Brian Windhorst of The Plain Dealer: “He made 20 of 30 shots, had six rebounds, eight assists, two steals and three blocks while fighting fatigue and cramps. He had to be helped off the floor after the final horn with a cramp in his right thigh and he spent some of the fourth quarter limping from a cut on his knee. ‘My individual performances means nothing because we didn’t get the win,’ James said. ‘It hurt, but we have to adjust. Series are not won or lost in one game. We have to make some adjustments.’ During timeouts late in the game, trainers put ice on James’ neck and he seemed to lose his lift in the stretch run — looking tired for the first time all season. This was despite getting some rest early in the fourth quarter, which ended up costing the Cavs the lead. James hit an incredible hanging jumper with 25 seconds left as Dwight Howard smothered him for his sixth and final foul. But Lewis erased it, doing what the Magic seem to do best, shoot.”
John Schuhmann of NBA.com: “James and other members of the Cavs have been through tough games in the playoffs before. But Williams saw his first real postseason adversity on Wednesday. And he didn’t play like an All-Star. But the Cavs still scored 106 points, shooting 49 percent from the field and turning the ball over just eight times. The problem wasn’t the offense. It was on the other end of the floor. As unstoppable as James has been through the first nine games of the postseason, it has been the Cleveland defense that has been the No. 1 reason for their success. Through the first two series, the Cavs hadn’t allowed more than 85 points in a game. On Wednesday, the Magic had 85 with more than 10 minutes to go in the fourth, taking their first lead, 85-84, on an Anthony Johnson trey. ‘For a team to shoot 55 percent on our court in the game is unacceptable for all of us,’ James said. ‘We know that’s not how we play basketball. That’s not how we’re going to win. We should have lost.’ It wasn’t an issue of effort, though. The Cavs played with energy. They just didn’t have an answer for stopping the Orlando offense.”
Charley Rosen of FOXSports.com: “The game changed dramatically in the second half, when the Cavs discovered that — unlike the Pistons and the Hawks — the Magic refused to fold. After 24 minutes of quickly whipping the ball inside, outside and around the horn, the Cavs’ offense became stagnant. In a reversion to seasons past, the ball was placed in James’ hands and mostly stayed there. Sure, he completed several assist passes (eight for the game), but James massaged the ball for several counts — or else ate up the shot clock by pounding the ball into the floor — before he shot, drove and/or passed. Suddenly, LeBron’s teammates became spectators, waiting for the golden pass that they were expected to turn into points. With the pressure mounting with each shot that LeBron created for them, not only were shots missed, but passes were also either off-target or fumbled while desperation dribbles were deflected. For sure, James continued his hot shooting — 20-of-30 for 49 points — but he was now mostly playing 1-on-5. At the other end, the Magic’s long-distance dialers took heart and began to connect. The ball moved rapidly from player-to-player. Howard continued to dominate the paint. Screen-and-pops were wide open.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel: “You thought the Game 7 win at Boston to oust the Celtics was something? The Magic handed the steam-rolling Cavs their first loss of the postseason, weathering James’ 49-point masterpiece to steal home-court advantage from the team that posted the league’s best record at home (39-2).The Magic, trailing 106-104 on James’ 3-point play with 25.6 seconds left, went ahead 107-106 on a 3-pointer by Rashard Lewis with 14.7 seconds left. Cavs guard Delonte West missed a 3-pointer, and with one second left, a wild scramble resulted in a jump-ball between James and Hedo Turkoglu. James batted it out to Mo Williams, who barely missed a desperation shot. ‘I’m not an optimistic guy and when Mo Williams caught it and shot it off of one foot, I was sure it was going in,’ Coach Stan Van Gundy said. West had given the Cavs the lead when he drilled a 3-pointer with 40.8 seconds left for a 103-102 lead until Lewis answered with a jumper to put Orlando ahead 104-103. After the game, James limped off the floor, his right knee bleeding and apparently was suffering from cramps. Or shock.”
