Hedo Turkoglu rubs Jameer Nelson's head during a break in the action in Saturday evening's Orlando Magic/Detroit Pistons game. Detroit won, 90-89, to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Photo by Doug Benc, Getty Images

This game was ours for the taking, but we didn't take it. We had an 11-point halftime lead and bumped it up to 15 with a Maurice Evans three-pointer. All we had to do was to get two more stops and two more baskets. That's it. We could have gone up by 19 points and the Pistons would surely have packed it in. Instead, they went on a backbreaking 15-0 run, capped off by a fast-break dunk by Richard Hamilton.

And in the end, we only needed one basket to win. Tayshaun Prince hit a floater in the lane (thanks to an Antonio McDyess offensive rebound) to put the Pistons ahead, 90-89. Hedo Turkoglu, who scored 13 of his 20 points in the period, missed a driving layup over Prince at the buzzer to end the game and, essentially, the series. But it should not have come to that. We wasted too many opportunities to blame the loss squarely on Hedo's missed layup. Take a look at this laundry list of miscues:

• Dwight Howard's missed dunk (2:28, first quarter). This dunk wasn't heavily contested. Dwight reached back with one hand and simply threw it too hard into the back iron.
• Keyon Dooling's bad pass (11:30, second quarter). The scorer credited Keyon with the turnover, but this one was Dwight's fault. After screening for Keyon on the right baseline, Howard rolled to the basket and was wide-open. Keyon delivered a crisp bounce pass, but Howard bobbled it, and Jason Maxiell recovered for Detroit.
• Jameer Nelson's missed free throws (take your pick). Nelson, shooting 83.9% from the stripe this postseason, went just 2-of-6 from the line tonight. Sure, other guys missed free throws -- Rashard Lewis was 1-of-2 and Hedo was 4-of-5 -- but Nelson's misses simply stand out more. His miss with 44 seconds remaining kept the score 89-88, our favor. If he had made it, Tayshaun Prince's floater with 8.9 left in the game would have tied the score, not given the Pistons the lead.

Obviously, I'm disappointed we lost, but we still got some great efforts:

• Hedo was huge in the fourth quarter, as I mentioned.
• Maurice Evans played his tail off and scored 15 points.
• Keith Bogans had 6 points and 7 boards (?!) off the bench, and he showed a new dimension in his game: the driving layup. Both of his field goals were of that variety, and they were both "and-one" plays. A shaky foul shooter, Bogans converted on both his tries.
• In just 3 minutes, Marcin Gortat showed flashes of brilliance, scoring on a beautiful hook from the left baseline (over Rasheed Wallace, no less) and on a layup. The final total for Marcin: 4 points, 1 rebound, and 1 block in just 3 minutes.

I say "just" 3 minutes for Marcin because he should have been on the floor longer. Dwight Howard had arguably his worst offensive performance as a professional, with 8 points on 3-of-12 shooting. He didn't make any shots after the first quarter. The Pistons took him out of the game by muscling him as he shot, and he did not get the benefit of the whistle. Perhaps intimidated, by their defense, he also rushed a few shots, including one put-back (3:08, second quarter) that the threw entirely too hard off the glass; all he needed to do was grab the rebound, come down with it, gather himself, and go up for the jam. With more rest -- he played the entire second half! -- he might have been able to tip-in Hedo's missed layup at the final buzzer. He might have been able to box-out McDyess (who finished with 14 rebounds) more effectively. And something tells me that Gortat would have been able to hold his own in Dwight's absence. But we'll never know for sure.

After Game Three, Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer wrote that we let the Pistons creep back into the game because "Jameer Nelson really enjoys shooting 20-foot jumpers." It's true. Nelson tends to settle for the jump-shot too frequently, and especially at the ends of quarters. He ended the Magic's last three first-quarter possessions on jump-shots, making the first and missing the next two. He finished with 6 assists and just 1 turnover, which is fantastic, but the 6-of-14 shooting isn't. And we covered the free-throw shooting.

