JustSON the Numbers: Shaq tames Dwight Howard

Remember how the Orland Magic was just the better team during last year's playoffs against the Cavaliers? Well even though they were playing without Rashard Lewis - the balance in the east may have shifted to Cleveland thanks to the addition of Shaq.

While he only scored 10 points, he managed to keep Orlando superstar Dwight Howard in check to the tune of 11 points and seven rebounds as the Cavs won 102-93 last night to improve to 5-3 on the season.

How did Shaq do this? He was a presence, and he got Howard in foul trouble early. If he can do this against the Magic in the playoffs, we could see the Cavs blow by Orlando.

And how did Lebron James do? 36 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists.

Yeah he's pretty good.

NBA Finals Game 4 Journal

5:56 - I want to make it clear that I am rooting for LA because I can't stand Orlando's fanbase. A large majority of them probably don't realize that their team is even in the Finals because they're too busy buying Mickey Ears at DisneyWorld.

And you know what? They use the theme song to CSI for introductions, and had a MC who had a checkered suit that only a guy who still lived with his mom would wear. And the pregame intros were rather quiet. Remember when Seattle was in the Finals and you couldn't here the PA Announcer before the game? Oh yeah but they don't have a team anymore. No I'm not bitter... not in the least.

6:00 - They just showed a montage of NBA Champions and I think the Spurs got shown for roughly .02 seconds. I'm so glad the league is sweeping them under the rug as if their championships never happened.

6:06 - Considering the Dallas Cowboys reputation with the the structure strength of their buildings, do you really want the 2010 All-Star Game being played at Texas Stadium.

6:10 - Game starts, and they talk about how Kobe Bryant looked tired in the last Finals game - even though he was pretty much their entire offense in the first half of that game. How can anyone be "tired" is this day and age with luxury hotels, mega-conditioning, and plush conditions all around. It's not like he had to get off his construction worker job for the day to play basketball.

6:13 - Dwight Howard -- looks like what some football players want to look like with their shoulder pads on -- without any such assistance.

6:15 - Lamar Odom checks into the game. I really enjoy watching this guy play, I'm so glad he could finish his Butterfinger in time for the game.

6:21 - Commercial break shows Adam Sandler in a movie called "Funny People" ... how ironic.

6:24 - A shot of Amway Arena, does that place have the smallest parking lot in the NBA. I count three mini-vans, whatever Tiger Woods drove in on and Dwight Howard's groupie-wagon. That's it. Where does everyone else park? The Popeye's parking lot?

6:28 - Dwight Howard's parking spot must be at the free throw line because that's where he's been at for the entire game.

6:29 - Some guy from Congo checks in for the Lakers, meanwhile Adam Morrison doesn't make the playoff roster.

6:31 - With the score 18-15 Magic, Trevor Ariza gets called for a technical. In the first quarter. For an emotional outburst. Pace yourself. You'll be re-arranged JJ Reddick's facial structure by the third.

6:33 - Courtney Cox's latest project... Cougar Town! Just what I want to watch, old 40-year women hit on young guys! I can do that by going to a Spokane bar, so why would I need to watch this on TV?!?!?! (By the way I got groped by a Cougar down in Tri-Cities during the Shock game. Long story. Very Akward. And Weird)

6:33 - Stan Van Gundy quotes Greg Popavich during the pregame talk in some footage shown to us by ESPN. I wonder if Stan will be sporting the serial killer beard by game six.

6:37 - Riddle me this. So if the Lakers win the NBA Championship, Luke Walton will officially have more championship rings than Lebron James. Wow.

6:39 - Here's some insight - Orlando complains a lot about the calls... as in every single one.

6:44 - End of first quarter and we have our first WNBA Commercial, and Phil Jackson calls the officiating bogus. All right! Three more quarters to go of this.

6:50 - J.J. Reddick is playing well ... and I just wrote that.

6:56 - 37-27 Rashard Lewis hits a three to give Orlando its biggest lead of the series (they would lead by as much as 12 in the game). That's what you get for leaving the best 3 point shooter on the X-box version of NBA Jam open. Seriously.

6:56 - Another reason I hate Orlando fans. Those handclapper noise makers. ITS CALLED YOUR HANDS! SLAP THEM TOGETHER!!! How lazy has America gotten?

