The Cleveland Cavaliers have been phenomenal this year, leading the league with 67 wins and only 15 losses in the regular season. The Cavs are being led by this year’s Most Valuable Player, Lebron James. He is surrounded with a slew of talented guards and veteran big men, who complement King James’ inside-outside game.

The Cavaliers have so far lived up to the expectations as the frontrunner for this year’s NBA title.  They have swept their first two playoff assignments with ease. They dismantled the battle-tested but depleted Detroit Pistons in the first round, while they picked apart the young Atlanta Hawks team in the second.

But that is not the case with their current adversary, the Orlando Magic.

Orlando is a team which creates matchup problems. It has center Dwight Howard, this year’s defensive player of the year, who also is a force to reckon with at the offensive end. It also has forwards Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu: big, tall and agile men who can knock down the three, post up and drive to the lane. In fact, Orlando has been the kryptonite to King James and the Cavs. In the 15 regular season losses by Cleveland, 2 came from Orlando. And in their current series, Cleveland has struggled orlando’s style of play, and is trailing Orlando’s 2 games against its lone win.

At this point, each game between the two teams is anybody’s ball game.  Each has its won strengths and weaknesses, which each has to capitalize on in order to grab the Eastern Conference title. Here are the factors that will swing the fourth game in each team’ favor:

FOR ORLANDO:

Keep Lebron away from the paint, and let him make his jumpers. Lebron is an exceptional athlete, and it seems that he can do it all. If he has one weakness in his game, it would be his jump shots. Lebron is  most effective when he drives to the basket. Whenever that happens, he either gets a layup or a dunk, fishes for a foul, or passes to an open teammate. So the Magic have to defend James in a way that he will choose to shot a jump shot rather than attack the basket.

The Magic have to balance their offense. Orlando is a great outside team, but it is also streaky. There are stretches in their game where the shooters couldn’t buy a bucket. But when they are on fire, the 3 point shots are automatic. So they have to create shots inside when their outside shots aren’t falling. They can do this by pushing the ball for fast breaks at every possible oppportunity, capitalizing on defensive rebounds and cleveland turnovers.

FOR CLEVELAND:

Solve the Dwight Howard conundrum. Howard is a beast on both ends of the floor, and he creates matchup problems on the offense. When he is double teamed, he passes out to his teammates for an open jumpshot. Defend him man-to-man, and he goes hard inside for easy baskets. His Achilles’ heel would be his freethrow shooting, and Cleveland capitalize by fouling him whenever he touches the ball down low. But this strategy backfired against the Cavs when Howard was fouled repeatedly, but converted 14 out of 19 freethrows. Despite this, a hack attack is still a sound strategy against Howard - let him earn his points on the free throw line.

Guards must contribute offensively, and on a regular basis. Starting guards Mo Williams and Delonte West are good offensive players, and they must contribute in the scoring load in order for Magic defenders to ease off on Lebron.

Cover the screens and pick-and-roll plays of Magic more effectively. The Cavs are being hurt by open shots created by these plays by the Magic. Cleveland has to be more active in defending these type of plays in order to minimize the chances of Orlando of getting open shot opportunities.