ORLANDO, Fla.: In the final 60 seconds Friday against the Orlando Magic, Cavs forward Antawn Jamison heard a compliment so rare that he felt compelled to mention it afterward.
“One of the referees was like, ‘I respect you guys because you guys don’t give up, you guys play hard,’ ” Jamison said.
“That’s one of our identities, we play hard for 48 minutes. No matter what the situation is or how much we’re down, we feel like we’re still in it. But we’re starting to realize we need to do this sooner than later.”
On a night when the Cavaliers could have become spectators watching the myriad talents of Magic center Dwight Howard, they rallied from a 21-point deficit one minute into the fourth quarter and cut the gap to five with less than two minutes remaining. But Howard made six of his final seven free throws when the Cavs resorted to a Hack-a-Dwight strategy, and the Magic hung on for a 102-94 victory before a sellout crowd of 18,933 at the Amway Center.
It was the Cavs’ seventh consecutive loss to the Magic.
Cavs coach Byron Scott could have lavished all the praise on Howard, who scored 19 points, pulled down 16 rebounds (15 defensive), blocked eight shots and made 9-of-16 from the line, all in the final 5:55.
But Scott thought the turning point came with 2:31 to play when Howard missed two free throws with the Magic leading 94-87 and Magic forward Ryan Anderson muscled through for the rebound. Fouled again, Howard made his second try. Alonzo Gee followed with a 3-pointer for the Cavs, but Scott thought the damage had been done.
“When Ryan Anderson got the offensive rebound, then we had to foul him again, he had just missed three in a row,” Scott said of Howard. “That seemed to get him back on a rhythm. I thought it was working pretty well, but that offensive rebound kind of killed it.”
A 47.4 percent free-throw shooter this season coming in, Howard converted 6-of-8 from the line after Anderson’s rebound. Last season, Howard made 59.6 percent, closer to his career mark of 59.2. But that didn’t change Scott’s mind about using the strategy on the six-time All-Star at any time.
“I think you can do it when you’re up as well late in the game because at the most he’s going to get two instead of getting a 3 from one of those guys or him getting an and-one,” Scott said. “I don’t think you necessarily have to be down until he proves he can hit 70 to 75 percent of those free throws on a consistent basis.”
Scott can file that plan away until March 23, when the Cavs return to Orlando. He now has a more pressing matter to attend to — his team’s penchant for falling behind and frantically trying to catch up in the fourth quarter.
In their previous two games against the Boston Celtics, the Cavs followed the same formula. They pulled off a one-point victory at Boston on Sunday, coming back from an 11-point deficit in the final 4› minutes. On Tuesday, they lost by three to the Celtics after trailing by 21 in the final minute of the third quarter.
“I don’t know what we have to do to try to bring that same rhythm we have in the fourth quarter to the first quarter, but we’ll figure that out,” Scott said.
This seemed like an opportunity for the Cavs (8-13) to pull off another heart-stopping finish. The Magic (14-9) had lost six of their previous nine. Earlier in the day, Magic forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis was suspended for two games after a verbal altercation at the morning shoot-around. Orlando was still without Jameer Nelson, inactive for the fourth consecutive game with concussion-like symptoms.
But guard Jason Richardson returned to the Magic lineup after being rested the previous two games and missing three more Jan. 16-18 with a bone bruise on his left knee. He contributed 19 points, 14 in the first half, on 7-of-12 shooting.
Gee contributed 20 points, 13 in the fourth quarter, to lead the Cavs. Rookie Kyrie Irving had 18 (making just 7-of-21 from the field), Jamison 16 (6-of-19) and Anderson Varejao had 12 points, 15 rebounds and three steals.
Scott had his Cavs on the alert for the seemingly slumping Magic and his worries were well founded.
“I don’t sympathize,” Scott said before the game. “We have enough problems of our own.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
