At last, the NBA playoffs get interesting

We now have a pair of NBA playoff series worth watching. Both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic, as well as the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, are tied 1-1 in their re-spective best-of-seven series.

Friday night, LeBron James sank a miracle three-point shot with :01 remaining in the game to give the Cavaliers a 96-95 victory to tie their series with the Magic.

Thursday night, Carmelo Anthony followed up his 39-point performance in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals with a 34-point performance to help lead the Nuggets to a 106-103 win over the Lakers to tie their series.

The Lakers, however, were the victims of a non-call by the officials with just over 13 seconds remaining. On a jump ball, with the ball in the air and not touched by either player, J.R. Smith ran through the circle for the Nuggets to get better position.

That is a violation due to the fact no player can move until the ball is tapped by one of the players involved in the jump.

The Lakers should have had an inbounds play, but it wasn't called and the Lakers ended up fouling to put the Nuggets on the line. Both foul shots were hit and the Lakers could never make up the difference.

Los Angeles should never have found itself in that position, however. With a 13-point lead right out of the gate, the Lakers allowed Denver back into the game and once again showed it does not have the killer instinct the Lakers of the 1970s and 80s had.

Kobe Bryant just can't do it alone -- although he tries.

In the 70s, Jerry West had Wilt Chamberlain, Gail Goodrich and Happy Hairston. In the 80s, Magic Johnson had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green.

Pau Gasol has worked hard during the playoffs for the Lakers this season, as have Trevor Ariza and Andrew Bynum. Lamar Odom has been hit or miss, while Derek Fisher couldn't throw it in the ocean as of late.

Kobe has what Kobe wanted: a team without Shaq and a team with no other superstar on it. He wants the Lakers to be 'his' team and that is exactly what it is -- Kobe's team.

However, if things go in Denver like they have throughout the playoffs, the Lakers could leave the Pepsi Center after Game 4 down 3-1 and playing for their playoff lives in Game 5 back at the Staples Center.

As for LeBron and the Cavs, they have cruised the playoffs so far. But once the Magic came to town, Cleveland and James have faced their toughest challenge of the postseason.

Orlando could very well steal this series.

With a pair of back-to-back victories at home in Games 3 and 4, Orlando, like Denver, could go back on the road with an improbable 3-1 lead.

The Cavaliers had a 20-plus-point lead in Game 1 and not only lost the lead, but lost the game as well.

In Game 2, Cleveland owned a 23-point lead in the first half only to watch it dwindle to 12 by half-time and to single digits early in the fourth quarter.

If not for James' miracle three, the Magic would be up 2-0 and headed home.

It's not time to count the Lakers or the Cavaliers out. But both teams are on the brink of disaster and the NBA's dream of a Lebron-Kobe final, at the moment, is in big trouble.

The Lakers and Nuggets played Game 3 Saturday night in Denver, so someone has a 2-1 lead. Tonight, on TNT, the Magic play host to the Cavaliers at 8:30 p.m.

Jeff Christian is a freelance columnist and he appears in The News & Messenger each Sunday. He can be reached at christianjeff@rocketmail.com.