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “‘We didn’t have an answer for LeBron, but we fought through it and got a win,’ Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said. ‘We have one resilient basketball team.’ Let’s face it, the Cavs are worried. Very worried. They would much rather be facing the beleaguered Boston Celtics right now; not a Magic team that has beaten them 9 of the last 12 times they’ve played. The Cavs entered this series 8-0 in the playoffs, winning by an average score of 16.8 points per game. Now, astoundingly, they are 0-1 against the Magic. LeBron scored 49 points — and they still lost to the Magic. They led by 16 at one point — and they still lost to the Magic. They played in this nuthouse known as Quicken Loans Arena — where they have lost just two games all season (one if you count the final defeat of the season when Brown was resting his starters) — and they still lost to the Magic. Let’s be bluntly honest. The Magic don’t need to win this series for their season to be considered a success. Winning Game 7 in Boston on Sunday night took care of that, and the Magic are now playing with house money.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: “With the Game 6 and 7 victories over the Boston Celtics, with this stunning Game 1 victory over the Cavs, the Magic have shown the stomach for pressure playoff basketball. The Magic would benefit because James suffered cramps through most of the fourth quarter, and he even had to call timeouts to get off his feet. It happened in Game 1 of the Atlanta series and again on Wednesday night. Those long layoffs betrayed his body. The stress of these games – the fans, the lights, the sweating – can never be simulated in practices. ‘Your body will tell you when you are ready to move,’ James said. ‘If you try to move before [then], it is going to hurt.’ So, LeBron James, the MVP, welcomed a little uncertainty into the season, the pressure of a Game 2 on Friday night with the world watching to see how the game’s greatest talent brings his team back. He’ll drink his fluids, he said, stay hydrated and James assured that those legs won’t be wobbly when the Magic come for him. The Magic tried everything, but perhaps it was the inactivity, the unchallenging nature of this easy playoff run, that doomed James and the Cavs in Game 1. ‘The one thing that I don’t leave this game with, is any idea whatsoever what to do with him,’ Van Gundy said. ‘As a coach, you’re supposed to have some idea. I don’t have a clue.’”
Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: “Within his own organization, the Nuggets’ fifth-year coach is sometimes referred to as George Nai- smith, and it’s not necessarily a term of endearment for a guy who can act as if he invented the game. L.A. coach Phil Jackson admitted Denver outplayed his Lakers on their home floor during the series opener, yet the visitors somehow lost. Was that a psychological jab at Karl? Here’s the weird part: Although the 1996 NBA Finals were a long time ago, and the memories of his Seattle team losing to the Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan and Jackson should have started to fade, every time Karl stands in the shadow of the Zen Master, your Nuggets coach seems to be trying too hard to impress, and winds up awkwardly playing by that old self-help book from Stuart Smalley, ‘You’re Good Enough, You’re Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like You!’ With a roomful of nervous Hollywood actors chewing the furniture, and the poor-shooting Lakers producing one of the bigger clunkers in an L.A. production since Shaquille O’Neal starred in ‘Kazaam,’ the Nuggets somehow snatched defeat from victory in Game 1, if only Karl had not gotten too cute down the stretch.”
Dave McMenamin of NBA.com: “Even with foul trouble plaguing the Lakers’ frontline, Gasol, Odom and Bynum did outplay the other guys and combined for 28 rebounds to Nene, Martin and Andersen’s 18. But the Nuggets’ guard group of Chauncey Billups, J.R. Smith and Anthony Carter had 15 boards compared to 10 for Bryant, Derek Fisher and Sasha Vujacic. As Bynum explains, with the way the Lakers and Nuggets like to overload one side on defense with two big men, the rebounding opportunities are up to the whole team to take advantage of. ‘We need everybody,’ Bynum said. ‘All five guys have to rebound. Like I said, when you load up, you take my body [and put me] on the strong side of the rim. That leaves the weakside [up for grabs], so everybody has got to collectively rebound.’ ‘We have to rebound,’ Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ‘They’re sending an extra big guy out to help defend Kobe. They’re stepping out on screen-rolls and making switches on cuts. We have to take advantage of the fact that we have some big guys in there that can use their height and find a way to get the ball.’ Offensive rebounds are particularly fortuitous because they’re like a two-for-one deal. You take away a potential possession for the other team and you give your team one more chance to score.”
Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: “They somehow need to get better, of course. Even with Kevin Garnett presumably about to resolve his right knee issues with surgery, Rivers said the team must add at least one other veteran to bolster the Aging Three. He doesn’t want to ever again have the feeling he had this spring — the insecurity of heading into the playoffs without his best team. ‘We clearly have to add to our team,’ he said. ‘One regret — the one thing I look back on this year, though you obviously can’t predict injuries — is that our real team has still not been beaten. ‘It bothers me, because now I don’t know if we were good enough or not,’ said Rivers. ‘That’s the only thing — not knowing — but I loved our team. But every team we competed against this year — the ones at the top — added to their team, and we didn’t.’ Personnel matters aren’t necessarily the coach’s domain, but he sounds confident that the addition of more veteran talent is in the offing.”
Eddie Sefko for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “‘We have to be open to anything — anything! — that would improve our team,’ president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said Wednesday. The Mavericks will be one of 29 teams in contact with the Clippers about everything from their bevy of big men to the No. 1 pick and Davis, who is under contract for four more seasons at more than $60 million. The Mavericks first must address the Jason Kidd issue. If they re-sign him, Davis would become a nonfactor, unless a third team were involved. But a player like Camby or Kaman, who played with Dirk Nowitzki on the German national team in last year’s Olympics, would make a lot of sense for the Mavericks. There will be no shortage of competition, however, particularly from Oklahoma City, which has the third pick in the draft. The Thunder is expected to make a play for Griffin, using the third pick and one of their young core players (Jeff Green or Russell Westbrook) as bait for the top overall pick, which would allow them to keep Griffin in his hometown.”
Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “On the day after the Grizzlies experienced their luckiest draft lottery day since arriving in Memphis, they were rewarded at the box office. Already encouraging season-ticket sales were bolstered by the news that the Grizzlies, who were slotted sixth, jumped to the No. 2 position in the NBA’s June 25 draft. The Grizzlies’ ticket sales staff was more active Wednesday than in each of the past two years on the day following the draft lottery. ‘It’s looking a lot better. I think people are excited about where we are, and where we can go with this pick,’ Griz owner Michael Heisley said. ‘We’ve got two first-round picks this year and two next year. And you’re sitting there with two guys who made the All-Rookie team. … All I’m doing is working the plan.’ But even Heisley’s ‘Three-year Plan’ could use a little luck given the Griz tied Minnesota for the fifth-worst record this season. That meant Memphis had a 7.5-percent chance of winning the top overall pick Tuesday night before finishing second behind the Los Angeles Clippers.”
Marc Berman of the New York Post: ‘With the Knicks locked in with the No. 8 pick, coach Mike D’Antoni weighed in yesterday on Davidson point guard Stephen Curry — the front-runner to wear a blue-and-orange jersey. Reached in Mullens, W. Va., where he is spending the week in his home state doing speaking engagements, D’Antoni didn’t sound disappointed the Knicks didn’t get a higher spot in Tuesday’s lottery. The Knicks want to add a guard with playmaking and shooting skills to their roster by June 25. Curry’s new agent spoke to the Knicks yesterday as they attempted to arrange a workout in Westchester around June 5. ‘He’s going to be a really good pro,’ D’Antoni told The Post. ‘But it’s too early to gauge. There’s four of them we’ve looked at [on film], and I’m sure that will expand. I didn’t think it’s disappointing. We didn’t drop back. We could get a good player at 8. Sometimes you make mistakes at 3.’ Last week, the 6-foot-3 Curry hired agent Jeff Austin, who represented his father, Dell Curry. Austin had a strong conversation with Knicks team president Donnie Walsh last week about Curry.”
Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: “What we know about is he’s a game-changing interior defender. We know his 4.2 blocked shots per game and 10.8 rebounds at UConn last season only begin to tell the full story of how much of an impact he has at the defensive end. But we don’t know whether those skills alone are enough to win over the Thunder. Don’t know whether Thabeet will ever develop into anything more than a defensive presence. And don’t know whether he has the heart and hunger to be all he can be or is simply an example of a big man who had the game forced upon him. ‘When it comes to workmanlike research and just being meticulous and thorough, I don’t think there is a better GM in the NBA than Sam Presti,’ said Jonathan Givony, president of the Web site DraftExpress.com. ‘So if anybody is capable of getting to the bottom of who Thabeet is, what his potential is, what he brings to the table, how he fits on a team, I honestly think he’s No. 1 in that regard.’ Givony, citing unnamed sources, reported on his site Wednesday that the Thunder has spent more time scouting Thabeet than any other NBA team.”
Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee: “Picking fourth means the variables are many. If the first three teams picking – the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis and Oklahoma City – don’t move from their current spots, there is nothing for certain other than the widely held belief that Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin will be the first to go. And while it is far from certain that Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie sees Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio as the answer to the team’s deficiencies at that spot, there are numerous scenarios in which the 18-year-old could conceivably fall their way. But the Kings – who also have the Nos. 23 and 31 picks – are likely to be approached by other teams with attractive trade options that might not have existed otherwise. One league source on Wednesday even indicated the seemingly unthinkable, that the Clippers would be willing to trade the top pick – which they have already confirmed would be Griffin – for the right package. The Kings could move down in the draft as well, with that possibility more likely if they target a point guard who could be available beyond the fourth spot such as Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn, Italy’s Brandon Jennings or UCLA’s Jrue Holiday.”
Michael Grange of the Globe and Mail: “O’Neal, known variously as The Big Diesel, The Big Aristotle and the Big Cactus since he joined Steve Nash with the Phoenix Suns, was a surprise visitor to Syracuse University this past week. He enrolled in a three-day broadcast school boot camp. Run in conjunction with Syracuse’s prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the National Basketball Players Association, the program is designed to prepare players interested in pursuing careers in media after their playing days are over. O’Neal started the program last Sunday and Rautins, himself a graduate of the Newhouse School and former basketball star at Syracuse, was called in Tuesday to help O’Neal with a number of segments. While Rautins has always been impressed with O’Neal the player, he came away with high praise for O’Neal the aspiring broadcaster. ‘He’s really funny,’ said Rautins, who splits his time between Syracuse and Toronto. ‘I always thought he’d be great to play with for that reason, but he was very good at this, too. I’d put him in the top three or four player analysts in the league right now, no offence to who’s out there. He’s just so colourful and so fun.’”