7:03 - Kobe's pregame interview shown by ESPN ends with Jeff Van Gundy saying that he sounds like a coach. Good god, if that happened not only would I be glued to my tv set for every single game but I think we would see the first ever occurance of the coach electing himself to take the technical foul free throw shot.

7:10 - HALFTIME

7:22 49-37 Magic, just for reference

7:47 - 51-44 Magic, the Lakers have definitely picked it up and Trevor Ariza can't miss.

7:55 - 55-54 LA's first lead.

7:59 - Adam Morrison sighting! He's in a bible salesman suit awkwardly high fiving Trevor Ariza, who doesn't actually know his name and wonders why Morrison is trying to get him to buy five copies of the Scientology Fundamentals.

8:02 - Chris Tucker has gotten fat. AND GEEZUZ! IS THAT TIGER WOOD'S WIFE? Holy hotness. I guess that is what you get when you're the best golfer on the planet. Ever.

8:05 - Magic commit their 15th turnover. Hey it's like the late 90s Seattle Seahawks!

8:07 - Things get physical, Howard grabs Kobe from behind, tempers flare, words are spoken and it's at this point that I realized that the refs need to let these guys play and stop freaking out every time there's any sort of contact. Howard and Kobe were members of the USA Gold Medal team. They're friends. They're playing for an NBA Championship so things are going to get chippy but at the end of the day, they're still going to be friends. So don't get your panties all in a twist when these hyper-competitive guys start speaking words to one another.

8:18 - Derek Fisher is still in the league?

8:20 - I love the random Kobe "I'm MAD!" cuts that ESPN does at random moments of the game.

8:37 - Jameer Nelson makes his first good play of the game with four minutes to go in the entire game. A pass to Howard for the dunk. Boy, I'm sure the Magic are glad he's finally coming around eh? Facing a possible 3-1 deficit and Nelson can pass now? Wowee!

8:49 - Three pointer, three pointer, three pointer...

8:50 - Dwight Howard misses both free throws. Yowza. This will come back to bite the Magic. That would have iced the game and instead it's 87-84 with 10.8 seconds to go. Orlando leads

8:53 - Derek Fisher is in fact, still in the league. Despite being 0-5 in the game from behind the three point line, he his a three-pointer with four seconds to go.

OVERTIME -Time for me to get my antacid pills

9:00 - Last Finals to have two overtime games? Boston vs. LA in 1984. That says something about where the NBA is right now as a league. So entertaining.

9:04 - Pau Gasol has the best "WHAAAAT?!?!" face. He must react wonderfully when his girlfriend tells him that she's pregnant or has 15 aliases.

9:06 - Second WNBA ad... and it's funny that they show them playing in packed Arenas.

9:09 - DEREK FISHER FOR THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ... and did anyone notice Jameer Nelson get hit by Kobe Bryant's elbow of fury when he passed it out to Fisher? Me neither.

(Is this 2002 all over again with Fisher hitting big threes for the Lakeshow? Should I be listening to 98 degrees and Outkast? Can I get a copy of "The Spy Who Shagged Me"?

9:12 - 96-91 Pau Gasol breakaway dunk and he proceeds to akwardly chest bump everyone on the floor, even Adam Morrison, who drops the bibles he's selling. Game is over... now they just need to run out the clock.

9:14 - Gasol gets another bucket but is hard fouled by Pietrus. A very cheap shot by him because the only reason Gasol went for the bucket was because the Magic were still defending hard even though there was like three seconds left. They got chippy afterward, I'm pretty sure Gasol called Pietrus a "Mother Goose" or something like that.

99-91 Lakers win.

And Derek Fisher has that "I'm dating your hot ex-girlfriend" grin going on.

Reasons why you're still single... you're a Orlando Magic fan

If you're celebrating the fact that the Orlando Magic are back in the NBA Finals after winning the third game... don't. They're still down 2-1, they still had to shoot a disgusting 62 percent from the field and they still eeked out a victory over the Lakers. If Los Angeles makes their free throws, its a much different game.

And don't even talk to me about respecting the Magic when their own fans don't show up all regular season, making Amway Arena quieter than a church and then suddenly when they're in the playoffs and the Finals, the place becomes a "madhouse."

You're way too busy front-running to be having a girlfriend.

