LeBron James got the shot off, but should he have even gotten that good of a look?

When looking at LeBron James’ game-winning 3-point shot at the buzzer, there are three things we must consider on the play that began with one second left.

1. Rashard Lewis is 6-foot-10. Mo Williams is 6-foot-1. Williams was inbounding the ball from the left sideline in Cleveland’s end of the floor. Why didn’t Lewis make it difficult for Williams to throw the ball inbound. On top of that, it seemed like Mickael Pietrus ran up towards Williams and Lewis backed off.

2. Hedo Turkoglu was guarding James. Now James made a move to the basket first for a potential lob, but then backed out to the 3-point line. Don’t understand why Hedo didn’t stick with James. The only thing that can beat you is a 3-pointer. Force them to throw the lob pass.

3. If you’re Orlando, you make someone else other than LeBron take the shot, at all costs. Got to give Stan Van Gundy credit. He took the blame for how the Magic defended . For all his whining and moaning during the game, he takes the blame every time it’s warranted and sometimes even when it’s not warranted.

Paul Pierce and the Boston Celtics bowed out Sunday to the Orlando Magic by losing Game 7.

The Orlando Magic finally made the defending NBA champions disappear.

The Magic took care of the Boston Celtics, 101-82, to win Game 7 and advance to the Eastern Conference finals to take on NBA MVP LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Took a game longer than I thought they would to beat the Celtics, but the Magic put way the Celtics, who were without injured leader and defensive force, Kevin Garnett.

Still have to give Orlando credit. The Magic made the Celtics play their style Sunday night.

The Magic have some mismatches in their favor against the Cavaliers. Dwight Howard could have a field day and between Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, the one James doesn’t guard will get an opportunity to do work against Anderson Varejao.

Joe Johnson will lead Atlanta into Cleveland for Game 1 against the Cavaliers.

3-for-4.

That’s how I fared in predicting the first round of this year’s Eastern Conference playoffs.

Not bad.

My downfall? Miami. Thought the Heat had enough to put away Atlanta, but the Hawks proved home-court advantage does matter because they did their thing in Game 7 at home against Miami today.

Not going to really brag about the picking the other three first-round series accurately. The Cleveland Cavaliers were supposed to douse the Detroit Pistons with relative ease and did just that in sweeping their Central Division rivals.

The Orlando Magic did what they were supposed to do against the Philadelphia 76ers while the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls gave us a first-round series of the ages. The Celtics finally put away the Bulls in Game 7 on Saturday night.

So let’s look at the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Unlike the Western Conference playoffs, I don’t see how the top two seeds in the East will meet in the conference finals.

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Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics finally put away the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.

They survived.

Without Kevin Garnett, the Boston Celtics took care of the Chicago Bulls, 109-99, in Game 7 to win this best-of-7 series and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals where they will play against the Orlando Magic.

Boston is the higher seed of the two so it will have home-court advantage in the series.

In reflection, the Bulls represented themselves very well in the playoffs this year. Had a chance to win this game Saturday, but shot selection really cost them. In previous games, they were able to make up for the bad shots by hitting some clutch ones, but the Bulls couldn’t connect when it really counted.

Now back to the Celtics.

They will have their hands full with the Magic. First off, Garnett will be sorely missed.

Second, Orlando has the big fella, Dwight Howard, in the middle, tall, long-range shooters in Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu and its bench really showed up in its game-clinching Game 6 win against the Philadelphia 76ers.