Pau Gasol is getting banged around by Dwight Howard, but what did he expect? Dwight has only one style of play and it involves a lot of muscle applied in a not so gentle manner.

Pau rubbed the back of his head to the referee for a visual explanation.

Then again, Pau is not the most physical center in the league and Dwight is going to have to be physical to compete with Gasol. If Dwight Howard lightened up for even a moment, the crafty Pau would destroy him on the offensive end.

Dwight Howard fights off the Lakers

Howard even seemed to acknowledge Gasol’s complaints, though he had not been told of them before his postgame news conference.

“I think with (Andrew) Bynum, he doesn’t mind banging,” Howard said. “With Gasol, sometimes you’ve got to be aware of what you do in the paint. Gasol is very smart. He’s been playing for a long, long time and I think with him, I’ve just got to be smart. I don’t want to pick up any cheap fouls and have to sit on the bench.”

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Hey, Dwight knows what he is doing.

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Orlando fans need to relax and enjoy, because they can win game 3. Usually the way these series go, the home team of the favored team (that would be the Lakers) will win big at home and be lucky to scrape a 1 point victory on the road.

Consider that Orlando had the ball and a chance to win at the end of game two and it bodes well for the Magic to win game 3. Especially look for Dwight Howard to have a big game on the home court.

Dwight Howard needs to reach out and take this game

On the other hand, Magic fans better put away the knives if the Lakers pull out game 3, because then all that is left to play for is respect. That does not win many titles.
In the mean time, please don’t blame Stan Van Gundy. He is doing everything he can.

Coach Stan Van Gundy pulled out everything imaginable from his bag of tricks on Sunday, and somehow the Magic almost turned the Finals on its ear before losing in overtime.

Van Gundy is desperate enough now in a series of must-win games that he might resort to the ol’ “Picket Fence” from the movie Hoosiers, the Ted Williams shift or the Veer. Well, he could always use the World’s Tallest Line-up, where every player is at least 6-feet-10.

“I’m not sure I’ve got another lineup to throw out there that you haven’t seen now, OK, unless I’m going to play like Dwight [Howard], Marcin [Gortat], Tony [Battie], Rashard [Lewis] and Hedo [Turkoglu]. I don’t have another one now,” Van Gundy said.

“We played with no point guard. We’ve played big. We played conventionally [with point guards]. We’ve had Rashard at the three [small forward], we played Hedo at the one [point guard], two [shooting guard] and three.
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My first views of Shannon Brown came at Michigan State University. You could tell this guy was awesome right off the bat. He became an instant starter on a team loaded with talent, but there was just no way to keep him on the bench. Unfortunately he left after his sophomore year for the NBA and was drafted by Cleveland.

All of my friends, and me included, thought that playing for LeBron would be perfect for Shannon Brown. He was quick, strong, and could shoot, although a bit undersized. But the leap to the NBA was greater than we thought.

Shannon Brown can get up in the air!

Now one of our favorite Spartans is also a Laker and in the finals playing alongside Kobe Bryant. What could be cooler? All Spartan fans will be rooting for him! We are excited, but Shannon is even more excited.

The way the Los Angeles Lakers reserve point guard has bounced around the NBA for three seasons, he is fortunate — and he knows it. A little magic has come into his life.

The former Michigan State and Mr. Illinois basketball star is stoked as he awaits his first NBA Finals, against the Orlando Magic. “I’m very excited. It’s one of those opportunities where people play in the league for 15 years and don’t get a chance to play in the NBA Finals,” Brown said.

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It was destiny waiting to happen and the dream matchup of the decade. It was to be the ever popular super talented LeBron James against the Killer of other team’s chances Kobe Bryant. Hey, David Stern had it all in the bag. It had the makings of one of the highest rated NBA Finals of all time.

Now we have a LeBron that won’t even speak to the media.

“We are not going to fine LeBron for that,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank told 1050 ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand. “We haven’t had any issues with him before at all.”

If James and the Cavs were still alive in the playoffs, James would have received a warning.

James also did not shake hands with Olympic teammate Dwight Howard or congratulate any Orlando players as he left the floor. On Sunday, he said he sent an e-mail to Howard following Saturday’s game.

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Next time you have to be sure to check out the records these teams have against each other. It matters. Cleveland did not do so well against Orlando or L.A.

The Cavs were a combined 3-8 this season against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic and both figure to be very strong again next year. In the annual season wrap session with the media Monday, Ferry said that will be a driving force as they examine their options this summer.

