King James lifts Cavs over Magic with dramatic buzzer beater

LeBron James nailed a three-point dagger at the buzzer as the Cleveland Cavaliers stunned the Orlando Magic 96-95 to level their National Basketball Association semi-finals series at 1-1.

"That's a great shot man," James said. "We couldn't afford to go down 0-2 to Orlando. That's a great shot."

It was the only three pointer of the night for James who made the most of it and finishing with 35 points.

There was just one second remaining on the clock when James nailed his 25-foot shot as the horn sounded and he sprinted into the arms of his teammates.

James was confident he got the fadeaway three pointer over Hedo Turkoglu off in time. But he couldn't resist watching it a second time on the courtside video replay.

"I knew it was good," said James. "The camera never lies. I had to go check it out."

In front of a sold-out crowd of 20,562, James took an inbound pass from teammate Mo Williams before turning and shooting in the same motion.

"He stepped back made a big shot. You can't do nothing about it," said Turkoglu. "That one really hurts. We had the game in the last second and you turn around he makes a crazy shot."

The Magic appeared to be heading to sure victory as Turkoglu hit a jumper with one second left to give them a 95-93 lead.

"Hedo hit a big shot and I had to match it," James said.

Game 3 is tomorrow in Orlando.

Rashard Lewis scored 23 points and Turkoglu finished with 21 for Orlando. Dwight Howard had 10 points and 18 rebounds.

Williams had 19 points and Zydrunas Ilguaskas had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

"We have got to fight through it," James said. "Everybody at this position in the playoffs is tired."

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy took the blame for the loss saying he should have guarded James better.

"That one obviously hurts quite a bit," he said. "I'd like to have that last one back from a coaching standpoint.

"I should have defended it differently. It's crushing enough to lose as a coach, but when you feel like you're the guy who could've made the difference, it hurts a lot more.

"I just want to win and we should have won."

The Cavaliers let Orlando overcome a huge deficit for the second straight game. Orlando was down by 23 points in the second quarter but rallied to cut the gap to within 12 at the half yesterday.