CLEVELAND — Better watch out.
Better not cry.
Better not pout.
I’m telling you why.

Because the best team in the NBA is back in this series and coming to town.
Cavaliers 96, Magic 95.
Why was LeBron open?
Why was LeBron not double-teamed?
Why, with one second left, was LeBron able to hit a fall-away, buzzer-beating, dagger-like 3-pointer to salvage the victory and, yes, save the season for the Cleveland Cavaliers?
“I should have defended it differently,” Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy admitted. “It’s crushing enough to lose as a coach, but when you feel like you’re the guy who should have made the difference, it hurts even more.”
Said LeBron: “Rashard Lewis hit a game-winning 3 in Game 1, and I hit a game-winning 3 in Game 2. I knew it was good.”
Was it ever.
Beware, Orlando.
Beware when you come back home for Game 3.
Better take care of business at the Am.
You didn’t really think this was going to be easy, did you?
You didn’t really think it was going to be a sweep, did you?
You didn’t really think LeBron was going to get LeBroomed right out of the playoffs?
“We understand what it takes because we went to Boston and got a win in Game 1, and we got a little satisfied with having one win,” Dwight Howard said before tipoff of Game 2. “You can’t be satisfied with just one win. You have to keep fighting to get that second win.”
Give the Magic credit. They did fight. Hard. They overcome a 23-point first-half deficit. They had the Cavs on the canvas standing over them after Hedo Turkoglu hit what appeared to be a game-winner with 1 second left. And then King James, who finished with 35 points, showed why he is the MVP.
But in the name of journalistic integrity, I refuse to overreact to this loss. Time and again throughout the playoffs, everybody — fans, media and even coaches and players themselves — have overreacted to losses. Not this time. This was one game, one defeat.
Orlando didn’t have to win this game; Cleveland did. If not, it would have been almost mathematically impossible for the Cavs to rally back. Dating back to 1947, there have 381 seven-game series played in the NBA and only three teams have lost their first two playoff games at home and ended up winning the series.
It seems only appropriate that as this series moves back to Orlando, Elton John will be playing at Quicken Loans Arena tonight. The way LeBron saved the Cavs on Friday night, it was as if he was acting out one of Sir Elton’s biggest hits, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me.
Defeat or no defeat, let us not forget the Magic are still in control of this series. They did what they had to do in Game 1. They snatched home-court advantage away by stealing a game at the Q. And they probably should have won Game 2 as well. The fact is, the Cavs know the Magic have their number.
Don’t be fooled by Cavs point guard Mo Williams, who boldly stated after his team’s Game 1 loss, “I don’t feel this team can beat us four times. I don’t see them beating us four times.”
This is what you call false bravado. This is like former FSU linebacker Geno Hayes saying beforehand that he is going to knock Tim Tebow out of the game and then afterward having Tebow’s cleat marks on his back. This is like the henpecked husband who boldly tells his buddies at the office that he “wears the pants” in his family. And then when he gets home, his wife is wearing dungarees and a flannel shirt and orders him to get dinner started and the floors mopped.
The Cavs know this is going to be a long series and now, too, so do the Magic. But Van Gundy and his team should know this: They better hold serve when they take it back home to the Am for the next two games. If they let the Cavs steal back home-court advantage — as they did with Boston — the outcome will likely be different.
The Cavs aren’t going to fade in the final two games of a series like the tired, beleaguered and injury-battered Celtics. The Cavs are the best team in the league and they have the best player in the league.
That’s why it’s imperative for the Magic to take care of business at home.
They gave LeBron a chance to beat them in Game 2.
They certainly don’t want to be back up here next week and give him that same chance in Game 7.