Kobe doin' work

Some people may not be happy about the Lakers being up 2-0 on the Orlando Magic, but I absolutely love it. Here's why:

(1) With the next three games in Orlando, I don't think this series is over in five games. People really can't undersell home court advantage for the Magic. It's not over, it's about to get really interesting.

(2) The Magic will still lose though, mainly because of all the bandwagon fans from their own city that jumped on board. I'm still convinced that most people in that city thought the Magic were their hockey team until about two weeks ago.

(3) Orlando columnists are annoying. As in they can't write. As in there's a reason newspapers are going out of business.

(4) What does the Kobe Face do when he wins his fourth title? Explode?

(5) We won't have to hear the "You never believed in us, but our team showed you!" from a bandwagon Magic fan who's actually wearing a Lebron jersey.

Let's go Black Mamba!

Has anyone noticed how Kobe Bryants muppet sounds and looks nothing like him?

I love Kobe Bryant right now.

Not only does the Game 1 victory by the Lakers allow me to leave work tomorrow thanks to a victory by a shrewd bet, but have you seen the Lebron-Kobe muppet commercials? Amazingly funny even though the Kobe muppet looks more like Tim Meadows.

But, like every rational NBA fan, I realize there's some baggage that comes with the black mamba, that's why I've decided to translate some of the NBA Finals post-Game 1 quotes for your reading pleasure.

Here's what they really meant...

"I just want it so bad, that's all," Bryant said. "I just want it really bad."

(I just want a bus to hit Shaq. That's all I'm asking.)

"This is a resilient team," he said. "They've been through a lot of adverse situations before. This is nothing new to them. We've got to forget about this and move on."

(Thanks for playing Orlando, if you even think about making this a series I will Kill Bill your a** so quickly, you'll all look like Hedo Turkoglu)

"We've never had a shooting night this bad," Howard said. "We've just got to come out and play a lot harder than we did tonight."

(And I've not got to go work on my lats and shoulder muscles. See you all in the gym!)

"He was great. He was tremendous," said Van Gundy, who felt his team did a poor job defending the Lakers' pick and roll. "We were giving him too much space on his pull-up jumpers and he did a good job of attacking us. I know this: We are a lot better than we showed."

(Good god, how the hell do we stop Kobe Bryant? Where are Tonya Harding's bodyguards when you need them?)

"We've just got to keep our foot on the gas and keep our head down and just keep on working," Bryant said.

(I'm going to rip Dwight Howard's face off and wear it a la Hannibal from "Silience of the Lambs" - hellloooo Claurice....)

... On second thought, I don't like Kobe Bryant

10 Things you should know about Orlando Magic Fans...

(1) They're wearing a "Orlando Magic, est. when they beat the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals 2009" t-shirt.

(2) They think the Magic play in the XFL. And Larry Bird was a singer.

(3) They thing the shot clock is actually counting down to a point where they'll drop candy from the ceiling of the arena.

(4) They think Ron Jeremy is coaching their team.

(5) They think that if they win the NBA Finals, they get to play in the Super Bowl.

(6) They liked all the albums Michael Jordan released in the 1980s before he got all weird and liked little boys.

(7) They wondering what the pitching rotation for the next five days will be for the Magic and who will be leading off.

(8) They ask you when Brett Favre is going to come out retirement to play for them.

(9) They wonder why Dwight Howard isn't on NBA Jam: Tournament Edition.

(By the way, how amazing would it be to have Lebron and Dwight Howard on NBA Jam. I can't even imagine the rankings, it would be quite surreal. Somebody needs to come out with a game mod.)

(10) They can't wait for their team to finally hoist the Stanley Cup.

JustSON the Numbers: Dwight Howard

Here at Just South of North we have noticed a recent trend. That trend has been whatever person or team that has been featured on JustSON the Numbers has struggled after we have featured them.

Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, 1.65 ERA before being featured, he now sits at 4-2 with a 2.37 ERA and his cat died. Then Kasey Keller, 0.19 goals against average before, it's now gone up to 0.60 goals against average.

Even more recently the San Diego Padres had a 10 game winning streak snapped by JustSON because we had to mention it, and Joe Mauer of the Twins was featured sporting a .429 batting average, well he is 1 for his last 7 since.

