Van Gundy, now an analyst for ESPN, said the Magic didn’t employ an analytics staffer, but they had a good handle on the value of shots in their offense. This was all part of the plan. Both regular-season games and three of the NBA Finals games were close contests, decided by six points or fewer or in overtime. Scared of the Magic’s dominance in the paint, opposing teams always defended the layup.“It was never a sit-down thing where we all said, ‘I think the way the game should be played is …’” said Stan Van Gundy, the coach of the 2009 Magic. It was not, he said, as “egregious” as it is now, when teams take 3s for the sake of taking them. The 2009 NBA Finals was the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s championship series for the 2008–09 season.The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers (who were also the defending Western Conference champions), and the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic. The Magic would match their record from last season.
However, James fell as he drove in the final seconds, got the whistle from referees and calmly sank two free throws to send the game to overtime.With the 2019-20 NBA season suspended in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, Fox Sports Florida has used much of April and May to show select classic games from the Magic’s glorious, 31-year history. “What was amazing was that Rashard could play on the block, Hedo could play point forward, it was all so interesting and it drove teams crazy,” Foyle said. It was just a miss,” Lee said, adding that it helped him learn how to bounce back as a professional. I might have laid it off the backboard too fast.”Of course, Turkoglu pulled up sometimes anyway, especially in the second half of playoff games, when he was essentially the team’s primary point guard. At the time, the Magic had, counting an exhibition trip to China, played James nine times over two seasons and had success by not overreacting to him. Those other guys needed LeBron to play well. The now famous miss, he said, was the combination of a lot of little mistakes: “I may have jumped too early, probably should have jumped off two feet, I probably had too much momentum. “He was All-NBA five straight years. I might have laid it off the backboard too fast.”Of course, Turkoglu pulled up sometimes anyway, especially in the second half of playoff games, when he was essentially the team’s primary point guard. After the Lakers routed the Magic in Game 1, Courtney Lee had an opportunity to even the series but was unable to convert the in-bounds alley-oop with 0.6 seconds left (goaltending? There just haven’t been many guys like him in league history.”A decade ago, the Magic reached the NBA Finals by deploying a strategy that seemed novel at the time: Surround big man Dwight Howard with four shooters, and devastate the opposition with spacing and shooting“This was,” Foyle said, “Dwight at the apex of his career and the construction of the team was so much more free. The now famous miss, he said, was the combination of a lot of little mistakes: “I may have jumped too early, probably should have jumped off two feet, I probably had too much momentum. 2009 NBA Finals Magic vs. Lakers 2008 Finals 2010 Finals. Turkoglu, Lewis, and Lee were joined by shooters like JJ Redick and Mickael Pietrus. “That’s how we ran the offense and how we moved the ball and how we needed to make room for Dwight.”Ten years ago this month, that Magic team made the NBA Finals. We just wanted the best shot every time and wanted our normal spacing,” Lee said. This was not a team hunting for 3-pointers; they just found them. He’d shoot 60-something [percent] from the field, have 15 dunks, be running all over the place, have 16 rebounds, and you’d think it was a boring night.”In the conference finals, of course, they faced LeBron, who averaged 38.5 points a game, eight rebounds, and eight assists. The Lakers won Game 2 on June 7 101–96 in overtime. And so, it was just a difficult offense to play against. This is Orlando's third season of at least 55 wins. “Our theory defensively, we wanted him to be more of a scorer and less of a guy to help those guys play well. Rashard Lewis backtapped the rebound to center-court, but the ball went to Pau Gasol, who ran in unimpeded for a dunk, giving the Lakers the lead for good.