Game 4 Will Make Or Break Cavs Season

CLEVELAND - The players and the coaches probably won't say it, but I will. The Cleveland Cavaliers must win tonight's Game 4 in Orlando...or else.

Or else what?

Put it this way; if the Orlando Magic win again on their own home court tonight and go up, 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals, they will absolutely win this surprising series. No way do they win tonight and then drop the next three consecutive games it would take for Cleveland to pull it out. The odds are against that happening no matter how you slice it, but even more so when the greatness of Dwight Howard and the sharpshooting of Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu are taken into consideration.

If the Cavs win tonight, the series will be tied 2-2 heading back home to Cleveland and their vaunted Quicken Loans Arena. Granted, Orlando won Game 1 in the seemingly impossible-to-win-in building (and came within one second of winning Game 2), but the way this series has played out, the Cavs won't allow another game on their turf to get away from them (I think). Assuming the Cavs have that mindset (and with LeBron James instilling confidence in his suddenly lackluster teammates), then Game 5 in Cleveland will be theirs as well as a 3-2 series lead.

That's a whole lot of what if's.

The Cavs will be one win from advancing with two cracks at clinching. Game 6 would be in Orlando where the Magic will surely come out on fire. A couple things that the Cavs have in their favor is knowing how easy it is to get Howard in foul trouble. He spent nearly half of Game 3 on the bench because of just that and even though he hit a ton of free throws in the fourth quarter, that belied his career-long awfulness at the stripe. In other words, that accuracy is unlikely to happen again in this series.

Even if the Cavs lose Game 6 in Orlando, their 66-16 regular season record earned them the right to have Game 7 on their home court in Cleveland, in any series they play in -- if they can make it to a Game 7. In spite of it all, they would have a major advantage in that potential game and be favored to win and advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.

Of course, none of this will happen if they lose tonight.