With all that being said I figured I'd help out the NBA to prolong the Orlando Magic versus Cleveland Cavalier series and focus this edition on Dwight Howard. Since Howard has been such a big factor in this series, as he goes so goes the Magic, which isn't strange since he is the star of the team.

In breaking down Howard's numbers one thing is apparent, if he doesn't score they don't win, at least in the Cleveland series. The only game the Magic have lost in this series is the game that Cleveland managed to control him and that was in game 2. Howard managed only 8 shots in that game converting on just 3 of them and he went 4 of 8 from the foul line, far and away his worst shooting game. The Cavaliers should consider themselves lucky because even though they held Howard to just 10 points (about 10 below his playoff average) in the game, it took a miracle three pointer by LeBron James at the buzzer to finish off Orlando.

If you throw out Howard's dismal game 2 scoring performance he would be averaging 27 points a game in this series as well as an average of 14.7 shots per game and his free throw percentage would be at about 77%.

It appears that if Howard can stay out of foul trouble the Magic should be able to hold off Cleveland tonight at 7:45 pm eastern time on ESPN to advance to their 2nd NBA Finals in the teams history.

Well good luck beating Cleveland tonight Orlando, if the JustSON Jinx holds up it's going to be tough.

If anyone has any requests for this column let us know. I don't discriminate, no matter the sport or the stat.

Reasons why you're going to be single... NBA Finals tickets

The Eastern Conference Finals may not be over... yet ... but you're going have to explain to your wife why you spent over a thousand dollars buying advanced tickets to the NBA Finals in Cleveland.

Now the Cavs are down 3-1 to the Orlando Magic.

You'd better do a lot of lawn mowing.

(Side note: if you're one of those people who was "rooting" for Cleveland and LA not to make the Finals, are you going to watch the Magic and Nuggets if they both make it? Probably not. You're probably now going to complain about how boring the Finals are. Not calling you out on flip-flopping or anything. You suck.)

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic game log

Boy, these two conference finals are shaping up to be pretty epic. I was at a buddy's house for the "Lebron's Big Adventure" shot, so I figured I'd have a game log for the third matchup between the Cavs and Magic. Here we go:

5:34 - Selina Roberts could have a show called "The Reporter" on TNT and that would not surprise me one bit.

5:36 - Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden, Chicago Stadium and ... Amway Arena? Good God Orlando, you do not deserve an NBA franchise.

5:39 - Lebron James stutter steps his powder tradition, moves over and throws it up over two fat, balding men. And then Orlando fans boo him. The game hasn't even started yet and I'm already sucked in.

5:40 - Cavs miss four shots on their opening possession. Oops.

5: 43 - Graphic shows Lebron scoring over 40 percent of the Cavs points in the series. If you don't think he gets his own corner locker and first crack at the pre-game spread, you're kidding yourself. He also probably gets to choose the in-flight movie, what players' wife he gets to sleep with and who the Cavs are picking in the upcoming draft.

5:50 - A travel call in the NBA? Take that college basketball fan who played varsity his senior year and hustled a lot. The NBA does care about fundamentals ... sometimes ... so stop talking about your glory days at Jenkins High School.

5:54 - Orlando GM apparently has lucky scorpion socks and apparently washes his socks with Amway laundry detergent. And sidelines reporting has reached a new low for TNT.

5:59 - Lebron makes a huge SportsCenter block just to remind everyone he's still playing in the game.

Magic 24, Cavs 17 - END OF FIRST QUARTER

6:14 - Does "Year One" look awesome to anyone else? And what has happened to Jack Black's career? He's two comedy duds from appearing in a bad Vin Diesel movie.

6:16 - Along with timeouts, does Stan Van Gundy also yell desperately at the dinner table. "Hey, SOMEONE NEEDS TO PASS THE SALT! You hear me? SALT! Right here. In my lap! THANK YOU!"

6:17 - Ben Wallace needs a new beard stylist.

6:20 - Orlando apparently forgot to plan their defensive rebounding strategy, still Cleveland is shooting like crap and are down 29-25.

6:23 - The Cavs take the lead at 30-29. A large contingent of Cleveland fans is heard. I texted somebody in Orlando about the series and they texted back "is that baseball?"

... and yet Seattle doesn't have an NBA franchise anymore. Woo!