That's a wrap, both for this recap and for this series. Game Five is Tuesday night in Detroit, and I expect the Pistons to close it out in big fashion on their home floor. They've earned it. Of course, I won't complain if the Magic steal one there... but I wouldn't bank on it.

Jameer Nelson has not won the respect of Pistons fans.

Some Detroit Bad Boys readers noted in the comments section of last night's game thread that they think Jameer Nelson intentionally took down Chauncey Billups last night. As best I can tell, "Other Matt" was the first person to posit the theory (warning: language). Here's the video, courtesy TrueHoop:

Take a look at the second replay, from about 00:14 to 00:17. Jameer has right foot wrapped around Billups' left foot when Billups' left leg comes out from under him, causing him to split. From my perspective, it seems unlikely that Jameer's foot got in that position accidentally. Henry Abbott agrees, but says, "This is no great scandal. It's hardly the most evil basketball play ever. It's just a little garden variety playoff feistiness." Matt Watson, who runs Detroit Bad Boys, disagrees, saying he "still lean[s] toward it being incidental."

Intentional or not, there's no question that Billups' health -- even if he's able to play as soon as Saturday, there's no way he'll be at 100% -- is a key factor in this series. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel has gone so far as to guarantee the Magic will win the series as long as Billups doesn't come back "close to full strength."

Me? I'm not ready to say that just yet. The Pistons still lead the series, 2-1, and they have the depth and talent to compensate for Billups' 17 points per game.

[Note by Ben Q Rock, 05/08/08 7:37 PM EDT ]:

DBB commenter Rob G has an amusing, if not disconcerting, take on the situation:

On purpose or not - why can’t we knock the hell out of him the next time he drives the lane anyway?

Jameer better be careful. He's already had 2 concussions this year, and the last thing we need is our 26-year-old Point Guard of the Future sidelined with a serious injury while our backups try to pick up the slack.

The Magic's Jameer Nelson tied for the team lead in scoring with 22 points, but it didn't matter, as Orlando fell to Detroit, 100-93, facing a 2-0 series deficit in its best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup.

Photo by Allen Einstein, NBAE/Getty Images

Let's get one thing out of the way: the Magic did not lose tonight's game because of the three-point basket that the Pistons were erroneously awarded at the end of the third quarter. Odenized (who else?) has the video of the whole bizarre sequence at YouTube:

As you can see, the game-clock malfunctioned, and only three-tenths of a section went off the clock despite the Pistons inbounding the ball, taking three dribbles, passing, taking another dribble, then passing again to Chauncey Billups for the shot.

That basket gave the Pistons a 78-76 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Magic had 12 minutes to overcome a two-point deficit. Yes, they should have started the quarter with a one-point lead, but there's no way to guarantee that it would have made any difference. A lot can happen in 12 minutes of basketball, so let's not waste our time complaining about an error the officials were not even allowed to fix, given the current replay rules, and instead use in constructively on figuring out why we lost.

First, we turned the ball over entirely too much (19 turnovers on 87 possessions), forcing the issue early in the game and down the stretch. Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, and Dwight Howard combined for 17 of those turnovers, although we can attribute most of Dwight's miscues to soreness in his left thumb, which made it hard for him to hang onto passes. Our gameplan seemed to be "get the ball to Dwight!" and, although it worked well when executed, both Lewis and Turkoglu were guilty of telegraphing their entry passes, which the Pistons easily deflected or stole. Turkoglu in particular had a horrible offensive game. His rushed three-point jumper -- there were 21 seconds on the shot clock. Turk! -- with the Magic down 2 points and 48 seconds to play doomed us. It's bad enough he shot it just 3 seconds into the possession. What makes it worse is the fact that he did not set his feet OR follow through. Our greatest fears have come true: Hedo, our greatest fourth-quarter player, has developed a hero complex.

This shot was eerily similar to the fadeaway three for which he settled at the buzzer of the Magic's 103-102 loss to the Timberwolves in mid-April. After that game, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said, "I didn't like the shot because he wasn't set." Well, I hope Hedo hears it from Stan and from the media after tonight's game: that rushed shot, more than anything else we did offensively, doomed us.