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There was just no way Orlando was going to the finals and wouldn’t it now be wild if they won it all? After coming back against Boston, they had sharpened their games to a high point and are now on a mighty roll.

Even LeBron James could not slow down Dwight Howard

The Cav’s never did have an answer for Dwight Howard and that led to no answer for the 3 point shooting for Orlando.
The impossible may happen, but it will have to happen without LeBron.

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Think of Yao and LeBron on the court together for the rest of their careers and your first thought is why would LeBron want to sign with Houston?

But that is not the source of this discussion. The source is from Hoopsworld reporting that a Chinese group is interested in investing in the Cavaliers.

Not when the New World Development Company, representing a group of Chinese investors, is set to buy a 15 percent ownership interest in the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Hong Kong-based group is led by Kenny Huang, a Chinese-born investor who has in the past brokered marketing deals with the Houston Rockets
and New York Yankees.

On the surface, it may be merely the next most logical step in the growing relationship between the NBA and China, where basketball is wildly popular.
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Now that would mean they would be very interested in prying Yao Ming from the Rockets and getting him paired up with LeBron in Cleveland.

Yao Ming is holding his breath for a title

Would it be a good fit? Maybe not, because Yao would have to move away from the basket to open up driving lanes for LeBron and that just does not make sense to me. But marketingwise it is a no brainer. It would create tremendous Chinese interest and don’t think for a minute that the NBA would not love that.

The NBA plans for world domination!
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It is like a secret recipe that is just not a secret anymore. Sort of like adding your favorite condiment to your burger. No matter how badly cooked, just adding a little mustard or hot sauce or whatever you like, will turn it into a great meal.

Watching the Lakers dismantle the Nuggets the other night, the thought struck me that Kobe likes to watch his team play on the court until they need him to turn it up and win the game for them.

Kobe to the rescue

Late in the game the Nuggets flashed Carmelo Anthony down the floor for 3 quick jumpers, one of them a 3, and quickly cut the score from a 20 point Laker lead to a 14 point Laker lead with 6 or 7 minutes to go. Kobe quietly made a stop and go slashing drive to the basket for a layup, a pump fake and go from the left side that ended with a jam, and a fading 3 point shot from the right side to jack the Laker lead back up to 20. It looked effortless.

“He wants to be the best player to ever have played this game,” Lakers guard Derek Fisher(notes) said. “That’s what he works at every day. He feels like however many more years he plays in this league, winning championships is the thing that separates guys within that discussion. When you talk about the best ever, there are three or four guys who always come up because their teams won championships. That’s his No. 1 concern.

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Every year you hear the same thing about how the NBA is rigged so it will be a final with Boston and L.A. or a final with LeBron and Kobe or Shaq and Tim Duncan and every year we all fall for the same story line.

But the NBA is not rigged. There, it had to be said. Well, there were those times when my Pistons were, uhh, let’s save that story for another time and just stick with the NBA is not rigged, even though we know it is.

“The Lakers paid $50,000 to win that game. They got their money’s worth,” said a Denver player, not wanting to be identified for fear of retribution from the league.

Was the outcome rigged? I refuse to believe it was.

The 16 field-goal attempts the Nuggets missed during the fourth quarter had much more to do with the defeat than any of the 30 personal fouls called against Denver by the referees.

Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson and the Lakers organization were fined $50,000 by the NBA for complaining about the calls in Game 4, won decisively by the upstart Nuggets.

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George Karl thinks something stinks

When Kenyon Martin wanted to complain to the press about the referee’s favoring the Lakers, Chauncey Billups came to the rescue.

“Don’t let the league take your money,” Denver teammate Chauncey Billups told Martin.

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Hey, this Dwight Howard guy is pretty darn good. Well, we all know that is an underestimation for the ages. Howard has been dominant.

Oh, yes, LeBron has been LeBron and is still clearly the greatest player this side of Kobe Bryant, but Howard has turned his team into winners and carried them on his back. When he becomes unstoppable underneath, then the Orlando shooters like Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Rafer Alston, and Michael Pietrus become great 3 point shooters.

Howard wants a shot at the Lakers

Vinnie Johnson once remarked after making a dozen threes in a row in warm-ups, “But can you make them in a game with a hand in your face?” Well, when you are sending 2 or 3 guys down low to stop Howard, there are no hands in your face!

Everyone is still looking to LeBron to somehow pull this one out, but the Magic are frustrated with how much the public pays attention to only LeBron. They want respect and they want a shot at the NBA Title.

