"Rafer Alston had waited long enough, as long as the emotions and confidence welling inside him would allow.

The time had come for Alston to step aside and for Skip to My Lou to take charge.

Alston flashed a 360-degree spin to swim past Derek Fisher. He slowed for a hesitation dribble to surge past Lamar Odom. He leaped and reached around Pau Gasol, then flipped his drive in off the glass as if instead of playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, he was back at the playground.

The Orlando Magic had arrived in the Finals, their offensive revival epitomized by the point guard who went from atrocious to on fire.

"After the first one, Dwight (Howard) ... was like, 'Do it again, do it again,' " Alston said. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy "wants me to stay more Rafer Alston, and no Skip to My Lou. Dwight and Rashard (Lewis) wanted me to be Skip. I tried it again, and it worked."

Pretty much everything worked for the Magic, going from the 29.9 percent shooting in Game 1, the second-worst ever in the Finals, to the 62.5 percent shooting Tuesday, the best ever in the NBA Finals.

Alston went from making 17.6 percent of his shots and averaging five points in the first two games of the series to going 8-for-12 and scoring 20 points in Tuesday's 108-104 victory.

"These guys kept firing me the ball, they kept texting me telling me to play my game, do the things I'm accustomed to doing," Alston said. "It's somewhat embarrassing that they're just going to keep leaving you open, basically a signal that, hey, that guy can't play, can't shoot."

Alston went from stunned by the trade-deadline deal that sent him from the Rockets to the Magic to so determined to see the bright side that when the teams met, he hugged Rockets owner Leslie Alexander.

"I'm blessed Houston sent me to another contending team," he said. "They could have sent me to so many teams that weren't in the playoff picture, or would make the playoffs and probably wind up losing early. They sent me to a team with this chance. It caught me by surprise, but once it set in, I was excited.""