6:30 - Mo Williams get an elbow by Alston but is called for the foul. This causes him to bleed profusely and head to the locker room. Meanwhile, Alston misses his two free throws. Then Williams is called back to shoot free throws after it's decided that Alston committed a flagrant. He nails both of them. Playoff basketball at its best.

6:41 - Jeff Gordon plugs a NASCAR race... I don't mean to stereotype but I would say there's very little carryover between NASCAR fans and NBA fans. Just sayin.

6:43 - New strategy to stop Lebron James - "Flop-a-bron."

6:48 - Mo Williams is starting to swell up and he looks like he just fought the Russian in Rocky 4

Magic 42, Cavs 41 - HALFTIME

No flow whatsoever, the refs are really making this game somewhat unwatchable.

7:05 - Great halftime footage of Stan Van Gundy talking in front of a changing player for all the female NBA fans watching TNT.

7:17 - Was that a "Magic Suck!" chant I heard? Is Magic Johnson in the building and are Orlando fans still reeling from "The Magic Hour?"

7:30 - Somebody has to do something about the massive cleavage behind Mike Brown.

Magic 68, Cavs 64 END OF THIRD QUARTER

7:49 - The words "Lebron James" and "bench" strike fear in the heart of every Cavs fan.

7:58 - Scoring-wise and clutch-wise, Dwight Howard is pretty terrible in the fourth quarter and gets bailed out by his teammates and I stand by that.

8:15 - I like how Lebron James builds up a head of steam and then Orlando fouls him by default.

8:25 - Here's how you lose a close basketball game. Miss free throws, then turnover the ball on your next position. Have your center foul out... oh yeah and do this with about 1:08 to go.

TNT just informs us that 77 free throws have been attempted in this game. Again, I hate when refs need to ruin the flow of the game like this.

8:32 - Last gasp threes by Lebron and Williams pretty much wraps it up. This sums up a terrible shooting night for Cleveland.

GAME OVER. Magic 99, Cavs 89. Orlando takes 2-1 lead in Series

Magic fans, I wouldn't be too enthused just yet because nobody - including Lebron - could make a consistent shot for the Cavs in this game. They just had an off night and still only lost by ten. Also - your team couldn't make a defensive rebound to save your life. And you have Dwight Howard. Ponder that for a while.

Celtics-Magic Game Seven Log

Since I got home late for the Lakers-Rockets Game 7 and that was an absolute sleeper of a game, I decided to do a game log for the match-up between the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic. So here goes.

5:08 - The TD Banknorth Garden is hopping in Boston. Although I really wonder what the old, un-sponsored venue in Boston would have been like under these circumstances.

5:10 - Rondo hits a three for the first points of the game and the Garden explodes. Say what you will about March Madness but the collective experience of a home crowd in the NBA playoffs beats a half-empty football stadium any day.

5:14 - Dwight Howard gets away with a foul on Rondo. I love the collective crowd "we just saw what you got away with on the jumbo tron" noise. You know, the "awwww-AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" It's classic.

5:15 - Somebody might want to guard Howard. The Magic are getting him the ball now and he thinks this is the All-Star dunk contest.

5:22 - The sideline reporter lets us know that Dwight Howard apparently dreamed about hitting the game-winning three of Game 7 and missed practice because of this. If only Alan Iverson had used that excuse.

5:27 - Brian Scalabrine checks into the game, surely sending shivers down every Magic fans' back. He promptly passes up a wide open three and give it to a teammate who bricks the shot.

5:32 - What NBA coaches say during timeouts: You're passing the ball. Good job. We will win if we pass the ball.

Fantastic Xs and Os here in the NBA.

END OF 1st QUARTER - MAGIC 27, CELTICS 17

5:40 - Stephon Marbury is in the game and apparently has one speed: out-of-control. That guy looks terrible out on the court and probably could barrel over a kid on the sidelines after a game-winning shot if he tried.

5:41 - I just want to say now that Paul Pierce has been heavily underrated his entire career. He's been fantastic in Boston. And he got stabbed or shot in the face. Anyone who has that happen to them and can still play basketball, well they deserve a sticker in my book.

5:51 - I love when a crowd sarcastically cheers when a ref gives them a foul. Where else in the world does this happen. Like would you sarcastically celebrate if you worked at McDonalds and got a ten cent raise? Seriously, give me a instance where you've done this...

