In fact, Van Gundy admitted Friday that giving Nelson extended minutes for his first game in four months was a mistake, but the Orlando Magic head coach refused to accept his starting point guard’s "excuse" for why Alston played so poorly.

"The mistake I made was leaving (Nelson) in too long," Van Gundy said the day after the Lakers’ 100-75 victory to open the NBA Finals. "We’ve got to give Jameer shorter stints. I may have overplayed him and he got tired. As far as Rafer, having that affect his play in the second half, that’s up to him. If I’m looking from the outside, that sounds like an excuse to me."

Nelson, sidelined since February after having right shoulder surgery, made his playoff debut in Thursday night’s second quarter, with the Magic leading 24-22. Nelson played all 12 minutes and although he proved that he is healthy, the Lakers outscored Orlando 31-19 in the quarter and seized control of the game.

Alston, who was acquired from Houston when Nelson injured his shoulder, shot 2-for-4 in the first quarter only to miss all five of his shots in the second half.

"I’ll give you a good excuse," a grinning Alston said. "I sat 12 minutes real game time, I sat about 30 minutes real life time. So there’s an excuse.

"It was odd. I mean, I think everyone can see that. That’s unusual to start the game and then you don’t even touch the court in the second quarter. But there’s no pouting, there’s no getting mad, there’s going to be no coach and Alston meeting about it. I’m going to go out here and get ready for Game 2 (tomorrow night) and prepare myself like I have been all playoffs."

The Magic’s problems run deeper than Van Gundy splitting minutes between his two point guards. Orlando made just 23 field goals in the game, or seven more than Kobe Bryant. Dwight Howard shot 1-for-6, Rashard Lewis was 2-for-10 and Hedo Turkoglu was 3-for-11. Orlando’s top three scorers combined for 33 points.

Whether it was Alston or Nelson running the point, Magic players were getting good shots. They just weren’t making any. Orlando was also outrebounded 55-41.

But the difference in Game 1 was Bryant, who set his career scoring mark in the Finals with 40 points, including 36 through three quarters. Bryant, who has lost his last two Finals, is three wins away from his first championship without Shaquille O’Neal. He will go down as one of the greatest players in league history even if the Lakers fall to the Magic. But one more title would cement Bryant’s legacy.

"The last two times we’ve been to the Finals we came up short," Bryant said Friday. "This time around we’re just really locked in.

"I’ve been pacing myself all year waiting for these playoffs to come around. The table is set."

Call it Rafer madness for Magic’s Alston in NBA Finals

Thirteen years and 1,118 NBA games later, Bryant is still one of the best basketball players in the world, but there’s a lingering question planted in the backdrop as the Lakers begin the NBA Finals tonight against the Orlando Magic: How much longer can their 11-time All-Star produce eye-catching statistics before age and gravity tap him on the shoulder?

The Lakers and their failure to win a championship since 2002 is only one reason their fan base might be feeling a bit edgy. There’s also a sense of urgency because the window for Bryant’s career is only a handful of years from sliding shut.

Think of Bryant, who will be 31 in August, as a Ferrari with a well-tested odometer. Consider that he has already played 340 more NBA games than Michael Jordan when the Chicago Bulls’ star was the same age, a 44% increase that can be traced to several long Lakers playoff runs early in Bryant’s career and his entrance into the NBA immediately after high school. (Jordan waited until after his junior year at the University of North Carolina.)

Bryant continues to post numbers that any fresh-faced 23-year-old would giddily embrace, but, as TV analyst Mark Jackson observed on a recent play where Bryant scored on a routine layup instead of dunking the ball with authority: “Father Time is undefeated.”

Kobe Bryant battles the Orlando Magic and Father Time in NBA Finals

Bryant scored 35 points and added 10 assists while team mates Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had 20 points apiece in one of the most complete post-season outings for the Lakers, who triumphed 4-2 in the best-of-seven series.

Los Angeles, who were beaten by the Boston Celtics in last year’s title showdown, await the winner of the Eastern Conference finals series between the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Unfinished business

"We had the effort and the execution to match (tonight)," Bryant said after clinching his sixth career NBA Finals appearance and second straight.

"It’s been a physical march back to the finals.

"We’re back to the place where we didn’t finish our business last year.

"Hopefully we do it this year."

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony had a team-high 25 points while shooting just 6-for-17 from the field and J.R. Smith chipped in 24 points for the Nuggets, who struggled out of the gate and never recovered.

Los Angeles had difficulty closing out the Houston Rockets in the semi-finals but showed clear focus from the outset against Denver, while shooting 57 percent from the field and a perfect 24-for-24 from the free throw line en route to the blowout.

Bryant scored 11 points in the final 3:09 of the first half as Los Angeles took a 53-40 halftime lead and quickly pushed the advantage to 20 during the third quarter.