So the Cavs laid off Howard to start Tuesday, and he made them pay, scoring 11 points in the first six minutes. They went back to double-teaming him for much of the next three quarters, and Howard scored just six more points before the start of overtime. Still, all the attention he drew freed the Magic shooters, most notably Rafer Alston (notes) and Michael Pietrus (notes), who combined to make 11 3-pointers.

On one comical possession, Cavs guard Mo Williams turned his back on Alston to follow Courtney Lee (notes). With no other Cav within five feet of him, Alston buried yet another 3-pointer.

“We need one stop,” James said. “We haven’t got one stop to win a ballgame yet.”

James has realized he can’t beat Howard and these Magic alone. He received more support on Tuesday than he did in Game 3, but it still wasn’t enough. Williams made just two shots after halftime, falling flat, so far, on his “guarantee” that the Cavs would win the series.

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No sooner do you put out a post on how great LeBron is and how much of a battle he is in with Kobe Bryant to be the best player and along come the Magic and make LeBron all human again.

News flash, LeBron is not the Terminator.

Movie news Terminator Salvation: Your intrepid author got the chance to see this movie this past weekend and the Terminators did not fare any better than LeBron did in game three. Like LeBron, the Terminators missed their free throws late in the game and the result was a less than satisfying movie, in spite of Moon Bloodgood playing the hot hot Blair Williams.

LeBron James from Terminator to Human

The Magic came to play and the referees came to whistle. They weren’t just whistling Dixie, they were whistling fouls and there were over 80 of them.

Orlando shot 51 free throws, hitting 39. Cleveland attempted 35, making 26.

James shot 24 free throws, making 18. Dwight Howard (24 points and nine rebounds) made 14-of-19 free throws — including big ones down the stretch — before fouling out and Hedo Turkoglu hit 11-of-12.

Howard, a career 59 percent free-throw shooter, said he was singing a song in his head to relieve the pressure at the line.

” I didn’t think about it too much. I just tried to shoot,” Howard said. “I heard a song playing at halftime. I just kept thinking about dancing. If my free throws are going in, I might have to keep up that routine.”
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Late in the game with Orlando protecting the lead, James just could not make the plays to get Cleveland back in the game. One time he was stuffed clean by Howard on a breakaway 3 point attempt and the refs called a foul (that kind of game). Another time LeBron drove under the basket and was stuffed by Michael Pietrus.

Oh, there were many people happy to see a human LeBron.

Yes, he hit a great shot Friday night in Game 2.

But from listening to all the hoopla, you’d think it was the greatest shot since William Tell split the apple sitting atop his son’s head.

It’s no wonder the raucous, roaring Magic fans Sunday night felt the whole world — ESPN, Nike, the NBA — was on LeBron’s side. One fan even held up a sign that said: “Magic’s 6th Man: The Fans. Cavs’ Sixth Man: The Refs.”

Seriously, have you ever seen so many invisible fouls? Dwight Howard fouled out on a phantom call on LeBron. Hedo Turkoglu was called for another. During a timeout while the Magic dancers were on the floor, LeBron actually walked right through the middle of their routine. Amazingly, none of the dancers were whistled for a foul.
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It is a great time in the NBA when legends are being born and young players are maturing into great players. As an example, the battle of player supremacy is going on between LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

It does not matter which side of this debate you take or even if you do not take a side at all, because this is just great theatre in the NBA.

Side note on theatre: watched Night at the Museum II with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams (not to mention the wife and kids). It was a great movie well worth the millions of dollars to just purchase tickets, pop, and popcorn. It managed to keep all of the characters from the original movie and introduce some new ones, most notably Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.

Hey, we can’t always be watching the NBA playoffs, you know.

LeBron James makes gamewinner in game 2

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. One game after LeBron won the game for the Cavaliers at the end, Kobe Bryant strikes back.

This is a sport of superstars and the NBA has been waiting a long, long time for two such transcendent stars to fortify its Final Four. They’re fighting for an NBA championship, yes, but Bryant’s ferocity won’t allow him to let go of the title as the game’s best closer. Bryant still makes the biggest plays, the biggest shots, when it matters most.

So, Bryant made a trip to Denver for Game 3 of the West finals and buried the Nuggets with 41 points, with a rebel’s resolve. With Denver’s J.R. Smith(notes) draping him, Bryant swished a 3-pointer with 69 seconds left. With his legs wobbly, with nearly 20,000 people in the Pepsi Center cursing his name, Bryant delivered four free throws in the final 22 seconds of the 103-97 victory.

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So if you are at the movies with the family, like me, you can almost rush home and just watch the end of the fourth quarter to see the most heroic moments. But it is still better to see the whole game.

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