6:00 - 39-33 Orlando, timeout called. Momentum seems to be shifting towards Boston, and TNT just flashed the obligatory "81 percent of home teams have won games 7s" which basically jinxes the Celtics.

6:11 - Ray Allen always seems to be able to hit those "big threes" that gets the crowd really into it. He sinks one to make it 42-38 and cause pandemonium in the Garden. Orlando looks lackluster.

HALFTIME - MAGIC 45, CELTICS 38

6:34 - Apparently Orlando is employing the "let's bunch up four of our guys together in one spot and look like the Keystone Cops" defense. Boston gets some backdoor plays because of this.

6:41 - 54-50 Orlando, although the Magic aren't really playing that great of defense. The Celtics really aren't a hugely athletic team without Garnett and they certianly don't have the advantage talent wise. However, they keep finding a way to stay in this game.

6:42 - 57-50. Timeout. The Celtics apparently are taking a page out of the Gonzaga playbook and not guarding the three.

6:51 - What's it with Smirnoff commercials. They keep showing loads of guys drinking the stuff. In all my years of drinking, you wouldn't be caught dead with a Smirnoff.

6:57 - 66-61 Orlando. Rondo buries a three and you have to think Boston will have momentum going into the fourth quarter.

END OF THIRD QUARTER, MAGIC 66, CELTICS 61

7:03 - I was wrong, Orlando has made it 74-61.

7:07 - I love when TNT pans to the "celebrities" in the Boston crowd. You get shots like these...


Not so sunny and happy in Boston compared to LA. What the hell is wrong with Ben Afleck and why does he look like he's got some incurable disease from an after-school special? And why is Jennifer Garner not wearing any makeup? Ladies and gentlemen, your Boston celebrities!

7:11 - Marbury is back in the game. God help the Celtics.

7:20 - I noticed that Eddie House had "E-house" tattooed on his shoulder. Put that on the list of "things that only professional athletes can pull off." That's like one of those moves that frat house idiot would do and then always show it off at parties.

7:23 - I guess Marbury has a tattoo on his skull of his discontinued shoe line logo. That's worst that House. By the way, the Magic lead 90-73.

7:32 - How is Marv Albert looking younger these days? Herbalife? It's like the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and in about three years he's going to look like Bob Costas.

7:35 - Doc Rivers takes out Pierce and Allen. This game is Ova!

ORLANDO 101, BOSTON 82

Lebron James is licking his chops now.

JustSON the Numbers: NBA Playoffs Game 7

Since this Sunday will feature two separate game 7's in the NBA Playoffs I thought I would focus this edition of JustSON the Numbers on the history of game 7 in the NBA.

When the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers tip off at 3:30 pm eastern time on Sunday May, 17th in Los Angeles on ABC it will mark the 103rd game 7 in NBA Playoff history.

The Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic follow up that game at 8:00 pm eastern time on TNT in Boston marking the 104th game 7 in history. In this seasons playoffs there have been two game 7's that both took place in the first round and both ended with the road team losing. Boston defeated the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Miami Heat.

Unfortunately for both Houston and Orlando history is not on there side. In the previous 102 games the home team holds a big advantage with 82 wins and only 20 losses. The lone bright spot for Houston is that the last 3 road teams to win a game 7 have been from the Western Conference and 2 of the last 3 have taken place in the Conference Semifinals, which happens to be this round of the playoffs.

Houston has won 2 road game 7's in the past, once in 1981 against the San Antonio Spurs (who were the last team to win a road game 7) and then again in 1995 against the Phoenix Suns. Houston is also playing the Lakers who have just once been on the losing end of a game 7 that they hosted and that was back in 1969 against Boston. Los Angeles does carry a 13-8 record in game 7's all-time, while Houston has a 5-3 record in the deciding game.

The Magic will be facing the Celtics who have a 20-5 all-time record in game 7's. A ray of hope for Orlando is the fact that Boston has lost 3 times at home in a game 7, in 1973 against the New York Knicks, again in 1982 versus the Philadelphia 76ers and most recently in 2005 while hosting the Indiana Pacers. Since the Magic have only been in the league since the start of the 1989 season they haven't had much experience in game 7's going only 1-1 in the deciding games.