There's also the matter of defense. We held Richard Hamilton to 14 points on 4-of-18 shooting, but we had no answer for Detroit's other three big guns: Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace combined for 62 points on 23-of-42 shooting. Now, Billups' total -- 28 -- is a bit nflated due to the fouling we did late in the game when it got out of hand, and Jameer Nelson was no slouch offensively with 22 points of his own. Still, when Wallace and Prince create mismatches like that, Detroit is tough to beat. We simply don't have an answer for those two players. Prince is too quick for Turkoglu to guard, yet too tall for Maurice Evans to guard. Similarly, Wallace has too much range for Dwight to handle, yet too good a post game for Rashard to handle. And that, in a nutshell, is how the Pistons have stayed on top of the East for so long: they have four guys who can beat tyou, by themselves, on any given night.

But let's give ourselves some credit for fighting back from a fourteen-point deficit against a superior team on its home floor. Let's also credit the Pistons, for clamping down on defense when it mattered most: we scored 17 points on 25 fourth-quarter possessions for an offensive rating of 68.0.

Let me recognize some strong efforts from our guys before I wrap this thing up: Jameer's 22 points were fantastic, and tonight was his best game against Detroit by far in his career. People may point to Billups' gaudy 28 points, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Jameer took, and made, some big shots of his own, and his five three-pointers are the only reason we were in the game in the second half anyway. And Dwight Howard, with 22 points and 18 rebounds, was tremendous. He fared well against each Piston who defended him, even throwing down a furious two-handed slam in the face of that #42 fellow on the Pistons, the one whose name escapes me.

Photo by Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

Dwight did a lot of the dirty work tonight and recovered nicely from his poor Game One effort.

I don't know the exact statistic, but if memory serves, when the team with home-court advantage in a seven-game series wins its first two games, it goes on to win the series 94% of the time. But I'm not counting us out quite yet. Turnovers and boneheaded shot-selection aside, we still played a heckuva game tonight, and as I said in the Hoops Addict podcast I did last night, there's no shame in losing to a better team, especially when you put up a fight, which we did tonight.

For more on tonight's game, check out Matt Watson's pregame interview with Rashard Lewis. Also check out this unscientific poll at OrlandoSentinel.com, in which 76% of respondents blame poor officiating for the Magic's loss tonight, at least at the time of this post.

Jameer Nelson, Dwight Howard, and Rashard Lewis watch their Orlando Magic lose to the Detroit Pistons, 91-72, in Game One of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series.

Photo by Paul Sancya, the Associated Press

I don't think Hedo should have dunked that one.

Hedo Turkoglu gave the Magic their first and only lead of the game last night with a driving dunk early in the third quarter. It was all downhill from there, as the Pistons went on a backbreaking 19-3 run to put the game on ice. It's a shame, too because we sure played well in the first half.

Give a lot of credit to the Pistons. They took away our three-point and our driving lanes to the basket. Our offense is predicated on the drive-and-kick to open three-point shooters. When there's no drive, there's no kick, and there's no shot. The Pistons held us to just 15 three-point attempts, 10 below our season average. Even worse, we made just 2 of them. We had made at least 5 in every game this past season, an NBA record. We had to look to score in other ways, and couldn't get it done. It's a shame, too. We played great defense, holding Detroit to 91 points on 85 possessions, but it didn't matter because we simply couldn't put the ball in the basket. From anywhere: 47% from two-point range, 13% from three-point range, and 50% from the foul line.

Perhaps the only positive thing to come out of this game was Rashard Lewis' hard foul on Theo Ratliff. Here's the video, courtesy Need4Sheed. It was nice to see Lewis take a nice hack at Ratliff, even if it was out of frustration, because we need to try to dispel this notion tat we're soft. After the game, Ratliff did his best to downplay Lewis' toughness. Lewis countered by saying, "Tell (Ratliff) he can come out to the three-point line to guard me."

