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		NBA Conference Finals report By David Zizmor May 25, 2009

	(East) Orlando leads Cleveland 2-1: The Cavaliers are in a bit of trouble here and the Cavs weren't really in the game too much in game three where they lost it 99-89 and anyone who watched game two knows the Cavs only won that one based on the miracle shot by LaBron James at the buzzer for a three pointer that he throw up at the end of the game in a 96-95 decision. So Cleveland had won that one in a split second and could have been down three games to none if LaBron had not made that shot and were kind of lucky to get game two. The Cavaliers are lucky right now that their down only by one game 2-1 right now. The Cavs are in Orlando Tuesday night for game four before they bring it back to Cleveland on Thursday. The Cavs are really up against it now they really have to win this game in Orlando on Tuesday or else it's 3-1 and do or die going back home to Cleveland if they want a shot to win this series and needless to say get in the Finals they have to look at Tuesday night's game at Disney World. Cleveland has played Orlando very close but Orlando is just pulling away in most of these games and nobody expected this to happen especially the way Cleveland has been playing in the post season going undefeated until this round came up. The Cavs rolled through the first couple of rounds winning eight straight and the Magic are the first speed bump that the Cavs have encountered. It's not short changing Orlando this is a great basketball team the Cavs were first in their division. Dwight Howard is an All-Star and was NBA defensive player of the year and really in the last few games against Cleveland he has been absolutely outstanding with 24 points, 9 boards, in game three. Howard went 10 points for 18 rebounds in game two, and had 30 points and 13 rebounds in game one. Howard has been the man in this series so far. Obviously LaBron is the guy to beat but Howard has been doing a fantastic job keeping everybody honest and is still there keeping Cleveland from scoring on the inside which has been one of the tough spots for Cleveland. When you look at this series if Orlando can win two of these first three games they have a shot at winning this series. Howard is a fantastic player but there are a lot of good outside shooters on this Orlando squad and a lot of people kind of didn't pay attention to them just because they weren't Cleveland and they didn't have LaBron. Orlando is a very good team and as we've seen so far the Magic have enough fire power to take it to Cleveland when Cleveland isn't on their game and with the Magic playing great defense swarming for the ball and really not letting anybody besides LaBron score the Magic are really having a good time here. (West) Lakers lead the Nuggets 2-1: This series has been a lot better than the Orlando-Cleveland series every single game between the Lakers and the Nuggets has been extremely close they have all been less than five points difference. The Nuggets have been playing fantastic basketball and the Lakers have been playing great ball too they haven't fallen asleep at the wheel like they did in the previous series against Houston. Never the less Denver had a great shot at this they had home court on Monday night going up against the Lakers although down two games to one. The Nuggets play very well at home and kept it incredibly close when they lost at the very end of the game against Los Angeles on Saturday night 103-97. With the way Chancey Billups and Carmelo Anthony are playing along with the rest of their supporting cast this series can go either way. The Nuggets are playing fantastic ball especially Anthony and we knew that Billups is a great post season performer because we have seen him do it so many times with Detroit and he's bringing that same mentality to Denver. Anthony's been in the playoffs a few times and we haven't seen him step up his game to the level he's at right now he has been fantastic. He's playing great basketball he's really dominating. He's really difficult for anybody to guard by the Lakers and you look at him in the post season he's just stepped up his game a notch. Anthony is averaging 28 points per game with six rebounds, a few assists and he's been a really an unstoppable force and has been unstoppable in a lot of ways as Kobe and a lot of people would credit this from the time Carmelo spent on the Dream Team in the Olympics last summer. Anthony was playing with LaBron on that team also with Dwayne Wade and Kobe. LaBron said the same thing when he saw what Kobe was doing to keep himself in tip top shape and to play that highest of levels he took it to heart to like Carmelo and now Anthony is doing pretty much the same thing he's managed to stay in shape and take his game to a new level that we didn't quite know he had. David Zizmor does analysis on the NBA playoffs each week for Sportstalk Radio