The numbers don't lie, it will be a big task for either the Rockets or the Magic to pull off road victories on Sunday. It seems like we will be one step closer to seeing a repeat of last years NBA Finals when the Celtics beat the Lakers, but that is why they play the games. Maybe the Rockets will beat Kobe Bryant and the Lakers (Kobe has disappeared in game 7's before, Phoenix anyone?) and perhaps Dwight Howard and the Magic can pull off the upset in Boston.

I guess myself and everyone else will have to tune in on Sunday to see if the two road teams can do the unlikely.

If anyone has any requests for this column let us know. I don't discriminate, no matter the sport or the stat.

Man Card Rules: Don't throw your coach under the bus

I like Dwight Howard. A lot.

He's really a lot of fun to watch out on the floor and seems like a nice guy. The kind you could throw back a couple cold ones with and make fun of "The Biggest Loser."

(No that's not a reality TV-show about the New York Knicks)

However, he must of had a major brain fart when he criticized his coach, Ron Jeremy-errrr Stan Van Gundy, for not giving him the ball enough during a game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Howard never once mentioned that his own play may have been at fault when it's pretty obvious that sometimes his offensive game suffers a tad, especially against a tough defensive team like the Celtics.

Now I found this article that basically throws a big bag of douche in Howard's direction:

ESPN.com's John Hollinger has done the math and found that Orlando is pretty good when Howard shoots only 10 times. Says Hollinger:

During the regular season, the Magic were 16-7 when Howard shot 10 field goals or fewer, for a .696 winning percentage that's close to their .720 overall mark.

Also, 10 or fewer shots in a game isn't a rarity for Howard. That happened in 23 of his 79 games, and his season average was 12.4 shots per game.

And the bottom line is that Orlando doesn't win big when Howard fires away. He averaged 12.5 shots in Magic victories and 12.2 in losses.

Man Card Rule - Don't criticize your coach about not getting the ball enough when in reality, you actually hurt your team when you shoot too much. That's just silly.

Still like you though! Especially the commercial you're in with Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley!

Big Baby Gets Shoved by Big Baby

This is ridiculous! There is some backlash coming from Orlando following the buzzer beater shot made by Glen "Big Baby" Davis in the Boston Celtics game 4 victory on Sunday over the Orlando Magic. No this has nothing to do with the shot beating the buzzer either.

You see after Davis made the shot he reacted like almost any NBA player would and ran down the court to celebrate with his teammates. Well if you have ever seen Glen Davis he is not the most svelte or agile person on a basketball court, so as he was running he had a decision to make, either run over the ref (by the way his reaction was priceless, he looked like a guy who just missed getting hit by a runaway truck) or go around him to the sideline. Well unfortunately for 12 year old Nicholas Provetti he took the way of the sideline and shoved young Nicholas. Video here

Now of course the father of Nicholas, Ernest Provetti was demanding an apology (he has since backed off). He emailed the NBA about this and said Davis was acting like a "raging animal" and also said "How do you like to be a 12-year-old and see a raging lunatic coming at you?"

Yeah I have to admit after reviewing the video it really looks like Davis is trying to injure this kid (anyone picking up my sarcasm?). I bet Davis was waiting all game to get revenge on this kid who was probably heckling him about his weight.

The way I see it is you as a fan accept responsibility for where ever you are in the stadium, if I'm sitting court side I fully expect and accept the fact that I might get a lap full of some NBA player who dives out of bounds to save a loose ball. If I'm at a baseball game I'll be watching out for a foul ball, even football or soccer I could get hit by an errant shot or throw (still hoping for this even though they don't let you keep them).

Perhaps they should change Davis' nickname to "Big Bully" and give the father of Ernest Provetti the "Big Baby" nickname?

The good and bad of yesterday's sporting events

THE GOOD - The Red Sox showed some fight against the Tampa Bay Rays who drubbed them on Saturday, 14-5, and has pretty much owned them so far in this regular season. On Sunday, Jason Bay (surprise surprise!) doubled off the Green Monster in the bottom of the eighth to drive home Big Papi to take the 4-3 lead and then Papelbon shut to door on the Rays in the top of the ninth for his eighth save.

THE BAD - The Lakers, even with Yao Ming out, blew their game against the Houston Rockets, 99-87 in a game that Los Angeles came out looking flat and uninspired. WHERE WAS THE BLACK MAMBA? 15 points? Seriously Kobe? Thanks for ending my streak on ESPN's Streak for the Cash.