Game Two promises to be very telling: does this young Magic team have what it takes to rebound from an ugly loss and win a huge road game? Or will Detroit take care of business once more, forcing us to win four of the next five games to advance? I certainly hope it's the former, but given our history with the Pistons, I wouldn't bet on it.

Be sure to check out the recaps at Need4Sheed and at PistonsNationBlog. The GameThread for Monday night's game should be up at 5:30 AM, as usual. See you then.

Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic encourages the fans at the Amway Arena to cheer during the final minutes of the Magic's 102-92 win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday night.

Photo by John Raoux, the Associated Press

I've run out of things to say about this team, which is probably good, because I screamed myself hoarse along with 17,518 other fans at the Amway Arena. And after 12 excruciatingly long, cruel years of futility, disappointment, and waiting we finally did it: We won a playoff series.

We're back.

After squandering an early 10-2 lead and sleepwalking through the first half, we came out strong in the third quarter and held the Raptors to just 18 points in the period. We fought for rebounds, contested every shot, and worked hard on our end, turning a one-point halftime deficit into a six-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, which we dominated, thanks in large part to the incredible crowd at Amway Arena. It's not as though we caught some lucky breaks, or that our guys hit lucky shots, or that Toronto affixed a stamp on this game and mailed it in: we earned this win, and it feels good. Real good.

Honestly, is there anything negative we can say about this team after watching its performance in this series? We still have trouble with turnovers, committing too many while not forcing enough on the other end, and our three-point shooting has been well below average, but the gutsy performances by each and every player have offset those deficiencies.

• Dwight Howard's final averages for this series: 22.6 points, 18.2 rebounds, and 3.8 blocks. He continues to amaze, and the only thing he's changed is his attitude. He's simply working harder. Stan Van Gundy mentioned it in his postgame comments: not once since the Magic began preparing for the playoffs, beginning with the first night the team studied film of the Raptors, has Van Gundy had to reprimand Dwight for not focusing like he should.
• I'm at a loss to explain Rashard Lewis. We sign him for three-point shooting and floor spacing, but this series he stunk it up from long distance, but made up for it by crashing the boards. He had 13 tonight, matching the season-high total he posted in the Game Four win. That's back-to-back double-doubles for Rashard Lewis. Okay, he's a 6'10" forward, he should rebound that well in his sleep, whoop-de-do. But he reached double-figures in rebounding just twice in 81 regular season games. So yes, let's commend him for his willingness to battle for loose balls.
• Jameer Nelson's assists went down (4.8 this series compared to 5.3 in the regular season) but his shooting went up, and I mean way up, as he made the Raptors pay for leaving him open to double-team Dwight Howard. I don't expect him to shoot 58% from the field over the course of a whole season, but there's no reason why he can't average even 15 points per game next year. He's leading this team emotionally, as he should, and is making a strong case that he indeed deserved the 5-year, $35 million contract extension he signed prior to this season.

I think we might have earned the mantle of "Team No One Wants to Face" in the Eastern Conference for the rest of these playoffs.

And we're just in Year One of the Dwight/Rashard/Hedo/Jameer/Van Gundy Era.

And our three-pointers will drop in eventually.

And we're the first team to advance in the playoffs this year, one year to the day after being the first team KO'd in the first round last season.

Let's take some time to enjoy this series win, our first in 12 years, and to express our appreciation for the guys who brought it to us.

And, uh, for those of you who are interested: tickets for Round Two (!) go on sale Wednesday morning.

One last thing: if I were mean spirited, I would have titled this recap "Lame Canada!", but that would have been unfair to the Raptors, who played hard, and to their fans, who are a classy bunch.

Some playoff-centric stories for today...

• Brian Schmitz writes that tonight's Game Five between the Magic and the Raptors is Orlando's biggest in the Dwight Howard era:

  All season the mantra for the Magic --- heck, all offseason, since they were swept by the Pistons --- has been this:

  Win a series for the first time in 12 years, and it has been a great season. Everything after that is gravy.

  But lose, yikes, and 52-30 has all but been a waste of time. A good run spoiled.

