Whereas LeBron James sounded a precious few loud notes, the Magic had their own one-man-band operating at full blast.

All told, an admirable outing by a very resourceful ball club.

The biggest surprise of the game was how meekly so many of the Cavs played in this do-or-die game.

Zydrunas Ilguaskas hit a single jumper and was otherwise invisible on offense.

Mo Williams did nothing in the first half when the game was lost, then padded his stats as the Cavs made an abbreviated rally to start the third quarter — and then faded once more at the end.

Wally Szczerbiak connected on one triple, and among his four misses were a pair of airballs.

Daniel Gibson can be excused for shooting 1-for-3 because Mike Brown rarely played him long enough to establish any kind of rhythm in the series.

Varejao was actually quite active without the ball and scored many of his 14 points on sheer hustle.

As ever, Delonte West scored on drives, sets and fades in a courageous attempt to keep the Cavs from being completely humiliated.

And what about LeBron, the self-styled "King"?

When he was needed the most, James was scoreless in the second quarter and tallied only four points in the last quarter — with three of these coming in the last minute of play. Indeed, he actually seemed reluctant to shoot in the concluding 12 minutes.

Perhaps he was exhausted as a result of all the minutes he had accrued in the series. Also, the physical contact he absorbed (and dished out) on virtually all of his drives had to wear him down.

On the other hand, James barely broke a sweat against both the Pistons and the Hawks and had nine days of R & R before facing the Magic.

Specifically, the Magic tried various defensive tactics against James: