alston's streaky nature by switching to a defense that assigned LeBron James to the 6-2 guard so James could more easily switch to double-teaming the Magic's powerful center, Dwight Howard.
Alston has seen that dare-me defense before in these playoffs, so he knew what he had to do: make 3-pointers. That's just what he did in Orlando's 116-114 Game 4 win.
Alston hit 15 of the Magic's 21 points in the third quarter to bring Orlando to within one point. He finished with a career-playoff-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting while knocking in 6-of-12 3-pointers.
The Cavaliers were banking on Alston being the mortal player he was in the first two games during this series when he hit just 5-of-17 attempts. James was assigned to sag off him in Game 3, and Alston responded with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
In Game 4, James gave Alston more space. Alston found it more of a challenge.
"It's been a challenge to me all playoff long," Alston said. "In Philadelphia, their coach dared me to shoot it, and I burned them. In Boston, they dared me to shoot it and I burned them. They're [Cleveland] daring me to shoot it, too."
Dare-me defense? Alston dares the Cavaliers to try it again.
"He made it a lot easier on a lot of guys because he was making shots," Lewis said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jvalade@plaind.com, 216-999-4654
