LeBron James' defense was a big reason why the Miami Heat eliminated Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. (GETTY IMAGES)

Watching Derrick Rose go right at LeBron James in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 2011 Eastern Conference was pure basketball magic. It’s not often when you see the reigning league MVP and the two-time league MVP going head-to-head for much of the fourth quarters in the Heat-Bulls series.

Rose unleashed his best moves and best shots. If Rose literally had a bag of tricks, he probably emptied it out in this series. However, each time Rose tried to catch fire, James was there to snuff it out. In the end, it was LeBron’s size, power and quickness that uncovered the secret to stopping the mercurial Rose.

As good as James was on offense in Game 5 – and he was pretty darn good with a game-high 28 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter – he was even better on the defensive end, locking up Rose with a smothering man-to-man defense that would have made NFL shutdown corner Darrelle Revis proud.

“You kill the head of the snake,” Heat guard Dwyane Wade said of the key to stopping the Chicago Bulls, obviously referring to Rose.

Easy for Wade to say because he was mostly a spectator when it came time to defending Rose, but his good friend and first-team All-NBA defender LeBron James took on the challenge of shutting down the 22-year-old Bulls star.

Even though Rose scored 117 points (25-point average) in the series, which the Heat ended in five grueling games, it took him 120 field goal attempts to reach that mark. It meant that nothing came easy for Rose, especially the last two games in which he was a combined 17-for-56 from the field and 3-for-17 from 3-point range.

In Game 5 Rose was 9-for-29 from the field, and James was a big reason why. James kept Rose out of the paint, forced him to shoot over his 6-foot-8, 265-pound frame, and smothered his passes. Every time Rose tried to create offense either for himself or for his teammates, James was there to take away all his options.

After the Bulls took a 77-65 lead with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, James tightened his hold on Rose and allowed the Heat to mount a comeback. Wade and James took turns in dropping baskets on the Bulls, and at the one-minute mark the game was tied at 79. Wade and James combined for 24 points in the fourth quarter.

The Bulls still had an opportunity to pull out the win, but Rose made a critical turnover thanks to great defense, again, by James as he tipped Rose’s pass when the Bulls guard tried to swing the ball to the right. James came up with the loose ball and seconds later he dropped a cold-blooded jumper over Ronnie Brewer near the top of the arc for an 81-79 Heat lead.

On the Bulls’ final possession, down by three and 16 seconds left, Rose tried to create space on the left side of the court to set up a possible game-tying 3-pointer, but he ran into Udonis Haslem and then James finished off his defensive gem with a clean block as time expired on the Bulls’ season. Game. Set. Match. Checkmate.

Derrick Rose may be the most valuable player in the NBA, but LeBron James clearly remains the best athlete in the NBA and it’s not even close.

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Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh is quietly silencing his critics in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. (US PRESSWIRE)

Prior to the start of the 2011 Eastern Conference finals, Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer hinted that the Miami Heat have only two real superstars on the team, an obvious slap-in-the-face directed at Heat forward Chris Bosh.

Bosh claims he wasn’t upset with the comment, but you bet he read Boozer’s remark and wasn’t very pleased about it. Some players say they’re not affected by bulletin-board material, but every athlete in the world uses every little diss, no matter how big or small, as motivation.

Three games into the Heat-Bulls series, Bosh is playing like a man looking to put a muzzle on someone (hello Mr. Boozer!). He scored 30 points in Game on 12-of-18 shooting, and in a pivotal Game in Miami the supposed third wheel in the Big Three cog poured in 34 points on 13-of-18 shooting to push the Heat to a 2-1 series edge.

“I just want to be aggressive and have some kind of imprint in this series,” Bosh told TNT’s Craig Sager. “I had an aggressive Game 1. Game 2 was so-so but we still won. Here on our home floor I just wanted to be aggressive and it turned out to be a good game.”

Bosh has been so efficient in the series that even even the outspoken Joakim Noah has nothing but good things to say about the much-maligned Heat star. “He played excellent,” Noah said.

LeBron James said he changed his game plan in Game 3 to accommodate Bosh, allowing him to get more looks at the basket. “If I needed to get it going offensively I could, but the great thing about it is CB had it going. When we have someone on our team going, we continue to give the ball to him. The team feeds off his energy offensively and he brought it home for us.”