  [....]

  The Howard Era Magic have taken step No. 1: Winning a playoff game.

  They have taken step No. 2: Winning a road playoff game.

  Now this is step No. 3: Closing out a series.

• Stan Van Gundy, who I imagine will receive some third-place Coach of the Year votes, used Pat Garrity extensively in practice yesterday, even though he's not likely to play in this series. Garrity, as the longest-tenured Magic player, participated in practice and spoke to his teammates about what it's like to lose a 3-1 lead in a playoff series.
• Meanwhile, David Whitley worries that Orlando residents will blame the Orlando Sentinel for jinxing the Magic if they lose tonight's game, and if they go on to lose the series.

  Regardless, I don't want Sentinel fingerprints near the Magic's windpipe. So we completely endorse the following comments:

  "It's not over yet," Dwight Howard said.

  "We're taking it one game at a time," Jameer Nelson said.

  "I'm looking forward to the second round," Tracy McGrady said.

  Arrrghhh. Please forget that last one.

  I'd say he did a fine job covering the Sentinel's assets on that one. I question the choice of decorating the front page of this morning's Sports section with a toe-tagged version of the Raptors' alternate logo. Yikes.

• Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun (via TrueHoop) says Raptors coach Sam Mitchell needs to put Jason Kapono in the starting lineup tonight. After all, what does Mitchell have to lose? His job? Here's an interesting statistic from Buffery's article: Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh are essentially canceling each other out in this series. But the Magic's remaining four starters are scoring 16.7 points per game each, compared to 8.7 points per game for the Raptors. And Mitchell won Coach of the Year last year? Uh, okay...

One final, non-playoff link:

• Last week, We Rite Good hosted the final round of 2007/2008's blogger MVP/RoY rankings. They expanded the rankings to include Coach of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, and Seventh Man of the Year. So, here's Part I and here's Part II.

The Magic's Rashard Lewis gets his shit sent back is denied at the basket by the Pistons' Amir Johnson in Detroit's 101-93 victory over the Magic on Friday night.
Photo by Duane Burleson, the Associated Press

The phrase "No Rip? No Problem" started the headline of the Associated Press' recap of the first meeting between these two teams this season. Eliminate the two negatives in the phrase and you're left with "Rip? Problem"... which is exactly what we faced tonight. Richard "Rip" Hamilton scored 32 points on 14-of-22 shooting to lead the Pistons in a curb-stomping against us tonight.

Just a bad game. The Magic, as usual, had no answer for Hamilton or for Chauncey Billups, who repeatedly broke-down our sub-standard defense and got the shots they wanted, usually uncontested. The Magic ended the third quarter on a 14-2 run after getting some much-needed stops, but obviously never capitalized against a team that is clearly in a higher class.

The frustrating thing is, as badly as we played, we could have been right there at the end with a better effort. Letting the Pistons rebound 40% of their own misses is inexcusable, and we have done better against them; they only got 27% in the first meeting and 26% in the second one, which is about average. And I don't know what it is about Detroit, but we just do not capitalize on our free-throw attempts against them: 25-of-39 tonight, 75-of-109 overall. Beating them on Monday did nothing to boost our confidence, as they appear to have a mental advantage on us.

This game leaves me asking lots of questions, but there's one answer it's given me: we have a long way to go to get to Detroit's level. We absolutely have to beat Boston on Sunday if we are to have any shot of legitimizing ourselves in the East. Right now, I'd put the Celtics, Pistons, Cavaliers, and Raptors ahead of us, with the Wizards not far behind. If we don't pick up the defensive intensity, we're looking at another first-round playoff exit.

