The Day After in Disney

So the Orlando Magic finally got off the snide in game three, far far away from the bright lights of the Staples Center. Their biggest celebrity is admitted Laker fan Tiger Woods and the angry Jack Nicholson has been replaced courtside by a mascot with the very original name of "Stuff." Stuff even has a place called his lair, where a brief scroll over the team website would have you believing he entices/entraps children in with toys and what appears to be gamecube.

Welcome to Disney World.

Dictionary.com defines a lair as a private place in which a person seeks concealment or seclusion. Quite the homecourt advantage, and definitely not a place I'd send my kids. Now Stan Van Gundy's lair is a place I feel like I could chill. I'd expect velour couches, plenty of mustache wax and Justin Timberlakes "Sexy Back" on permanent repeat.

How did the Magic pull out game 3 with Ron Jeremy as the coach and the Philly Fanatic disowned child-eating cousin as the mascot you might ask? Well funny you shoot ask, because I just so happen to know why.


Incredibly Hot Shooting

Namely shooting near 80% from the field in the first half. Sure, they dropped down to only 62% for the game but from a team like the Magic that shoots so many threes, that number is almost as impossible to get to as the Lost island. They didn't miss three consecutive field goals till around one minute left in the third when a Rashard Lewis three from the wing didn't drop. That leads me to my second reason...

Three Point Shooting

The Magic live and die on their shooting. Their offense is Dwight Howard kicking to four perimeter shooters nearly all the time. As Bill Simmons' stat digging pulled out in his NBA Finals "Preview" of sorts, from Game 7 of the Boston series through Game 4 of the Cleveland series, the Magic drained 55 of 119 3-pointers (47 percent). Insanity, like Gary Busey kinda crazy from deep. The difference in game 3 was not the trey balls they put up, but the ones they passed up. The Magic took only 14 three-pointers to the Lakers' 23. The shooters who usually spotted up and forced bad long range jumpers instead took it hard to the cup with great success. Rafer Alston, known for his far too quick trigger as well as he adventures with guys named The Professor and Escalade, hoisted only one three, which he drained.

The Stars

As played out as the NBA star thing is (thank you Nike puppets), it mattered. Big time. Kobe Bryant, the media proclaimed Mr. Clutch, saw his would-be game-winning shot get blocked from behind by Hedo Turkoglu at the end of regulation in game 2 while three of his teammates had the state of Montana between them and their defenders. In game 3 Kobe didn't just run into a great defensive play, he ran into himself, and Mr. Clutch lost to the very human Kobe Bryant. A game leading four turnovers as well as 0nly 5-10 from the free throw line. He was visibly ineffective in the fourth quarter for the first time in this playoffs and really didn't even look like he wanted to win the game.

Dwight Howard on the other hand did what he will have to do every game here on out for the Magic to win this series -- become Superman. He decided to just merely brush aside Andrew Bynum's corpse on his way to 21 points, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks and about a half dozen goaltends that may have injured Val Kilmer at his seat in the front row. He had only two assists but as happens when the Magic offense is clicking he would be credited with the hockey assist. He was efficient too, missing just once from the field and out doing Bryant from the line with an 11-of-16 mark. For good measure he even added one of his patented running hooks that threaten to destabilize the entire foundation of the arena when it shatters the backboard. In game 3, it was nothing but net.

Smart Substitutions

For the first time all series Cach Jeremy figured it out, on all levels. Rafer Alston played starters minutes. Jameer Nelson saw Anthony Johnson's old minutes. Anthony Johnson saw the same minutes as I did. All was right in point guard paradise and Alston responded by dropping 20 and getting to the basket whenever he pleased. JJ Redick was the always beautiful DNP -- Coach's Decision, instead yielding his minutes to Courtney Lee while even the soon to be vastly over-payed Marcin Gortat even conceded some minutes to Tony Battie. On the other side Phil Jackson threw DJ Mbenga into the mix for 17 seconds, about 17 seconds more the DJ Mbenga should ever get playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce or the Mitsubishi Electric Dolphins (I swear thats a real team) yet alone the Lakers in the NBA finals. At least Sun Yue stayed on the bench.

The series took a turn for the good of the NBA but the Magic realistically need to sweep all three at home to have a shot. With all that the Magic did right in game three and the fact that JJ Redick was wearing a Kobe suit the final 12 minutes, Orlando only escaped with a four point win behind unconscious shooting. Game 4 will certainly have the Magic fall back to earth, and it all comes down to how they respond.

Even if Dwight Howard leaves his cape at home, we know Stuff will be ready to give his all. Just make sure you knock before entering his lair, you don't want to see him angry.