Magic Granted No Reprieve Trailing Bulls 2-0, Orlando Must Press On Without Grant

Orlando Magic center Shaquille O’Neal, when he is on his game, is the most physically imposing center in the league. Teammate Anfernee Hardaway, when he is on his game, is the NBA’s most versatile point guard.

The challenge for the Magic going into Saturday’s Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals is to devise a game plan where two of the top players in the game don’t disappear, which is what happened here on Tuesday in Orlando’s 93-88 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

That plan will have to carried out without Horace Grant, who is lost for the series with an injury to his left elbow suffered in Game 1.

Grant, who wore a sling while watching Game 2 from the bench, was examined by doctors in Orlando Wednesday and was found to have soft-tissue damage in the elbow. He could return for the finals if the Magic can get past the Bulls.

“He’s very anxious to play,” said Dr. James Barnett, Orlando’s team physician. “But it’s just a situation where he can’t go.”

Even without Grant, the Magic seemed on the verge of swiping the advantage away from the Bulls on Tuesday, building an 18-point lead in the third quarter.

But then came the disappearing act. O’Neal scored 36 points for the Magic, but had just 10 in the second half. Hardaway finished with 18 points, but attempted just four shots in a second half when he had no assists. That one-two punch being ineffective is why Orlando flew home down 2-0 in the series.

“In the fourth quarter, it just wasn’t running smooth for us at all,” Hardaway said. “It’s like we lost our confidence. We didn’t have anything left to finish the game.”

Give the Bulls defense credit for wearing out the Magic. Trailing by 15 at the half, Bulls coach Phil Jackson made two key adjustments that swung the game: double- and triple-teaming O’Neal in the post; and having Scottie Pippen drape himself over Hardaway.

The result was an Orlando offense in which O’Neal became swamped. He had a game-high six turnovers - only one less than the whole Bulls team - and when he was able to kick the ball out to the perimeter, the Orlando guards were unable to make their shots. The Magic scored 35 in the second half, when they committed 11 of their 18 turnovers.

“Once they did double, we didn’t have the good spacing that we normally do,” Orlando guard Dennis Scott said. “They would trap the first guy with the ball and if he was able to get out, they would trap the second. You have to give them credit.”

Chicago’s defensive effort shouldn’t be surprising. The team placed three players - Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and Pippen - on the NBA’s all-defensive first team.

“You can prepare for the press, but you cannot match with your second unit what the Bulls’ first unit is like,” Magic coach Brian Hill said. “In practice, you can’t put on the floor Scottie Pippen, Jordan, (Ron) Harper and Randy Brown to simulate that intense kind of pressure.”

Hill, in making his adjustments for Saturday, hopes that his players don’t demonstrate the tentativeness that led to the second-half collapse.

With Grant out, the Magic will play the rest of the series without their top rebounder. ‘