I feel somewhat obligated to say something nice about one of our players, so I'll get to it:

• Carlos Arroyo deserves recognition for his 16-point, 6-assist effort, 1-turnover effort. He gets bonus points for throwing an elbow at Billups late in the game. Yeah, it was a cheap play, and it's not one that I usually advocate. But the Pistons dish out a lot of punishment, and it was nice to see at least one player take it to them.
• Hedo Turkoglu had a decent third-quarter and was probably our best hope at winning the game; he had his midrange jumper going, which was nice.
• Keyon Dooling didn't play great, but came back in the second half after having to be helped off the floor in the first half with a knee contusion. Way to play through pain, Keyon.
• Jameer Nelson, although inactive, enhanced my viewing experience by wearing a sharp tan suit, a blue shirt, and a blue-and-silver tie. It was glorious in HD.

No donuts tomorrow. I'm disappointed, and I'm sure Brian Cook is too.

Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, and Keith Bogans celebrate the Magic's come-from-behind victory in Game Four of their first-round playoff series with the Toronto Raptors.
Photo by J.P. Moczulski, The Canadian Press

I don't think there are enough words to describe how proud I am -- and how proud we all should be -- of our team. The Magic outscored the Raptors, 33-20, in the final period of yesterday's Game Four to secure a 106-94 victory and a 3-games-to-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Our guys battled back from an early deficit to seize control of the game in the fourth quarter. Allow me to heap superlatives on them:

• Rashard Lewis tied a season-high with 27 points, and set a season-high with 13 rebounds (aided by a career-high-tying 7 offensive rebounds)
• Dwight Howard set a career-high with 8 blocked shots, which also sets a Magic franchise record for blocks in a playoff game. His final swat came with two minutes to play and the Raptors trailing by only 5. The Magic got the rebound and Rashard Lewis drilled a back-breaking three-pointer to seal the win.
• Jameer Nelson played a nearly flawless fourth quarter, with 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting. The only blemish on his line that period? 2-of-4 from the free throw line. That's it. That's all he did wrong. This effort coming from a guy who collapsed after Game Three due to bak spasms. Outstanding.

Basically, we had an answer for everything Toronto threw at us. 39 points for Chris Bosh? Fine. 13 assists for T.J. Ford? Okay. Didn't matter. We were simply the better, gutsier team yesterday, and that bodes well for us as the series continues.

That's not to say we're worldbeaters or anything. Being up 3-1 is nice and all, but it doesn't mean we're about to win the series. The last time we were up 3-1, well, the Pistons ate our lunch in the next three games thanks to Tracy McGrady's big mouth, so pardon me for not pulling out the confetti just yet. But our victory yesterday was so impressive that Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer thinks we'll make the Finals by 2009 if we strengthen our second unit. I hate to forecast so far into the future, but there's no question that we're making a strong case for belonging in the discussion about the NBA's elite teams.

I am thoroughly impressed with the victory. A similar effort tomorrow night, even if Jose Calderon (2 points, 1-of-7 shooting) and Ford (12 points, 6-of-16 shooting) finally get back on track, should result in a series victory and a spot in the second round of the playoffs.

Dwight Howard pulls down one of his 22 rebounds to ignite an Orlando Magic fast-break in their 114-100 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Wow. What a game, right?

The Magic got of to the hottest start imaginable against the Raptors in their first series-opening home playoff game in over a decade. They shot a blistering 80% in the first quarter, hitting 9 of their 11 three-pointers, and scored 43 points in the period. The Raptors had no answer for, well, anything. Many of the three-point attempts were uncontested.

But the hot shooting wasn't the only reason the crowd was pumped up. Dwight Howard blocked three shots in the first nine minutes, setting the tone defensively. And Hedo Turkoglu got his once-a-month driving dunk in, barreling into the lane from the left corner, elevating past Andrea Bargnani, and throwing it down with his right hand.

The first period showed the differences between the teams' coaches. Our coach, Stan Van Gundy, did not change his game plan at all. We shot the three-pointer, like we have all season, and we made opponents pay for leaving our shooters open. In contrast, Sam Mitchell shuffled his starting lineup, putting Andrea Bargnani at small forward for the first time all season. He hoped Bargnani's size would present problems for Turkoglu, but he was wrong. Curiously, Jamario Moon, the Raptors' best defender and usual starter at small forward, played just five minutes. Perhaps Mitchell will be more inclined to play him more in Game Two...?

