ORLANDO, Fla. - - When the last horn finally sounded Saturday night, the Orlando Magic and their 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. "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 per game in the series, scored 25 points on a night he hit just eight of 20 shots from the field.
The Magic led 30-25 at the start of the second quarter, then broke open the game over the next 12 minutes, outscoring the Cavs 28-15. Rashard Lewis scored nine of his 18 points in the quarter, and Howard added eight of his own to spark the Magic to a 58-40 halftime lead.
The Orlando fans who had jammed Amway Arena - a group that included Tiger Woods and Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow - gave the Magic a standing ovation as the team brought the ball up the court for the final time in the half.
"We dug a hole too deep early on which took us out of our comfort zone," Cavs coach Mike Brown said.
This postseason, the Magic has defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, dethroned the defending champion Boston Celtics and upset James' Cavs. Now, Orlando will set its sights on Bryant and the Western Conference champion Lakers.
"Our reward is, especially mine and my coaching staff's, is you get to go from preparing for LeBron to preparing for Kobe," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. "That'll be a lot of fun, but I'm not doing that tonight."
It will be a painful offseason for Cleveland, a city that has gone without a major title since 1964. The Cavaliers won a franchise-record 66 regular-season games and swept its first- and second-round playoff series. The Cavs 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. "We came up short because we didn't execute early on on both ends of the floor."
Howard scored 19 of his 40 points in the second half.
"I don't know what else he could've done today," Van Gundy said. "He was fantastic."
Ultimately, the Cavs couldn't cut the Magic lead to less than 10 points during the third quarter, and the fourth quarter started with Orlando ahead 86-70.
By then it was too late, even for James.
Fans started cheering "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!" with 1:49 remaining in the game.
The party was on in Orlando.
MAGIC @LAKERS
NBA Finals,
Game 1
Thursday,
9 p.m.
TV: Chs. 2, 7
