Eastern Conference Finals - Game 4 Recap

Cleveland Cavaliers 114
Orlando Magic 116
Orlando Leads Series 3-1

Talk about two of the game's best doing all they can to will their team to a crucial win. Last night, both Dwight Howard and LeBron James were hellbent on getting the W in an all-important Game 4. In the end, Dwight's brawn and supporting cast were enough to squeak by King James and the Cavs (again), and the Magic head back to Cleveland with the opportunity to close out this series in Game 5.

After a back-and-forth ending to regulation that saw Rashard Lewis hit another huge 3-pointer, LeBron hit the two biggest free throws of his life with .5 seconds remaining to force the extra period. In OT, Howard absolutely bullied Anderson Varejao. Twice, Howard got position on the block, took the pass, and just backed Varejao underneath the rim before throwing down a rim-rattling dunk. Of course, Cleveland wasn't throwing a much-needed second defender at Superman because they were staying home on the Orlando sharp-shooters that hit a franchise playoff-record 17 treys.

But LeBron answered Howard's thunder with some lightning of his own, erasing a six-point Magic lead with 7 points of his own, including a ridiculous 3 while falling out of bounds to keep the Cavs within one possession in the waning seconds. However, the Cavs were ultimately undone by the fact that LeBron once again received little help from his teammates. James didn't help matters any by committing 8 turnovers, including 3 in the OT, to go along with his otherwise sparkling stat line of 44 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists.

Now the Cavs are faced with trying to become only the 9th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a series. Just for perspective, for the 8 that have succeeded, 182 teams have closed the door on a comeback. This franchise knows that it can't be put in a better situation than they have this season if they want to win an NBA Championship before LeBron hits free agency next summer. If they can't come up with a comeback for the ages, they could seriously be looking at just one more season in which The King could deliver a title to a championship-starved Cleveland.