It’s Magic, not kingdom, in the Finals

ORLANDO, FLA —  When the last horn finally sounded Saturday night, the Orlando Magic and its fans partied like it was 1995. The sellout crowd inside Amway Arena roared. White, blue and silver confetti fell from the ceiling.

The Magic had closed out the Eastern Conference finals in six games and ended Madison Avenue’s dreams of a Kobe Bryant-LeBron James championship matchup.

Kobe versus Dwight will have to do.

With Dwight Howard leading the way with 40 points and 14 rebounds, the Magic defeated the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-90, to earn their first trip to the NBA Finals in 14 years.

“We worked so hard this year, and it feels so good,” Howard told the crowd after his team received the conference championship trophy. “We’re finally reaping the benefits of working hard, but we’re not done yet. We’re not done yet!”

James, who entered Saturday averaging 41.2 points a game in the series, scored 25 points, making only eight of 20 shots. He left the arena without giving a formal postgame news conference.

The Magic had a 30-25 lead after a quarterthen broke open the game over the next 12 minutes, outscoring the Cavaliers, 28-15. Rashard Lewis scored nine of his 18 points in the quarter, and Howard had eight of his own to spark the Magic to a 58-40 halftime lead.

The fans who had jammed Amway Arena -- including Tiger Woods and Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow -- gave the Magic a standing ovation in the final moments of the first half.

“We dug a hole a little too deep early on, which took us out of our comfort zone on both ends of the floor,” Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said.

Now, Orlando will set its sights on Bryant and the Western Conference champion Lakers.

“Our reward is . . . you get to go from preparing for LeBron to preparing for Kobe,” Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy said.

Game 1 of the Finals will be Thursday at Staples Center.

“We’re happy about getting to the Finals, but we’re not tremendously happy yet,” Lewis said. “We liked winning that silver basketball [as conference champions], but I think the gold basketball will be a little bit better than that silver one.”

It will be a painful off-season for Cleveland, which won a franchise-record 66 regular-season games and swept its first two playoff series. The Cavaliers then encountered a resilient Magic team that presented matchup problems.

“We had a heck of a season, but we had one goal in mind and we came up short,” Brown said.

Fans started cheering “Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!” with 1:49 remaining in the game.

The party was on in Orlando.

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