THE GOOD - Seattle beat the Twins 5-3 to get back to .500. And look at this, we have a Ken Griffey Jr. sighting as he hits his third (WOW!!!) homer of the season. I can just hear the FSN call now

"Griffey Homers on Mother's Day! My oh My! Have you seen anything so spectacular! This is amazing folks! Wow! A home run! By a Mariner! We haven't seen this in weeks! We actually have a highlight we can use! Maybe Angie Mentink will stop using low cut shirts to get ratings now that we have actual highlights!"

THE BAD - The Sounders FC tied the LA Galaxy. While it certainly isn't a loss, LA hasn't been fantastic this year and it would have been nice to get a win over this run-of-the-mill club. Next up FC Dallas - the worst team in the league. They better score enough goals to get fans a Chalupa.

THE GOOD - Glen Davis' game-winning shot over the Orlando Magic to tie up the playoff series 2-2 was fantastic and equally up there on the unintentional comedy scale.

Ask Celtic fans who they'd draw up a game-winning shot play for and I would guarantee you that only Davis' mother would have penciled in Big Baby into the equation. This led to him almost running into a 13-year old who had court side seats during the post-game celebration and the weirdest post game interview where he just didn't use sports cliches, he murder them, bagged them and spit them back up in what I would like to call the Mona Lisa of sports cliched interviews. It was like he was reading from a cue card held by Kevin Garnett.

Oh and Doc Rivers' celebration after Davis' shot pushed the unintentional comedy scale through the roof. I've never seen an NBA Coach immitate Mark Madsen until last night.

Riders of Rajon

Don't hate Rajon Rondo.

After handling the Chicago Bulls in game seven, the Celtics are moving on to the second round of the NBA playoffs with an interesting series against the beleaguered Orlando Magic. And I'm starting to feel the Rondo-hate ride start to roll in.

During the epic Bulls series, which will go down in history as the best first-round playoff series that didn't involve a team making the finals that year, I got plenty of texts from my friends about how they didn't like Rondo.

And Rondo's foul on Brad Miller in Game 5 of the series brought an outpouring of "that should of been a flagerant!" and then when the guy shoved Kirk Hinrich into the scorers table... people we're about to put him in same category as the Cobra Kai Dojo in "Karate Kid."

All we were missing was Doc Rivers telling Rondo to "Sweep the leg!"

You know what? I love it. I love that Rondo is playing physical basketball. It's certainly been effective hasn't it?

And I can't believe I had to do this, but a week ago I actually had to defend these points... (a) Rondo is among the better point guards in the league and (b) he would start on other NBA teams.

I could go into detail about why Rondo is worth it but there's already enough people writing this point about Rondo. For all you haters out there, take off your college basketball glasses (they're not in season anymore) and understand that this guy brings so much to his position it's not even funny. He can run the offense to a tee, obviously play defense (proor Bwad Miwller's Bwusted Lwip), create his own shots and rebound. And his top speed is somewhere around the speed limit in the state of Montana. It's insane. 

With exceptions being  in San Antonio, Phoenix and New Orleans, every NBA team would absolutely love having a guy as multi-faceted as Rondo on their team.

Dwight Howard is a god

I watched Dwight Howard absolutely crush the Boston Celtics on the boards tonight, which allowed his squad to squeak out a 84-82 victory over the defending NBA Champions. That clinched the Southeast Division for the Orlando Magic and moved them percentage points ahead of the Celtics as the second-best team in the Eastern Conference (behind Cleveland of course).

And I don't know if it was the high definition TV I was watching, or the fact that he wears jerseys two sizes too small but my god - Dwight Howard is ripped. That is probably why he was able to get 21 Rebounds and 24 points tonight. He's like an athletic Shaq, complete with the goofiness that makes you want to root for him.

The only knock I have against Howard is sometimes he disappears offensively in big moments of the games, but seems to be able to make clutch rebounds - if that is even considered a viable stat - possibly the best clutch rebounder in the game. Nobody can touch him when he wants to ball.

And if you didn't notice, we're headed to one of the best NBA playoffs in recent history. We've got Cleveland, Boston, Orlando and LA all looking very good. I could very easily see any one of those teams winning a championship.

And the best part is Dickie V won't be calling the game.