There's been plenty of frustration for Lewis and the Magic in their first round series.

Despite a monster game from Dwight Howard, the Magic went down to the Sixers in the pivotal Game 3 of this first round series, 96-94.

The Magic were generally expected to cruise through this series in route to an anticipated showdown against the Boston Celtics (who are experiencing difficulties of their own) – yielding a battle of the No.2 and No.3 seeds in the Eastern Conference.  The Sixers, however, are making people rethink their foregone conclusions of who the Eastern Conference semi-finalists will be.

The Sixers, have been a team of mixed levels of success throughout the season.  Expected to build on last year’s playoff appearance – and the much ballyhooed addition of Elton Brand - there was the expectation of measurable improvement for the 2008-09 season.  Given the Sixers’ track record of misfortune, it was no surprise to see their hopes go up in smoke with Brand getting injured.

The Orlando Magic are sorely missing the productivity that they have become accustomed to from their tandem of versatile starting forwards – Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.  These guys averaged 35 points per game, and are only getting 26 so far this series thanks to the young, athletic front line that the Sixers possess (Iguodala, Thaddeus Young).

The Magic must quickly figure out two things:

1. How to make someone else other than the Andres beat them, and
2. How to get productivity from their All-Star caliber forwards

If they don’t figure these out soon enough, they’ll be trying to figure out if Jameer Nelson’s season-ending injury was more costly than they realized – while they are watching the Sixers on TV in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.