Orlando and its fans have longed for a second shot.
Now, they can almost touch it.
Orlando moved within one win of ending its 14-year Finals drought on Tuesday night as Dwight Howard scored 27 points - 10 in overtime - in a 116-114 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals and shove LeBron James and his not-so-supportive cast to the edge of an early summer break.
A razor-thin series - two one-point games, and a two-pointer in OT - in which the last team with the ball usually emerges victorious, could end tonight. Maybe.
“We’re up 3-1, but we can’t relax,” said Rashard Lewis, whose catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left in regulation was Game 4’s most dramatic shot. “Anything can happen. We have to go to Cleveland looking to try to close these guys out.”
Orlando heads into Game 5 with no fear of the road. It finished off the defending champion Boston Celtics on their famed parquet floor in a Game 7 in the previous round and have a chance to end Cleveland’s dream season on its home floor.
James, who is averaging 42.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists in the series, probably won’t go quietly.
“I’m up for the challenge,” James said. “And I think my play, my leadership has spoken for that. So I will be ready, and I think our guys will be ready also.”
Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, who doesn’t sleep well even when things are going great, knows if anyone can turn this series around it’s the magnificent James.
“This thing is a long, long, long way from over, just like the games in this series have been,” he said. “When you’ve got a guy as great as him on the other side, you’re a long way from done.”
After Thursday’s practice in Ohio, Cavs coach Mike Brown agreed.
“This is about as even of a series as you can ask for. They’ve just made one or two plays down the stretch more than us,” Brown said. “But I still feel the confidence, I still feel the togetherness and I still feel like we have a chance to win this.”
The odds are stacked against the Cavaliers.
In the NBA’s 62-year postseason history, 190 teams have taken a 3-1 lead in a series and 182 of them have won. More daunting for the Cavaliers is that Orlando has won 10 of the past 14 meetings between the teams, and was one of three teams to win at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena this season.
The Cavs are running out of time and answers.
When they have concentrated on stopping Howard down low, Orlando has made 3-pointers (hitting 17 of 38 in Game 4), and when Cleveland focuses its defense on guarding the perimeter, Howard destroys the Cavs near the basket.
“They’re playing their best basketball of the season right now,” Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said.