Bosh is without a doubt winning his one-on-one battle with Boozer, who has been real quiet in this series. Boozer did post nice numbers in Game 3 (26 points and 17 rebounds), but he only had 14 and 9 and 7 and 8 the previous two games, not exactly the type of numbers the Bulls were hoping from their high-priced free agent acquisition during the summer.

If the Heat are going to advance to the NBA Finals, the Heat know they need Bosh to play like an All-Star. Statistics show the Heat almost unbeatable when Bosh plays well. And so far the former Toronto Raptor is making Boozer eat his words.

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Doc Rivers has maintained since April that, at some point during the postseason, Nate Robinson was going to win a playoff game for the Boston Celtics.

Throughout the 2010 NBA playoffs, Rivers made it a point after almost every Celtics practice to remind Robinson to stay focused, be ready and told him to “stay engaged.” “At some point, you’re going to win a game for us,” Rivers said to the little-used point guard. “I can’t tell you when you’re gonna play, I can’t tell you if you’re gonna play.”

The Celtics coach proved to be prophetic as Robinson got his opportunity in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and delivered a superlative game off the bench that catapulted the Celtics to a series-clinching 96-84 victory and a trip to the NBA Finals.

Robinson – the 5-foot-9 three-time slam dunk champion who was acquired by the Celtics from the New York Knicks during the trade deadline – led a Boston second unit in the second quarter that pushed the Boston lead from 11 to 21 points. He scored 13 points in nine minutes and made two huge 3-point shots that not only got the crowd excited but inspired his teammates.

Nate Robinson provides a big lift for the Celtics in the second quarter of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference finals. He scored 13 points, including two crushing 3-point shots. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“They actually made their big run with Rondo sitting on the bench,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “That’s not a knock on Rajon Rondo. I’m not sitting up here saying they’re a better team without Rajon Rondo. But tonight they were.

“Nate Robinson was great. He’s a real talented guy,” Van Gundy added. “He scored a lot of points in New York, and what he did tonight was probably what they had in mind when they made the deal. I guess, for whatever reason, he hadn’t played much for them. But in an absolutely huge game he stepped up and played great.”

Paul Pierce, who led the Celtics with 31 points and had 13 rebounds, credited Robinson for sticking to the script and staying sharp despite the limited action.

“He kinda fell off the rotation, but my hats off to him because usually young players mentally fall out of it when they don’t play, just go through the motions in practice and really not into it because they’re worried about their time. That’s normal for a young player,” Pierce said of Robinson, who turns 26 this month. He had averaged just five minutes of court time in this year’s playoffs.

“But he kept his poise. He went to practice and got his work in, shot the ball, and did what he had to do to stay ready. Tonight his number was called and that just shows his true professionalism,” Pierce continued. “The game could have went either way at that point. We were only up by six or eight [points] and Rondo gets hurt, and he comes in and was a huge sparkplug, and really pushed the game for us.”

Rivers noted that he had already decided to give Robinson more playing time for Game 6 after he played well during the Game 5 loss in Orlando, and it became absolutely necessary when Rondo hurt his hip during the first quarter. “Even though we had played awful, [Robinson] came in and had bought into our defensive system and he was able to run a couple of sets in our system,” Rivers said.

Robinson carried over his solid Game 5 performance with an ever better one in Game 6. He was aggressive on offense and, more importantly, applied heavy pressure on Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, who struggled to a 5-for-14 evening and had just 11 points.

Orlando fought valiantly in this series and Rivers credited Van Gundy for keeping his team together even when most people had already counted them out when they fell behind 0-3.

“We got away from our game when we got behind. Unfortunately, it happens to every team. When we missed shots early, we didn’t stick with our game,” said Van Gundy, who pointed out that the first quarter was the key to the whole series.

“There’s this thing that people try to perpetuate that the NBA is fourth-quarter league, and you don’t even need to watch the first three quarters. That’s for people who don’t study at all and don’t follow NBA basketball. Go back through the years, two thirds or three quarters of the games are won by the team that wins the first quarter. It’s a first-quarter league. You gotta be ready at the start.”

The Magic fell behind 30-19 in the first quarter and played uphill the rest of the game.

