Before the start of the Cavs/Magic series I thought that Orlando had some nice mismatches and that on paper they could beat the Cavs, but that in the end it wouldn't matter and that the Cavs would win in five games or less.  After game 1, though, I find that perhaps I need to reevaluate my thoughts.  At the very least, let's go through some of the reasons why Orlando has a chance of keeping LeBron James from earning his crown.

1) Dwight Howard.  In a way, the Magic/Cavs match-up is like the bizarro Rockets/Lakers match-up of last round.  While Yao's size had the potential to offset the Lakers' entire frontline on offense, in this series Howard has the size and strength to make Cleveland's big men into liabilities.  This is a crucial point, because the Cavs' size up-front is an often overlooked part of their strength.  For years people have been saying that LeBron is carrying teams with no support far into playoffs, but even though LeBron is ridiculously good people have extremely underrated how much of the Cavs' success comes from their big front line.  Cleveland's playoff strategy the past three years has been very simple: slow down the game and let the huge frontline clog the paint on defense/beat-up-the-opponent/crash the boards, put shooters on the perimeter to hit the open jumper's that LeBron creates, and ride LeBron's scoring brilliance when games get close.  This is a very, very effective strategy in the playoffs where usually the games are physical and determined by controlling the paint.

Howard, though, is so big and physical that by himself he can patrol the paint against any combo of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, Anderson Varejao and Joe Smith.  And worse for the Cavs, because Howard can do it solo that allows the Magic to start two small forwards instead of a legitimate power forward while still maintaining good team defense and rebounding.  Thus, at one end of the court the size of the Cavs is neutralized, and at the other end of the court...

2) Cleveland's big men cannot guard either Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu.  Even though Lewis and Turkoglu are both 6-10, they are both naturally perimeter players that are most comfortable behind the 3-point line.  This is murdurous for the Cavs, because none of their big men are comfortable outside of the paint.  As we saw in game 1, once Lewis and Turkoglu got aggressive they were able to score on just about every possession in the fourth quarter on their way to scoring the last 17 points of the game for the Magic.  I question whether Lewis and Turkoglu can maintain that level of attack mode for three more full games, but if they do the Cavs will have to try to adjust by perhaps going small...

3) Cleveland's non-LeBron wings cannot guard either Lewis or Turkoglu.  If the Cavs go small with just one center and move LeBron to power forward, the other wing will have to be manned by one of Wally Szczerbiak, Sasha Pavlovic, or Delonte West.  Wally is the biggest of that crew at 6-7 and 250 pounds, but he is slow and a poor defender.  Pavlovic has good size at 6-8, but he has hardly played in this postseason and is a risky proposition to depend upon.  West is the best perimeter defender the Cavs have, but he is only 6-4 and is thus too short to bother the shot of either Lewis or Turkoglu.

4) The defense of Mickael Pietrus and Courtney Lee.  Pietrus is exactly the kind of player best suited to guarding LeBron: he is a very physical, very athletic 6-7 215 pounds.  He is slightly smaller than LeBron, but he is quick and strong enough to stay in front of him on the perimeter and LeBron hasn't developed his post game enough to take advantage of his weight advantage inside.  Don't get me wrong, LeBron is still going to be ridiculous, but Pietrus can make him work.  I think this played at least a part in LeBron's fatigue/cramps at the end of game 1.  Likewise, Lee is absolutely perfect at sticking on opposing shooters.  He completely removed Eddie House from the Celtics series, and he has the potential to do the same thing against West or Mo Williams at key times as well.

5) Head-to-head confidence: The Magic have now beaten the Cavs in three of the four games they've played this season.  They have blown the Cavs out twice in Orlando, won a playoff game in Cleveland, and even the Cavs' solitary win came in a close game at home.  The Magic really believe that they can beat the Cavs, and every time that they do it they get that much more confident that they can do it again.

As I mentioned in the intro, all of these reasons existed before the series began, and I still would have picked the Cavs in five.  The reason was that the Magic had not been impressive at all in the playoffs, and a mismatch only becomes a mismatch if a team has the will to exploit it.  I questioned whether the Magic were ready for the prime time, and to an extent I still wonder whether they can maintain their pace from the second half of game 1 over the rest of the series.  Finally, there is the LeBron factor.  As Shaquille O'Neal said the other day, LeBron is a video game cheat code right now, and it is hard to picture him losing against a team that can't match his star power.  If he were playing a healthy Celtics team then yes, I could see LeBron coming up short.  But against the Magic, I'm just forced to expect LeBron to find another gear and lead his team on to the Finals.  Nevertheless, you guys know that I'm about quantifiable logic just as much (if not more) than I am about legend.  And the Magic have several very logical reasons to believe that they can win this series, so let's stay tuned to see whether Superman is ready to knock off a King.