Why's the line-up so short at the winners window ?

After suffering a ten-point loss Monday night 102-92 in Orlando against a Magic team that clearly had the Raps number for the duration of the series its back to the drawing board for coach Sam Mitchell and star players T.J. Ford and Chris Bosh or rather back to the community cave wall.

Meanwhile, The Orlando Magic have advanced to the second-round. Where despite their dominance over the Toronto Raptors they will certainly await the same fate as the extinct dino’s of Toronto, all golf courses and grazing grass.

The East will rise again

Pundits, professional prognosticators, retired NBA stars and kenny smith alike all agree, The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard has a future cluttered with playoff runs and according to me what will likely become the NBA’s rivalry of the future King "Lebron" James vs Superman "Dwight" Howard. It the very thing NBA officials have been fantasising about since Jordan’s Bulls versus Isiah’s Pistons in the late nineteen-eighty’s. It’s not a question of will Howard and James save the eastern conference and return the once mighty east to glory but when.

With Howard’s Magic securely fastened into the second round and James Cavaliers up three games to one in their first round series with the hobbled Washington Wizard a second round meeting between NBA child prodgies Superman and The King is just-one-step closer to being a reality.

Hoop, Harm, Foul

Not to get to far off topic here but the National Hockey league had the misfortune this year of having its own two child prodigies (also in the same eastern conference, ala Lebron and Howard) in the playoff but not squaring off against each other, the one match up the might have actually had me interested enough to tune into my first NHL game off the year and I would have watched the whole series too but Ovechkin was ousted in the first round and Sidney’s just too boring to watch.

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Back on track

Howard versus James at this time is still more of a fantasy then a reality, but with a little luck we all might be in for quite a decedent treat.

As for the Orlando Magic, I’ve had a week and a half too really study these guys and get a feel for who and what they are as a team and on that note I’ll say this "if you live by the gun you inevitably die by the gun." Orlando’s three point shooting has made them the team they are today, a surprising group of over achievers all too comfortable jacking up low percentage three point shots and why not they have Superman flying above the rim recovering their missed shots and creating second chances.

Clark Kent, I mean Dwight Howard, as a complete package is something I have never seen in almost twenty years as an NBA fan, a perfect mix of size, speed, smart’s and athleticism but in the NBA playoff . . . for that matter in the NCAA tournament, the NIT tourney, the little league championship, the peewee final and even baby basketball the teams that live by the three inevitable dies by the three. The three point shot is a low percentage shot and without fail no matter how long you are able to curb the stats and some how buck the trend the bubble always bursts and you put up a 1-10 fourth quarter in a crucial game seven or shoot 10-40 in a four game series sweep and even Superman can’t save you then.

Until the first round is put into to the book’s its anarchy, the game of the night is whatever is on the tube, so sit back, relax and enjoy.

Zoltan Black