But everything changed after the first period. Obviously, we weren't going to keep shooting at an 80% clip, but the dropoff was tremendous. Simply put, we went cold. After shooting 16-of-20 for 43 in the first quarter, we went 15-of-36 for 42 points over the next two, and headed into the fourth period with a scant 10-point lead.

But that's when Dwight Howard took over.

More precisely, he didn't take over until after the Raptors pulled within 5 on a Jason Kapono three-pointer. But from then on, he decided this game belonged to him, and to him alone:

• Coming out of the ensuing timeout, Hedo Turkoglu took a contested two-point jumper, but it went in anyway. 90-83, Magic.
• Rasho Nesterovic missed badly on the other end. Dwight rebounded...
• ...ran the floor, and was rewarded with a slam dunk off a Turkoglu assist. 92-83, Magic.
• Jose Calderon missed a fairly open three-pointer. Dwight rebounded...
• And was there to clean up the mess on the other end, when Turk missed a layup. 94-83, Magic.
• Kapono missed a wild three when he tried to create off-the-dribble, which is something we can let him do. Dude does not have a handle. Keith Bogans got the rebound.
• After an illegal defense against the Raptors, and Rashard Lewis' ensuing missed technical free throw, the Magic ran a set play for Bogans, who was to shoot out a three of the right corner. The shot was too strong, the ball bounced off the far side of the rim... and Dwight was there for the putback slam. 96-83, Magic.
• Toronto called timeout. Didn't matter. Dwight played the passing lanes and came up with a steal...
• ...threw it ahead to Jameer Nelson, who laid it in. 98-83, Magic. Ballgame.

I've seen Dwight play plenty of games over the past several years, but I've never seen him dominate, on both ends of the floor, like he did yesterday. It was his best game at the professional level, and is nearly unprecedented for someone his age. Only three other players since 1986 have recorded 25-point, 20-rebound, 5-block efforts before age 23: Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Shawn Bradley. Of those players, only Shaq did it at a younger age than Dwight did yesterday.

So, should we get out the brooms and prepare for a sweep? No. God, no. In the 68 possessions in periods two through four, we scored 71 points, for a dreadfully low offensive rating of 104.4, so it's not like we dominated the Raptors from start to finish. Jameer Nelson and Maurice Evans won't play this well every night, just as Chris Bosh and Forderon won't play as poorly. We have the more talented team, but still only won yesterday because of (a) freakishly hot shooting and (b) Toronto's reluctance to exploit Jameer Nelson's defense. However, we will win this series. But not every game will be as easy.

Buckle up. It's going to be a long series.

Marcin Gortat dunks down 2 of his career-high 12 points in the Orlando Magic's 103-83 win over the Washington Wizards.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The regular-season finale was everything it was cracked-up to be.

Washington benched its stars, and I get the sense the only reason DeShawn Stevenson played was to keep his consecutive games played streak alive. Meanwhile, we rested our best players: Dwight Howard didn't play after the first quarter; Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu didn't play after halftime; and Jameer Nelson didn't play at all due to a sore thumb. The result?

18 points for J.J. Redick. 12 points and 11 boards for Marcin Gortat. 8 points and 5 rebounds for James Augustine. A 20-point victory. A 52-win season.

An unmitigated success.

If anything else, this game showed two things: first, that J.J. can shoot his way out of a funk, something I wasn't sure he could do. His final total of 18 points on 14 shots isn't all that impressive, sure, but he made 7 of his last 9 shots after missing his first 5. That's a good sign. But even more encouraging is the hustle and skill Marcin Gortat displayed. The Polish rookie had 5 offensive boards, and although he missed plenty of the gimme put-backs, he showed that he might belong in the rotation someday, perhaps even as a 5-to-8 minute player next season when Howard and Adonal Foyle both need breathers.

For more on the game, check out Truth About It's liveblog over at Bullets Forever; The Orlando Sentinel's recap; and PopcornMachine's GameFlow.

Now? It's playoff time. Bring on the Raptors.