For the first time this post-season, the Cleveland Cavaliers face elimination. The Cavs need three wins in a row or their magical season will be over. The good news is they get to go back home where they have only lost three times this entire year.
The Cavs are 2-1 against the Magic this season at home, and 44-3 overall in Quicken Loans Arena. The key to getting back into this series will be to take it one game at a time. They need to concentrate on winning game five and nothing else. This is not a seven game series, rather a one game series that the Cavs must win...three times. That has to be the mentality they take into each remaining game. Only eight teams in NBA history have ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in seven game series such as the one the Cavaliers face.
The reason the Magic have played so well and have claimed this 3-1 advantage has been because of their impeccable three point shooting. In game four, Orlando shot 44 percent from beyond the arc, sinking a playoff team record 17 of 38 treys, 11 of which came after half-time. In the series, Orlando has shot nearly 42 percent from three, making 42 of 98 shots. It was a three point dagger with 4.6 seconds remaining in regulation of game four that would eventually force overtime and lead to the Orlando win. The Magic are shooting 32.5 percent from three overall in the playoffs, and have a much better record when they shot 30 percent or better from behind the arc. If Cleveland is going to shut down this offense, it will have to start with better defense on the perimeter.
It has been 45 years since a Cleveland team won a title in a major sport, and unless LeBron James and the Cavys step up their game and play to the level they are capable of, we might be kept waiting.
The odds are against them, can the come-back kids pull it off again? Game five is Thursday night.
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