Party's Over

Oy.

I really thought the Magic would beat Detroit in this series. I really did.

Here's a quick shot before my inevitable NBA season recap: in three of their four losses to Detroit, the Magic had multiple chances to put the Pistons away and failed to do so. Games 4 and 5, in particular, will go down as egregious.

Blowing a 15-point third-quarter lead in Game 4 was embarassing. Hanging around all night in Game 5 despite woeful free-throw shooting, chilly touch from beyond the arc, and team defense that oscillated between "average" and "sucky" -- well, I don't know what to make of that.

Except this: if the NBA kept stats for Loose Balls Corralled, Possessions-Saved-By-Hustle, Embarassingly Open 15-foot Jumpers, or Up-Stepping, the Pistons would have blown the Magic out.

A lot of that stuff -- running down a loose ball, tapping a ball back in play to keep the possession alive -- is "want-to." It's not a talent gap, and it's certainly not coaching. It's trying harder. There were too many instances in this series of five Magic players standing around while five Piston players made something happen.

But when an offense is run so precisely that potential shooters find empty area codes around them, when unknowns or nearly-deads like Rodney Stuckey or Lindsey Hunter become Step Up guys, that's something else. Pride, maybe. Cohesiveness. Trust. Unity. The intangible stuff that comes with a group that has remained largely intact for six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals. I'm not sure Orlando can compete with that.

But I thought they would.