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Like a boxer who just got knocked down twice in the last two rounds, the Boston Celtics return home for Game 6 with a couple of bad headaches, an aching back and a little bit of doubt in their ability to knock out the suddenly surging Orlando Magic in the 2010 Eastern Conference finals.

When asked if the Celtics could fall into the same fate as this year’s Boston Bruins – who lost four consecutive games to the Philadelphia Flyers after winning the first three in their Stanley Cup playoff matchup – Celtics forward and vocal leader Kevin Garnet emphatically said, “This is not hockey.”

Boston still leads its best-of-seven series with Orlando, 3-2, but its position has been compromised a bit with the way the Magic have won the last two games. And, with the mounting injuries and possible suspension of starting center Kendrick Perkins after he received his sixth and seventh technical fouls of the playoffs, the Celtics went from a possible sweep to a must-win situation in three days.

Celtics forward Glen Davis lies on the court disoriented after taking an elbow to the head from Magic center Dwight Howard in the third quarter of Game 5. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

The Celtics took one on the head literally in Game 5 when two players, Glen Davis and Marquis Daniels, suffered concussions and both had to be helped off the court.

Davis caught an inadvertent Dwight Howard elbow to the face late in the third quarter that knocked him down to the floor. When he tried to get back up, he staggered into the arms of referee Joey Crawford before teammate Rasheed Wallace came over to help keep him up. Davis walked off the court under his own power but never returned.

Just minutes after Davis’ injury, Daniels slammed his head into the chest of Magic backup center Marcin Gortat and went down to the floor. The Celtics were forced to foul just to get Daniels off the court, and Rivers said later that the backup guard also blacked out for a moment. Then, with the game well in hand, Wallace tweaked his lower back on a layup and he also had to leave the game and went to the locker room to get treatment.

“I know [Baby] blacked out on the floor. I was just trying to get him back down on offense. And Marquis was the same thing. A lot of elbows,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, whose team lost 113-92 in Game 5 in Orlando. Boston’s lead is down to 3-2 in the series and Game 6 now becomes a critical game for the Celtics because they want to avoid playing a Game 7 in Orlando.

Rivers is not sure about “Big Baby” Davis’ availability for Game 6, and joked that Davis may not pass the battery of tests anyway because of his wacky personality. “I don’t know what kind of tests they’re gonna do with Baby because he’s a little delirious half the time anyway so I don’t know how he’s going to pass the test. I’m worried about that,” Rivers said while cracking smiling. “But I guess he’ll have to do something before they clear him.”

Game 5 took a physical toll on the Celtics and it appears that the Magic, particularly Howard, are now the ones dishing out the punishment. “The team that’s been the most physical has won the games,” Rivers said. “It was us for the first three and I think it’s been Orlando the last two.”

As for Howard’s physicality and his loose elbows, Rivers said while shrugging his shoulders, “I didn’t know it was legal. Listen, he’s a physical guy. We know that, and you know what he should be. That’s his gift. So he’s going what he’s should do and we just need to do a better job to take the hits, I guess.”

Howard disputed any dirty tactics on his part or his team, and explained that being physical is the best way to combat the Celtics.

“Our intent is not to hurt anybody out there,” Howard told reporters. “Basketball is a very physical sport. You’re playing against a very physical and tough team in the Boston Celtics so our biggest thing is not try to fight and wrestle with them. Like I tell [my teammates], it’s all mental. We don’t want to get into a pushing match with those guys. We just want to run and play our game.”

Howard added that he certainly did not intend to hurt Davis and he was just as concerned as everyone else.

“At first, when I got back, I was looking for him because that was my man. Then when I saw him down I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ I didn’t know what to do,” Howard recalled. “I wanted to help him, but he’s on the other team. So I just stayed back and just wait. I just hope he’s OK. He’s one of my friends. You don’t want to see anybody, specially your friend, go down like that.”

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Jameer Nelson reacts after making a 3-pointer in overtime in Game 4. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

It’s only one game, but the Orlando Magic may have turned the corner with the help of their little leader.

Down 0-3 in the 2010 Eastern Conference finals and their season on the line, the Magic finally showed some fight thanks to Jameer Nelson, their 5-foot-10 point guard with a big heart. Nelson took it upon himself to lift his team out of the three-game funk it was in with his scoring, passing, play-making and, more importantly, his leadership.

