Cavaliers 114

Magic 116

Orlando, Fla. - For the slightest of moments, when the ball was just a few precious feet from the basket, it looked like LeBron James had one-upped himself.

Only this time, the law of averages, even superstar averages, caught up. His prayer from somewhere around 35 feet went unanswered at the overtime horn of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. The fact the Cavaliers were in position to need what would have qualified as another career shot to win a game says it all.

James' near miss made it another near miss for the Cavs, 116-114 in overtime Tuesday at Amway Arena. The Magic, which seems to be relentless in its playmaking and seems to have an overflowing talent pool, is now just one victory away from representing the East in the NBA Finals and ruining the most promising Cavs season in history.

"I was hoping I could make one more," James said. "It felt good leaving my hand, but it didn't look good at all. We all know we haven't got the breaks in this series."

If the Magic keeps playing this way and getting such breaks, Orlando is going to be one deserving representative.

The Magic's role players are destroying the Cavs' calculated game plan, and then when needed, Orlando's stars are emerging to make giant plays. In all, the Magic certainly is looking like a championship team.

"Our guys laid it out there and executed the game plan," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "You have to give the Orlando Magic credit."

Most of the time, that is rhetoric from Brown; now it sounds like an admission of defeat.

Sure, James scored 44 points, including a twisting 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds of overtime - perhaps his greatest shot of the night. He also drove to the basket and somehow got a whistle and then willed in two free throws with 0.5 seconds left in regulation. Plus, there were his 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Even to get open on the last play, when he broke free of a double team to get three-fourths of the way up the court in 3.2 seconds, had a wow factor.

"With LeBron on the floor, does 3.2 seconds seem like three minutes?" Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "He made a move like a tight end to get the ball and get off a reasonable shot. Stuff he's doing in this series is unbelievable."

But that is one man, and the team he's eyeing just has way, way more.

Magic center Dwight Howard romped to 10 of his 27 points in overtime - including two free throws with 21 seconds left. His seventh made free throw in nine attempts on the night and his 21st in 28 attempts in the series certainly made the Cavs want to tear up their scouting reports. After the Cavs did a good job of keeping the ball out of his hands for much of the game, he just bulled his way to the hoop in overtime.

The Magic's Rashard Lewis nailed another one of his dagger 3-pointers with 4.1 seconds left in regulation that was the true back-breaking moment of the night for the Cavs after Delonte West had been unable to come up with a loose ball that probably would have clinched the game for Cleveland.

Then there are the role players - the guys the Cavs are choosing not to pay much attention to so they can deal with the Magic players who have All-Star appearances. Those would be Rafer Alston and Mickael Pietrus, whom the Cavs have had to allow some space.

They took that space and ran. Alston made 6-of-12 3-pointers and had a career playoff high of 26 points. Then Pietrus hit 5-of-11 3-pointers for 17 points. That's the guts of how the Magic shot 50 percent and hit 17-of-36 3-pointers on what used to be the best playoff defensive team in the NBA.

Add in 17 points from Lewis, who said he has bad the two biggest shots in his career in the four games in this series, and 15 more with seven rebounds and eight assists from Hedo Turkoglu, and that's quite an effort.

"We're breaking down in areas we haven't broken down all year," James said. "We have to give up something."

Meanwhile, the Magic didn't give up much. Mo Williams played better than he has but did not back up his words as he missed 10 of 15 shots for the Cavs. He finished with 18 points but didn't make a basket in the fourth quarter and overtime.

West played his best game of the series, scoring 17 points with five rebounds and seven assists. But it seemed like nothing against the Magic's overwhelming attack.

"We can taste it," Alston said. "We're enjoying this ride."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: bwindhorst@plaind.com, 216-999-5166