"We saved our best game for last," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.

"We had the momentum almost from the beginning of the game.

"We played well – shooting the ball well from all spots on the floor, and I thought our energy was good."

Good performance

The Nuggets can look back at a strong season despite the defeat, the team bolstered by an early-season trade for point guard Chauncey Billups, who helped them tie an NBA franchise-best 54 regular season wins.

Denver’s trip to the conference finals also broke a string of five straight first-round playoff defeats.

"Today is a tough day but its been absolutely the best year I’ve been a part of," Billups said.

"Being able to help this team turn the corner has been awesome. I never would’ve imagined it."

The Lakers will be appearing in their 30th NBA Finals as a franchise and will try to make amends for last season’s failure, when they were outgunned 4-2 by a dominant Celtics.

Lakers head to NBA finals

For James, it was the same long, empty walk he had made in each of his previous five N.B.A. seasons that ended without a championship. Blue and silver confetti sprinkled from the rafters and landed at James’s feet, and a crowd that had been cheering all evening started its celebration in earnest.

The Cavaliers’ postseason hopes went up in talc, shoved aside by the towering play of Howard and buried under a barrage of 3-point shots in a 103-90 victory by the Magic on Saturday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Orlando never trailed and won the series, 4-2, an advantage that appears misleading for how close the series turned on James’s dramatics. The Magic travels to play the Los Angeles Lakers, against whom it held a 2-0 advantage in the regular season, Thursday in the first game of the N.B.A. finals.

“We’re not done yet,” Howard told the crowd of 17,461. “We did what we were supposed to do, but we’ve still got work to do.”

Howard saved his most dominating effort for last, putting forth the most effective outing of his young career. In the post, the trio of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao and Ben Wallace spent four quarters caroming off him as if they were oppositely charged particles.

“Dwight was a monster,” Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said.

Howard scored a career-postseason high 40 points. He went 12 of 16 from the free-throw line and had 14 rebounds. As the number of his slam dunks grew, each appeared to further flatline the Cavaliers, a team that many felt was destined to arrive at the finals.

“I’ve seen Dwight dominate like this, but this was a huge game,” Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy said. “This was to get to the finals and he was incredible.”

As he stepped to the line for two free throws with 3 minutes 53 seconds left that put the Magic ahead, 98-79, the crowd serenaded Howard with chants of M.V.P., while James could only look silently skyward. When Howard’s spinning dunk furthered the gap less than two minutes later, Howard grinned, exhaled and flexed.

When Cleveland collapsed its defense and sank into Howard, he whipped the ball to the eager hands of Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus and Rafer Alston. The foursome made all of the Magic’s 12 3-pointers.

“It seems like they shot 100 percent from the 3 for the entire series,” Cavaliers guard Mo Williams said. “That’s what it felt like. And even when they did miss, they were getting good looks.”

The stroll of solitude seemed tougher to digest for James, his organization and his city. In one six-game series, the Cavaliers’ splendid regular season, in which they recorded an N.B.A.-best 66 wins, gave way to an off-season of suspense.

The questions of whether James has a strong enough supporting cast to carve an entire career in Ohio and when Cleveland will receive another professional championship after a drought of 45 years will resurface.

James, who did not address the news media after the game, played splendidly throughout the series, an effort largely built in solidarity. He appeared off-kilter at times Saturday and perhaps the burden finally fell too heavy on his shoulders. He had 25 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds.

“Our rhythm was never there, and their rhythm and momentum was there the whole game,” Brown said.

Delonte West added 22 points, but too many times throughout the series, James was forced to carry the load.

Without two of his performances — a buzzer-beating 3-point shot in Game 2 and a dazzling fourth quarter in Game 5 — the series would have long been settled.

But even James could not overcome the Magic’s surge. The game’s outcome never seemed in doubt when the Magic shot a scintillating 53.7 percent in the first half and took a 58-40 lead. Howard recorded 21 points in the half, 6 of them on thunderous dunks. As Orlando thrived, it bottled James up in the second quarter for one of the few times in the series. James missed all five of his shots — three field goals and two free throws — during the stretch.

The Cavaliers began the third quarter in a blur, with 3-pointers from James and Williams and a layup by West in its first 56 seconds, closing the deficit to 59-48.

But Cleveland soon quieted when it needed its strongest play of the season. Courtney Lee responded with a jumper, Howard with three quick baskets and Turkoglu with a 3-point shot.

It is a sequence simple at its core, effective in its execution. Orlando worked the ball inside, then outside. And inside Amway Arena, a crowd that had not seen the Magic secure a postseason series at home this season roared its approval. Outside, the Lakers await in the next step for a team that has taken many already this season.

“I believe in my team,” Howard said. “I believe if we come out every night and play our brand of basketball, we can beat anybody.”

