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ORLANDO -- After 10 consecutive seasons of averaging at least 20 points a game, Vince Carter is likely to see his scoring drop significantly this season.

And he'll be happy about it.

It didn't take Carter long during the preseason to realize that playing with a dominant center like Dwight Howard -- a luxury he never has had before -- will change the way he plays the game.

"This is going to be great situation for me. It's one I've never been in before,'' he said before Friday night's lopsided 123-86 exhibition victory over the Atlanta Hawks. "It's a luxury that will be pretty easy to get used to.''

The NBA suspended J.R. Smith for seven games, and Jason Richardson for two games, after both players recently pleaded guilty to separate driving offenses.

The timing of the suspensions seems rather random -- Smith's reckless driving incident (from 2007) was resolved by the courts this past July, while Richardson served one day in jail for his DUI conviction back in December. But you knew they were coming at some point, because, well, leagues tend to suspend players who get into trouble with the law.

I'm wondering, though, if the length of the suspensions doesn't seem almost as random as the timing of the announcements. When looking more closely at the details of the incidents, the punishments come across as being a bit disingenuous.

As Tim Povtak wrote earlier, Magic star Rashard Lewis has been suspended for 10 games by the NBA for testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone, a substance on the NBA's banned peformance enhancing drug list.

But what is dehydroepiandrosterone? Is it anything like the steroids baseball and football players have been disciplined for?

The Larry O'Brien itself is plenty of motivation for the participants in the 2009 Finals. But there will also be a few individual goals driving those involved.

Dwight Howard: Everyone marks Kobe as the NBA's preeminent love-him-or-hate-him player, but D-12 earns a fair amount of vitriol, whether for his lack of refinement in the post, his Shaq II free throw stroke, his alleged faux-choir boy persona or the sentiment that slam dunk stardom has rendered the D.P.O.Y. publicly overrated. Let's just say those Patrick Ewing comparisons (ahem) would disappear with a ring.

Hedo Turkoglu: Like kindred spirit Lamar Odom, Hedo will be a free agent signing his last long-term, high-dollar deal this summer. A marvelous turn which began in Game 7 against Boston could land Hedo near the top of the offseason ledger, above everyone but Carlos Boozer. Turk needs a good Finals series to keep that hope alive, though.

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If there's one great ignored fact about defense in the NBA, it's how important it is to limit 3-point attempts. We all focus so much on the interior or on fouls that we forget the most basic tenet of committed defense: challenging every shot. The great defensive teams, for the most part, challenge every shot. In some forms, this leads to a low opponent shooting percentage.

But for other great defenses who challenge everything -- San Antonio, Boston, Orlando -- challenging every shot means you dictate the types of shots opponents take. Over the last five NBA seasons, there has been a strong correlation between defensive efficiency and the percentage of two-point jump shots taken by the opponent. In other words, a key cause (and result) of great defense is the prevention of 3s and inside shots. It's not universal, but it's substantial. (Eye-poppingly so.)

The Lakers have a strong, strong defense -- No. 6 in the league this season. But it doesn't fit the "no 3s" mold. At all. In fact, the Lakers defense allows a lot of 3s. Against the Magic in the Finals, that could spell doom.

ORLANDO -- Forget what you're going to hear from your bookie or read in the next issue of Kobe Illustrated. The Magic can win the NBA title.

Just ask Dwight Howard.

"We can beat up," he said.

Speaking of beat up, also ask LeBron James.

As the NBA Universe tries to adjust to the fact that the team with the best record in the league with the best player in the league faces a 2-1 deficit that would be 3-0 were it not for The Shot Part 11,000, there are some interesting ideas being thrown around as to how the world will right itself, so to speak.

The common reaction is to look to the Cavaliers and ask, "What can they do to get back in this thing?" But instead of attempting to decipher ways to counter the Magic's matchup advantages, or rotation adjustments, or defensive gambles, instead you hear a lot of "Cleveland's shooters have to start making shots."

As if Orlando has had nothing to say about the Cavs' struggles. Just so you're aware, it's not the Fates that have ordained this slump for the No. 1 seed. It's the same principle that got the Cavs that lofty record. Defense.

Amid a midseason war of words, Shaquille O'Neal faulted his old coach Stan Van Gundy for his frenetic, loud sideline direction, infamously calling SVG a "master of panic." Magic players including Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat have alluded to the accusation late this year -- a seemingly worrisome development.

But if Van Gundy's style does create unnecessary anxiety for Orlando, it sure didn't show up in Game 1 Wednesday.

Cherry Picking recaps yesterday's NBA playoff action.

Were the Cavaliers rusty or simply overrated? Anyone who watched the Magic go into Cleveland and steal home court advantage by winning Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals is pondering that question today. The answer, as unsatisfying as it may be, is likely somewhere in the middle.

Coming into the game, most of the talk centered on whether the Magic would be fatigued after their grueling seven-game series with the Celtics that ended only after the Magic staved off elimination in back-to-back games. In hindsight, more attention should have been paid to the fact that the Cavs had played a grand total of four games in 24 days entering Wednesday evening, which didn't seem to affect them early but clearly messed with their conditioning late.

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CLEVELAND -- Suddenly, the LeBron puppet was speechless. So were the mortified fans inside a famously raucous arena in a sports-cursed, economy-blighted town, where THIS was not supposed to be happening. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was ticketed as another chapter in a coronation, a poof of resin in the air followed by another romp by the Cavaliers, a prelude to a LeBron James vs. Kobe Bryant matchup that already is being overhyped on vitaminwater commercials as "The Great Debate."

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