He scored 23 points, set up Dwight Howard for many of his 13 field goals from close range and finished the game with nine assists, two more than his assist total for the previous three games. He also thoroughly outplayed his counterpart Rajon Rondo, who had been torturing him for much of the series.

“He’s a tough competitive guy, I thought he played with great aggressiveness and fought very, very hard,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said of Nelson, who made seven of 14 shots for the game, including two huge 3-pointers in overtime, to lead Orlando to a hard-fought 96-92 victory in overtime in Game 4.

The Orlando Magic avoided elimination after winning Game 4 in Boston. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Howard easily played his best game of the playoffs with 32 points (13-for-19 from the field), 16 rebounds and four blocked shots, and J.J. Redick scored 12 points off the bench, all of them coming in the second half that helped maintain Orlando’s lead. But it was Nelson who made the big plays when it matter most.

“He created the vast majority of our offense tonight there’s no doubt about that,” Van Gundy said. “We put a lot on his shoulders and he responded extremely well. He was tremendous tonight.”

Though Orlando is still down 3-1 in the series, getting one win was a huge boost to their sagging confidence after Boston won the first three games. “At some point, somebody’s gonna come from three-nothing down to win a series. And the only thing I knew for sure was we’d start by winning Game 4,” said Van Gundy.

“A lot of times people say ‘I can’t think about winning the series, you gotta win one game.’ I’ve never really bought into that. I’ve never been down three nothing as a head coach. I’ve been [down] three-one. If you don’t believe you’re going to win the series, then it’s too easy to let go. Yeah, you have to play it one game at a time but you have to have a belief somewhere that you can win the series. Otherwise, there’s just not enough to sustain you and to keep you going in the game.”

Van Gundy shouldered much of the blame for the 23-point loss in Game 3, saying he should have done a better job of coaching. If that’s the case, then Van Gundy should get a lot of credit for shifting the focus of the offense from Howard to Nelson, putting him in double pick-and-rolls on the strong side, which allowed Howard to slip to the post instead of having to fight for position every time. Also give Van Gundy credit for not sticking with Vince Carter, who was just 1-for-9 and held to three points. Instead, Van Gundy opted with Redick’s offense and Matt Barnes’ defense down the stretch.

“I don’t think we played desperate, I do think we played hard and we fought,” Van Gundy said. “I thought in the first half we played well. In the second half and overtime, [we had] 15 turnovers so we didn’t play well but we did keep fighting and fighting and fighting, and that’s what it took to get an overtime win.

“It’s the first time, I think in the series, we actually made it tough on them.”

With Nelson initiating the attack, the Magic played faster and got into their sets quicker, making it tougher for the Celtics to set up their great halfcourt defense.

“Jameer was driving the ball hard. I thought he was really aggressive. At times, he got down too deep and he did turn it over a lot. But he’s got a lot of guts,” Van Gundy said.

With both teams looking weary and tired from 48 minutes of physical basketball, Nelson put the Magic ahead for good at 89-86 when he banked in a 3-pointer from the wing. He then iced it with another 3-pointer with 1:59 left that put Orlando up 92-86.

The Magic fed off Nelson’s fighting spirit and now they believe can make this a series. Orlando returns home for Game 5 and should the Magic win the pressure shifts to the Celtics in Game 6.

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Rajon Rondo beats Jason Williams to a loose ball in the second quarter that set the tone for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Kevin Garnett called it “the play” of the 2010 playoffs. Doc Rivers described it as an “unbelievable play.”

It occurred with under nine minutes left in the second quarter and the Boston Celtics leading the Orlando Magic 34-17. After a ball was deflected into the Orlando backcourt, Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo tracked it down by outrunning Magic point guard Jason Williams. But it wasn’t your average run-down. Rondo dove head first, reached between Williams’ legs to gain possession of the ball, got up and dribbled past Williams for a layup. It was one of those signature moments in the playoffs, and it pretty much summarized how the series is going.

“If that didn’t give your whole team energy nothing will,” Rivers said of Rondo’s amazing play that brought the crowd to a frenzy at TD Banknorth Garden and may have killed the Magic’s spirit. Boston went on to win Game 3, 94-71, to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

“I just wanted it. I just wanted to make a play on the ball,” said Rondo, who has been locked in throughout these playoffs and pieced together another solid outing, scoring 11 points and delivering 12 assists. He was also responsible for Boston’s 12 steals.