Magic 103, Cavaliers 90 – Howard Unstoppable as Magic Foils James and Reaches Finals

Snappy ball movement was the early game plan, with everybody getting touches and shots. Indeed, James didn’t connect on a basket until 6:20 in the opening quarter.

After Cleveland’s equal-opportunity offense resulted in a 17-point lead at the first quarter break, the game turned into a battle of spurts.

First, the Magic responded to their huge deficit with a sustained scoring binge that lasted through the entire second and early third quarters. Then both teams took turns riding mini-hot streaks … until the fourth quarter. And that’s when LeBron simply took over the entire proceedings.

With the game — and their season — at stake, the Cavs exclusively used a single set during the last 12 minutes of the game: A 1-2-2 alignment that had LeBron massaging the ball a few steps above the center of the foul line, two shooters — alternating among Williams, West, Daniel Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak — stationed at the high corners, one shooter at a low corner and either Ilguaskas or Anderson Varejao roaming the baseline.

And James simply overwhelmed Mickael Pietrus’ ineffective defense. Because of the spacing, any early attempt to double-team James would easily enable him to locate an abandoned shooter. So James drove into the lane, spun away from collapsing defenders, drew fouls, made baskets, or executed slick assist-passes to open shooters. In fact, for the game, LeBron single-handedly matched the total number of assists (12) that were accumulated by all of the visitors.

Time and again, this same turn of events was irresistible — LeBron scoring and creating — and the Cavs lived to play at least one more game.

When the series moves back to Orlando on Saturday, the Magic had better come up with an antidote for this set-up. Like springing into either a box-and-one or diamond-and-one defense, where one player defends James straight-up while his teammates play a 4-man zone behind him. This should force James to dribble into a waiting double team while also having close-out defenders in position to hinder the Cavs’ perimeter marksmen.

Or else, Orlando could simply two-time James as soon as he receives the ball and assume the risk of recovering quickly enough to tag the Cavs’ shooters.

The effectiveness (or lack thereof) of whatever adjustment Stan Van Gundy makes to counter Cleveland’s winning strategy in Game 5 will absolutely determine who will ultimately advance into the Finals.

However, LeBron also made a significant contribution on the defensive end as well. In the last few minutes with the game still up for grabs, his determined body-up and ball-denying defense on Hedo Turkoglu completely stalled Orlando’s offense. James’ efforts here even jammed up the Magic’s high screen-and-rolls that had previously been so effective.

With Turkoglu smothered, the onus was on Rashard Lewis to take over the bulk of Orlando’s scoring. But Lewis had a strangely quiescent game, and the Magic were doomed.

With Turkoglu shackled and Lewis out of sorts, the Magic tried stuffing the ball into Dwight Howard. But Superman scored his last deuce at 9:26 in the fourth quarter, and his last free throws came at 7:36, before fouling out.

In addition to James, the Cavs had several heroes: Gibson, who came off the bench to drop three key triples and 11 total points; Williams, whose six treys and 24 points seemed to come at incredibly auspicious moments; Ilgauskas was a significant factor at both ends; Ben Wallace contributed earnest defense and five critical rebounds in his brief rotations; and Varejao who totaled seven points, eight rebounds, two blocks, two assists and two unsuccessful flops.

Meanwhile, the Magic had nearly as many goats as Cleveland had heroes: Alston, who took several unreasonable risks at both ends and shot poorly (1-for-10 for three points); Lewis who was AWOL; and Anthony Johnson, who did stabilize the offense early in the second quarter, but who wound up forcing too many shots.

And, most of all, Coach Van Gundy, who failed to devise a defensive tactic to counter the 1-2-2 set that won the game. Also, in the waning minutes, the Magic’s offense was virtually reduced to only two possibilities: Trying to stuff the ball into Howard, or else running a perfunctory high screen-and-roll before hoisting up 3-pointers.

Even though the Magic still lead 3-2 in the series, all of the pressure is now on them to win Game 6 on their home court. That’s because both teams understand that there’s no way the Cavs will lose the deciding game on their home turf.

LeBron refuses to let Cavs lose in Game 5

Dwight Howard scored 10 points in overtime and the Orlando Magic, raining down 3-pointers like a Florida thunderstorm, withstood 44 points and a last-second shot by LeBron James for a 116-114 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

Howard finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and again made his free throws — 7 of 9 — for the resilient Magic, who made a team record 17 3-pointers — 11 after halftime.

Orlando can earn its first trip to the NBA finals since 1995 with a win in Game 5 on Thursday night in Cleveland.

Rafer Alston added 26 points and Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus had 17 each for the Magic.

James was spectacular again, adding 12 rebounds and seven assists, but he had eight turnovers for the Cavs, whose season of seasons is slipping away.

