NBA Finals change course on last-second miss

You basically knew the Orlando Magic were doomed from the moment Courtney Lee missed an alley-oop on the final play of regulation, sending Game 2 of the NBA Finals into overtime Sunday night.

Until that moment, the Magic had done what they needed to against the Los Angeles Lakers. After an embarrassing blowout loss in the opening game of the Finals, the Magic were in a position to grab a playoff win on the road. And with 0.6 seconds left and the ball out of bounds, Lee broke free and Orlando's Hedu Turkoglu threw a perfect pass in his direction right at the basket.

Lee went up, caught the pass just slightly off balance ... a Magic moment for sure except for a small detail.

"I just wasn't able to complete the play," Lee said.

He missed the shot and that was that. You only get so many opportunities like this. The Magic had their chance and couldn't capitalize.

After five minutes of overtime, the Lakers had a 101-96 victory and a 2-0 stranglehold on this series. Since 1985, when the NBA went to a 2-3-2 format for the Finals, teams with a 2-0 lead have won 11 of 12 times.

The timing was eerie, too.

It was 14 years to the day that Orlando's Nick Anderson missed four free throws late in the opening game of the Finals against Houston. The Magic lost 120-118 and went on to be swept. Lee's miss could soon rival Anderson's on the Orlando misery meter because this game - and perhaps the series - was there to be had.

"We missed it. I don't know what else to say," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters afterward.

Did what they needed

Talk about lament.

The Magic lost a game in which they actually made life difficult for L.A. star Kobe Bryant, "holding" him to 29 points.

"I didn't think Kobe had a good game at all by his standard," Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the media afterward.

But neither did Magic center Dwight Howard - by his standard - and that's becoming a big problem for Orlando. Howard finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds but was a missing man for large stretches of the game. The Magic compensated with 34 points (18 in the second quarter) by Rashard Lewis, but Howard is their leader.

Van Gundy basically threw the whole playbook at the Lakers. He played much of the second half without a point guard; J.J. Redick played 27 minutes as Van Gundy tried the unorthodox lineup in an effort to get some outside scoring.

Redick, by the way, didn't provide it. He scored just five points.

"I'm not sure I've got another lineup to throw out there that you haven't seen," Van Gundy said.

That's not what cost Orlando this game, though. Van Gundy pointed to 20 turnovers as the biggest reason for the loss.

It's going to be a struggle for the Magic.

Unlike Cleveland, the Lakers have the inside players to combat the Magic, and that puts pressure on the backcourt to score. On Sunday, Orlando's guards were a combined 5-for-23 from the field and 1-for-11 from the 3-point line.

And they still had the game on their fingertips at the end.

Headed home

The series resumes Tuesday night in Orlando, and we won't even bother with the cliché about how the Magic have to win. If history shows how deep a hole teams are in by losing the first two games of the Finals, losing the first three would end any realistic chance for the Magic.

Van Gundy talked about the 2006 Finals, when Miami lost the first two games at Dallas and trailed by nine entering the fourth quarter of Game 3. The Heat survived and won the series in six games.

Maybe it can happen again.

But games like this are hard to get over. Lee's miss didn't lose the game for Orlando, but a made basket would have won it, and then we'd be talking about the Magic's heart in coming back from the Game 1 debacle.

We'd be talking about the brilliant play Van Gundy drew up in the clutch, and the interesting strategy of playing with no point guard.

We'd be questioning Kobe Bryant.

The Magic would be headed to Amway Arena with all the momentum and the Lakers on the run.

Instead ...

"It is most definitely heartbreaking," Lewis said. "We had a chance to win the game and we let it slip out of our hands."