Game 2: Cleveland Cavaliers 96, Orlando Magic 95

LeBron James may have completely changed the sports culture in Cleveland.

Hedo Turkoglu calmly nailed a fall away jumper with one second left to make Cavaliers fans scramble to come up with a new "The X" moniker. The Magic held a two-point lead with one second to play and a nearly insurmountable 2-0 series lead against a team that has simply had the Cavaliers number.

But there is a reason I personally believe James can be better than -- gasp -- Michael Jordan.

Orlando pushed James out two feet beyond the 3-point line and he calmly hit a fallaway 3-pointer to answer to give Cleveland a 96-95 win in Game Two. Sending the series to Amway Arena tied at one.

Comments on James' shot: see my lead for my Game One story. James is an incredible talent and it is absolutely true that Orlando, nor any team, can defend him. He had another big game with 35 points on 12 of 23 shooting.

And James set the tone in this game. After getting criticized, and rightly so, for shooting too many jumpers in Game One, he attacked the basket and really created problems for the Magic's defense.

Early in this one, LeBron was getting to the line, creating easy shots for himself and for his teammates. More importantly, he played with a whole lot of energy.

It was an energy that the Magic lacked early in the game. Credit Cleveland's defense for once again getting into the passing lanes, poking at the ball and harrying Orlando early. The Magic were clearly in no mood for the Cavs' pesky guards.

Turnovers and fast break opportunities helped Cleveland build a 23-point lead. Howard was completely frustrated in the paint thanks to the peskiness of Maurice Williams and the large body of Anderson Varejao. It led to numerous first half turnovers.

Howard struggled to get anything going after scoring 30 points and getting anything he wanted in the paint on Wednesday. Howard finished with just 10 points on three of eight shooting. Unlike in Game One, he struggled at the line making four of his eight attempts. He was a complete non-factor offensively in the second half and was more of a threat than an actual participant.

What perhaps really changed, besides a change in defensive effort, between the first quarter and the rest of the game, was the play of Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. For the second straight game, Orlando got big efforts from those two in the second half.

Turkoglu finished with 21 and Lewis had 23. The two hit a bunch of big shots and led the Magic on the comeback trail.

There is no question that Stan Van Gundy is no longer the master of panic. His team has a lot of mental toughness and never gave up despite falling into a hole again.

Save for a miracle James shot, the Magic did what they needed to do to pull out a win. There are plenty of ways they need to adjust before Game Three.

Lewis and Turkoglu came up big offensively. Mickael Pietrus did a great job defending James late in the game. And Howard manned the paint and forced Cleveland to hit jumpers again.

It is pretty hard to believe that Orlando nearly won a game where it had to make another big road comeback. But the team nearly did. As John Hollinger pointed out on Twitter and Kenny Smith pointed out, Lewis did not do a good enough job guarding the inbounder on the final play.

But that is nitpicking. If the Magic play 48 minutes, they win this running away.

The last point that needs to be made is in this video of Maurice Williams.

In a one point game, this play mattered. Early in the game, Williams threw the ball at Dwight Howard. That is an automatic technical foul. That is one point opportunity Orlando did not have that it should have.

Expect Williams to get fined, but that point is gone and so is a chance at a 2-0 series lead.

I don't like piling on the referees, especially after close games like these or games with big swings like this one where it is clear the Magic had their opportunities, but that one is pretty egriegious.

I know none of them saw it, but it was clear something happened. Video showed something happened. And it did matter in the end. This call is worse than the Denver-Dallas call in the last round.

There is still a lot of work to do in this series. Just because the Magic should have won this game does not mean they will automatically take Games Three and Four and take control of the series.

There is a long way to go in this one.