Game 2 Adjustments: Magic-Cavaliers

1) Keep LeBron James on the perimeter: Stan Van Gundy summed it up best in his post game press conference. He has no clue how to guard NBA MVP LeBron James. I do not think anyone has.

But here is my best educated guess. Keep him shooting jumpers.

James is most dangerous when he is doing what he was doing in the first half. That was getting his teammates involved and scoring when he knows he needs to. All that assist-making stopped in the second half and that is when the Magic really did a good job coming back.

They closed out on shooters, cut off James' driving lanes and forced him into being a jump shooter. James is going to go down as one of the best players to ever play this game. If he can score 50 on jump shots, like he pretty much did tonight, so be it. I do not mind losing to him on jumpers. Neither should Orlando.

The first key to this series was contain the Cavs. The Magic did that in the second half of Game One. They have to continue to force James to defer to his teammates in tough situations.

I thought in the first half, Orlando overthought defending James. The Magic seemed to send a double team almost immediately, but half-heartedly with Dwight Howard and left a lot of holes in the defense. The second half was much better, with Mickael Pietrus doing a great job keeping James on the outside. Even when he drove, Pietrus was not afraid to body him up and did a good job forcing him to his second move.

There is no way to stop James. There is a way to make him dominate the ball and have the rest of the Cavaliers watch. That is what Orlando did successfully.

2) Feed the beast inside, no one can guard Dwight Howard: on our side, Cleveland has no answer for Dwight Howard. Howard scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while not getting enough mention in my recap from yesterday -- it happens when Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu are the heroes.

But believe it when Howard's big game opened up space for Lewis and Turkoglu to score. The Magic must continue to find ways to get Howard involved even if Cleveland tries a new scheme to defend him.

Howard was really the only thing going in the first half and helped the Magic ride the tide of the Cavaliers' momentum.

Cleveland does a lot of things well defensively. They poke at the ball a lot on drives and they get out to shooters. It gave Howard a lot of space to operate and he was virtually single covered -- virtually because he moves faster than Zydrunas Ilgauskas -- the whole game.

Something is going to be open against this team. But Howard has to remain aggressive and continue to feel he can dominate games like James can for the Cavaliers.

3) Protect the ball: As I said above, Cleveland is extremely good at poking at the ball and getting turnovers. The team's ball pressure above the 3-point line was really incredible. Do not expect the Cavaliers to have the same defensive breakdowns they had in Game One. If the Magic find themselves down 16 again in this series, they are not coming back.

Orlando cannot give Cleveland run-out opportunities and fast breaks off turnovers. James is too good in the open court and Cleveland's point guards -- Maurice Williams and Delonte West -- thrive on the break.

Turnovers at the top of the key were killer in this one. The Magic have to do a better job protecting the ball at the top of the key and when they drive in.

Cleveland had to work hard against Orlando's defense in the second half. Turning the ball over just gives them an easy opportunity to score -- especially since the Magic have no one to match up to James' speed.