"I had to get myself going. My teammates found me in the right place to score and I kept scoring," Howard said of his overtime effort that included three dunks, a tip-in and two free throws. "I hate losing, especially on my home floor. We kept fighting for the win."

After Lewis made one of two free throws with 3.2 seconds left to give the Magic the 116-114 lead, the Cavs had one final chance.

And every person inside Amway Arena and millions watching on TV knew who was going to get it — James.

The league MVP, who saved the Cavaliers with a 3-pointer at the final horn in Game 2, was double-teamed on the inbounds pass but still managed to get free. He came back and got the ball before dribbling into the frontcourt as Magic fans held their collective breath.

James then rose from 35 feet, and with a clean look at the basket, sent his shot toward the rim.

It fell short, and Cleveland’s dream season may be next.

"He didn’t look tired. He just nearly hit a 50-footer from halfcourt," Howard said of James, exaggerating the distance a bit. "I love playing against him."

Cleveland’s Mo Williams, who guaranteed the Cavs would win Game 4 and the series, scored 18 points, none after the third quarter. Delonte West added 17 and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 12 for the Cavaliers.

Following the game, Magic fans chanted "One more win."

History is on the Magic’s side heading into Game 5. Teams with a 3-1 lead are a staggering 182-8 in series dating to 1947.

Lewis’ catch-and-shoot 3-pointer on an inbounds play with 4.1 seconds left in regulation gave the Magic, who attempted 38 3s, a 100-98 lead.

Cleveland set up a clear-out play for James, who drove the right side and was tripped in the lane by Pietrus with .5 seconds to play.

James swished his first free throw attempt, and then after a long delay, he made his second, which danced delicately on the rim for what seemed like an eternity before finally falling through.

Orlando called a timeout and tried a lob play for Howard, who was ridden out under the basket by Anderson Varejao. Both players tumbled out of bounds, and although there was enough contact for the officials to call two or three fouls, there was no whistle.

Howard screamed in protest, pleading his case to anyone who would listen.

"Are you serious?" Howard said, turning to the media section. "If that was LeBron … "

Cleveland’s Daniel Gibson made two free throws to open overtime, and then it was Howard’s turn.

He dunked the first two times he touched it, shaking the backboard each time and Orlando opened what looked to be an insurmountable six-point lead with 1:11 left on Howard’s tip-in.

James wasn’t done, though.

He made a left-handed scoop, two free throws and an are-you-kidding-me? 3 while falling into Orlando’s bench with 4.6 seconds to go.

The Cavs put Lewis on the line, and when he short-armed his first free throw, the Cavs had life.

However, James couldn’t repeat his Game 2 miracle and must now hope he and the Cavs can regroup at home, where they are 43-3 this season.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic – Recap – May 26, 2009 – ESPN

James made a fadeaway 3-pointer over Orlando’s Hedo Turkoglu as the final horn sounded Friday night to give the Cavaliers, their season a heartbeat from major trouble, a 96-95 victory over the Orlando Magic that evened the Eastern Conference finals at one game apiece.

From 23 feet — matching his jersey number — James made a shot unlike any before in Cleveland history.

Taking the inbounds pass from Mo Williams, James only had time to turn his shoulders toward the rim and fire. As the shot dropped in, James sprinted into the arms of his teammates as 20,562 stunned fans hugged in disbelief.

In the past, this was the kind of shot that happened against the Cavs. Remember Michael Jordan over Craig Ehlo?

Well, James has changed everything in Cleveland.

Game 3 is Sunday night in Orlando, where the Magic beat the Cavaliers twice this season and thumped them by 29 points on April 3.

One second before James’s shot, Turkoglu had hit a 12-footer in the lane to give the Magic, who overcame a 23-point deficit in the first half, a 95-93 lead. Cleveland called a timeout and set up a play for James, the league’s MVP, who finished with 35 points.

James darted toward the basket to get some room on Turkoglu and cut back near the top of the circle before letting loose with the shot of his career. After seeing James’s only 3-pointer of the game fall, Williams dropped to his knees and pounded the floor with his right hand as Quicken Loans Arena shook to its core.

"We just couldn’t afford to go down 0-2," James said. "That’s just a great shot. Now we have to get ready for Game 3. There’s a lot to clean up."

Rashard Lewis scored 23 points and Turkoglu had 21 for the Magic. Dwight Howard scored 10 — 20 below his Game 1 performance — and added 18 rebounds.

Williams had 19 points and Zydrunas Ilguakas had 12 points and 15 rebounds for Cleveland.

"Wow. I seen it before Hedo has hit big shot after big shot in the regular season and I had to match him shot for shot," James said. "Rashard Lewis hit the game-winner in Game 1 and I matched it in Game 2.

"I knew it was good," James said of his shot, "but you never know. The camera never lies and they had to go check it out."

James’ buzzer-beater lifts Cavaliers over Magic