Garnett called it pure grit, pure hustle that has defined Rondo’s young NBA career.

“I told him after the game, when we were in the back, that it was probably the play of the playoffs for me,” Garnett said. “Pure basketball, pure hustle, pure I-want-it-more-than-you type of play. And I thought it was a foul too, but that’s just me. I’ve said this about Shorty, man, he’s in a zone. He’s just showing the world what he’s made of. The future is scary for youngin.”

Video courtesy of NBA.com

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When a player is feeling good about his game, he tends to do a lot of talking. Paul Pierce must be feeling good about his game lately because he’s making a lot of noise.

After the Boston Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic, 95-92, in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, Pierce spoke with ESPN’s Doris Burke and confidently boasted that the Celtics will close out the series in Boston. “Our fans aren’t going to let us relax. Ya’ll aren’t gonna let us relax,” Pierce told Burke. Then, Pierce looked into the camera and said, “We’re gonna try to close this out in two games, ya’ll hear me. We’re comin’ home and close it out.”

Shortly after the ESPN postgame interview, Pierce allegedly posted a message on his Twitter account (paulpierce34) that read, “Anybody got a BROOM?” Pierce denied sending the tweet, claiming his Twitter account was hacked.

Sure. Likely story, Paul.

It’s the old my-dog-ate-my-homework excuse, or like punching your buddy on the arm while he’s not looking and when he turns around you point at someone else and pretend it wasn’t you.

Paul Pierce is confident his Celtics will take care of business at home. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Whether Pierce, the longest tenured Celtic player and the team’s captain, is being honest about Twitter-gate, the message was loud and clear: Paul Pierce has his swagger back.

Pierce seems to have regained his shooting stroke after it briefly left him in the conference semifinals. In two games against the Magic, Pierce is averaging 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists. In six games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Pierce was limited to 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Pierce said wrestling with LeBron James for six games sapped his energy in the previous series and his offense suffered because of it.

“I have the opportunity to be more aggressive in this series than I did in the last series since I had such a huge defensive responsibility. Not taking anything away from Vince [Carter], Vince is a great challenge and he’s known to have big games, but you’re talking about playing the best player in the league. It’s tough, physically and mentally,” Pierce said of guarding James, the NBA’s two-time MVP.

“In this series, I have a little more free reign to be more offensive.”

Though Pierce won’t say it publicly, but privately he’s gotta be loving his matchup with Carter, who is not known for his defense. Pierce has been allowed to get to his sweet spots without much of a fight. He has been to the free-throw line 21 times in two games in the conference finals, compared to only 19 free-throw attempts for the entire conference semifinals.

When Pierce is getting to the free-throw line, he’s being aggressive. And when he’s aggressive, the Celtics are nearly unbeatable because he puts a lot of pressure on the defense and takes pressure off Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo.

Pierce was simply telling the truth when he said the Celtics are going to close this thing out in Boston. Nothing wrong with feeling confident at this point, especially with the way the Celtics are playing defense and the way Pierce is wearing out Carter. Expect another hacker to send a tweet on Pierce’s behalf and post this message: “Beat L.A.”

Video courtesy of ESPN

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Kendrick Perkins got the initial assignment on Dwight Howard and established a physical tone. Then, when Perkins needed a break, Rasheed Wallace came in and applied an even tighter grip on Howard.

Perkins and Wallace, along with forward Glenn Davis, took turns in harassing Howard into a 3-for-10 night shooting from the field and held the Magic All-NBA center to 13 points in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Defense was the key to Boston’s 92-88 victory and for Orlando to unlock the Celtics’ game plan, Howard needs to stop acting like Blankman and start playing like Superman

“Rasheed was phenomenal defensively tonight, and he’s been good in the playoffs for us and that’s what we wanted from him when we signed him,” Rivers said of Wallace, who also scored 13 points off the bench.

Orlando's Dwight Howard struggled against Boston's defense in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Wallace knows Howard very well, and he seems to get in Howard’s head whenever they go head to head, going to back to Wallace’s days in Detroit when the Pistons knocked out Howard and the Magic twice in the postseason.

“He’s a knowledgeable big who has a lot of game,” Rivers said of Wallace, who was acquired during the offseason to bolster Boston’s frontcourt. “I thought, defensively, he did some old tricks that were just terrific.”

On one play in the first half, Wallace forced Howard into a traveling violation after pulling the chair on him. Howard became visibly upset when Wallace pinned his arm as both men locked up on the wing trying to gain post position.

“They’re going to make it tough for him. They’re going to foul him and get physical with him,” Vince Carter said of the Celtics’ defensive approach in stopping Howard. “I mean, he’s a physical presence himself but that’s what they are going to do. We have to do a better job, first of all when he’s open, getting him the ball. And we have to make plays to make it easier for him. Once we’re making shots and making plays, then we let them kinda worry about what we’re doing and I think it opens things up for him. Some nights when he gets rolling, it opens things up for us. So we have to return the favor.”

Carter’s advice to his teammate?

“Just keep playing. It’s going to be a battle, it’s going to be a war. We know that,” Carter said. “They’ve been there before, we’ve been through some battles throughout this season and we still feel good about ourselves. We’re going to continue to support him and stay on him to make sure he’s not frustrated, and just play basketball and have fun.

“He puts pressure on himself because he wants to win. He wants to be perfect or as perfect as possible and do what he has to do to lead this team. But at the same time we always tell him he’s not out there by himself. We’re going to support him. And I think when he realizes that, he settles down.”

Carter is confident the Magic will bounce back. He said it starts with better execution on offense, avoid turnovers and match Boston’s intensity on both ends of the court.

“I don’t think we were prepared for the level that they were ready to play. They were ready to go from the jump and we weren’t on their level in the beginning more than anything,” Carter said of the Celtics, who took a 22-14 lead in the first quarter and led by 16 after the third quarter.

“They’re relentless, they’re aggressive. They work on a string and play well together. So, we’ll just have to be smart, continue to move the ball to the open man to get good shots. They do a great job of contesting when they took away the paint. Took us a while to figure it out, but when we did we played a lot better. When you have a team like that that plays smothering defense and very physical at the same time, you just have to be patient. They tend to rush you, and that’s how they play.”

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During halftime of Game 1 of the 2010 Eastern Conference finals on Sunday, ABC aired a segment in which Dwight Howard as Clark Kent interviews Dwight Howard as Superman.

Instead of asking his alter ego if he’s faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap tall buildings on a single bound, Orlando’s easy going All-Star center should have asked himself this question: “Do you have a go-to move in the low post?”

Howard is without question the best center in the NBA today and has been able to dominate by bullying his way for layups and dunks against inferior opponents, such as the Atlanta Hawks. But against better competition, such as the Boston Celtics, his immaturity and lack of fundamentals rear their ugly head.

Here’s a memo to Dwight Howard: You can’t call yourself Superman when you can’t make a jump hook from 2 feet.

The Celtics, mainly Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace and Glenn Davis, exposed Howard’s ineptness by pushing him out of the block and frustrating him with some hard fouls. Boston opted to play Howard straight up for much of the game and stayed attached to Orlando’s 3-point shooters, banking on the fact that Howard won’t be able take advantage of the Celtics’ single coverage.

It worked.

Boston limited Howard to 13 points, but more importantly held the Magic without a 3-point basket in the first half and 5-for-22 the whole game. The Celtics’ stifling defense enabled them to take 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, hand the Magic their first loss of the playoffs and left Superman grounded and frustrated.

Dwight Howard gets called for an offensive foul after an inadvertent elbow to the face of Glenn Davis. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“For me, I just have to get into a good rhythm. When I’m out of rhythm, I play like robot. I just need to get into a rhythm and not get into a wrestling match with those guys and that’s playing into their advantage,” said Howard, who made just three of 10 shots from the field and had seven turnovers in a 92-88 loss to the Celtics. He shot 84% from the field and averaged 21 points in Orlando’s four-game demolition of the Hawks in the conference semifinals.

“It was just like that in the first series against Charlotte. They had a lot of guys, a lot of bodies trying to frustrate me and get into my head and play their game. So I just have to do my best, stay focused and not get frustrated,” said Howard, who had 12 rebounds, five blocks and made seven of 12 free throws.

Though Rivers was pleased with the defensive effort, he thinks his team can do better.

“We are leaving them on an island, so that’s very difficult. When you have enough bigs that can just stay in there and take the pounding, it’s a good thing. But all of them were great,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of Perkins, Wallace and Davis, who turned the self-proclaimed Man of Steel into an ordinary citizen.

“You know, and I’ve said this earlier, I think Dwight is mislabeled. He doesn’t have to score to create offense,” Rivers said. “I think everyone keeps looking at Dwight’s numbers and they say he has four or six points that he didn’t have an offensive impact. But the reason why he has an offensive impact is he draws so much help, you have to double team him, he gets offensive rebounds and he throws them back out for threes.”

Rivers added: “So, we did a good job as far as his scoring numbers, but I thought we could do a better job quite honestly in helping on Dwight and getting back. I think they did get some looks that we have to do a better job. You think about the J.J. Redick drives. Those are all Dwight Howard generate because no one wants to leave Dwight and it’s allowing their guards to get to the basket.”

A very diplomatic statement by Rivers but, the fact of the matter is, the Celtics know they can defend Howard one-on-one and it’s a puzzle Magic coach Stan Van Gundy needs to solve.

“They pretty much guarded everybody one-on-one and we weren’t able to score one-on-one,” Van Gundy explained. “The biggest problem on the offensive end was clearly the turnovers. We said it going in, It’s what did in Cleveland in the last series. They’re very physical, very tough defensively. We’re not giving ourselves a chance to win with 18 turnovers.”

Van Gundy noted that he needs to figure out a better way to attack the Celtics defense, but it starts with his franchise center to be more efficient when he gets his opportunities in the paint.

“We’ve gotta be able to handle the ball better against them. We’ve gotta get better ball movement. And we either gotta be able to convert better in the paint or we’ve got to draw help and make passes. It’s one or the other,” Van Gundy said. “I thought we got the ball into the paint, both on drives and some paint catches for Dwight, but we were not very efficient.”

After struggling with fouls in the early rounds, Howard vowed that he wouldn’t let anything or anyone throw him off his game. One game into the conference finals, Howard is already way off track.

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Dwight Howard, also known as Superman II, soared over Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals and landed in the NBA Finals. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Dwight Howard is Superman II. LeBron James is Iron Man. The two collided in the Eastern Conference finals and the end result was a ground-shaking victory for the superhero from Orlando.

Howard, the self-proclaimed Man of Steel, put on his red cape Saturday night, loaded his teammates on his back and lifted the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals for the second time in the history of the franchise after defeating Cleveland, 103-90, in Game 6 to win the seven-game series at 4-2. The other time Orlando played in the NBA’s biggest stage was in 1995 when Superman I – aka Shaquille O’Neal – was flying high, protecting and serving the people of the Magic City.

You could say O’Neal was Christopher Reeve and Howard is Brandon Routh.

Now that O’Neal is basically retired in Smallville, Ariz., Howard is the new defender of truth, justice and conspiracy theorists. Howard crashed the much anticipated party of Kobe and LeBron, soaring over Cleveland and landing in Los Angeles where Orlando will play Game 1 of the NBA Finals against Bryant’s Lakers.

It’s not the dream matchup Vitamin Water, ESPN/ABC and Nike were hoping for but that’s where we are at. Nike execs are not exactly crying over their Armani suits because they still have the Lakers in the Finals, the NBA’s crown jewel that moves the ratings meter and the franchise with 30 appearances in the Finals.

Maybe the guys in Madison Avenue should flip the script and include Howard in those Most Valuable Puppets commercials. A Dwight Howard vs. Kobe Bryant showdown may not be as sexy, but it has great potential. It’s Superman II vs. The Black Mamba. Or, is it Superman II vs. Darth Vader?

Let the Twittering begin!

Bryant, the most dangerous player in the league, calls himself The Black Mamba because of his ability to strike rapidly with uncanny accuracy from anywhere on the court. But Kobe loves being the villain. He is at his best when he can sense weakness in his opponent and takes great pleasure in ripping someone’s heart. A huge “Star Wars” fan, Kobe is the perfect Darth Vader – the anti-hero who is cold, calculated and menacing on the outside, but emotionally scarred on the inside.

Kobe won’t easily intimidate Howard and the Magic because Orlando is confident it can stand toe to toe with L.A., having dropped the Lakers twice during the regular season. Orlando is one of the few teams in the league that can match up with the Lakers’ length in the frontcourt and can throw a couple of capable defenders at Bryant in Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus.

Conversely, the Lakers have the bigs to lean on Howard and keep him occupied. The game within the game will come down to this: Will the Lakers send a second defender at Howard? Back in 1995, Orlando surrounded Shaq with 3-point snipers, aka the Super Friends, that included Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson and Dennis “3-D” Scott to prevent teams from crowding O’Neal. This time, the HD version of the Super Friends are named Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Rafer Alston and Pietrus who complement’s Howard’s devastating inside game.

The Super Friends were critical to Orlando’s improbable run to the Finals, but make no mistake about it Orlando’s world revolves around the man with the massive shoulders and wears No. 12. Howard posted superb numbers against Cleveland despite fouling out in three of the six games.

“I believe in my team, first of all, I believe that if we come out every night and play our brand of basketball we can beat anybody,” Howard said. “If we run, defend and rebound we can win a lot of games. Since I’ve been here, everybody has written us off. But we continue to work everyday, we put in the work in the gym to become a better team. We’re not at our best yet, but I’m happy with our progress.

“I think we started to bring back some Magic in Orlando. That’s one of the goals a I set out to do when I first got here. I felt like we were a laughing stock around the league. When everybody played the Magic they thought about Disney World. So, I just wanted to change that.”

In the series-clinching win, Howard changed the flow of the game by establishing his dominance early, scoring 21 points in the first half on 8-of-12 shooting and powered the Magic to a commanding 18-point lead at halftime.

“I don’t know what else he could have done. He was fantastic. He was unbelievable today,” said Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy of Howard. Van Gundy also took a swipe at the perception that Howard is “too nice” or “too goofy” for his own good and does not have the killer instinct to knock out an opponent.

“He was smiling, by the way, and yet was able to play well. Imagine that,” Van Gundy said with sarcasm.

“I thought (Howard) did a lot of great things today. I thought that he protected the basket and didn’t worry about what was going to happen on calls,” Van Gundy added. “And I thought the other thing he did really, really well was run. I thought that wore on them. I thought he was making good plays, scoring when they didn’t double and pass out when they did double. What the post-up game allowed us to do was just settle in, get back and defend them on the break and we can work the clock a little bit.”

Before tip-off, Howard sent one powerful text message to his teammates that really resonated with all of them: “Dominate.”

When Superman has something to say, everyone listens.

“I just told them that when they wake up today, think about dominating. Come to the shoot-around and think about dominating. When they get to the gym, to the game, think about dominating,” Howard said. He made good on his own mission statement with a career-playoff high 40 points and was his usual beastly self in the paint with 14 rebounds.

“He pretty much carried us on his back. He came out and he was dominant,” Lewis said of Orlando’s 23-year-old All-Star center, who made 14 of 21 field goals, converted 12 of 16 free throws and, according to Cavaliers coach Mike Brown, made the correct play eight out of 10 times when the Cavaliers decided to double team him.

“Dwight was a monster. He was a monster early on. They got a big lead because of it. With the way Dwight was playing, it kinda set the tone for the rest of the game,” Brown admitted.

As dominating as Howard was, James was equally impressive and more than did his part to keep the Cavaliers in the series, winning two games by himself. He won Game 2 with a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer that had all of Cleveland rocking. In Game 5, he scored  17 points in the fourth quarter and had a hand in 32 of the Cavs’ final 34 points to send the series back to Orlando.

But Cleveland’s Iron Man finally showed his human side in Game 6. The MVP of the regular season, who entered the sixth game of the series with a robust 41-point average, could not muster another superhuman performance. Hard to blame him considering he had to carry 11 other guys on his bionic shoulders.

James clearly emptied his tank during the series. Prior to Game 6, James’ numbers were astounding: 41 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, making 50% of his field goals while playing 44 minutes. But on the night the Cavaliers saw their season come to a bitter end, James was just 8-of-20 from the field, 2-of-8 from 3-point range and limited to 25 points.

While Superman got stronger as the series got longer, Iron Man simply just ran out of energy.

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