Orlando, Fla. ? The battered psyche of the Cleveland Cavaliers has been reduced to this:

They are playing the “too much respect” and “guarantee” cards simultaneously. Needing all the psychological mojo his team can muster, Cavs guard Mo Williams guaranteed a series victory against the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals Monday afternoon.

Just hours earlier, Mo was throwing the R-word around after a loss in Game 3 Sunday. That’s when he also acknowledged that the Magic give the Cavs “problems.”

Don’t be a wise guy, Mo. Are you confident the Cavs will beat the Magic, or concerned whether they can?

Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

The Cavs are in trouble. Any Larry, Curly or Mo knows this.

Cleveland may well win tonight’s pivotal Game 4 in Orlando. The Cavs are a desperate bunch, looking at a 3-1 disadvantage against a poorer seed.

Lose, and the Cavs are toast. The league’s marketing department takes a big hit, too.

Oh, well. The NBA playoffs. Where stuff happens.

In this case, it’s the Orlando Magic. They are a matchup nightmare for the Cavaliers. No fluke. They’ve won 10 of the last 14 games between the teams.

I’m not an X’s and O’s freak, but it’s clear why:

Dwight Howard: The Cavs can’t stop him. Zydrunas Ilgauskas has too much mileage and not enough muscle. Ben Wallace also has much wear and tear and isn’t the fabled defender he used to be. Anderson Varejao’s best shot is to flop or try to bait Howard into a retaliatory cheap shot.

Superior perimeter game: The Cavs have tried to stop Howard with double teams. Bad idea. The Magic simply go outside, where any number of players can bury long jumpers. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, because they are much taller than most Cleveland defenders, can get a shot off at will.

Bench play: Mickael Pietrus is living large in this series, scoring 39 points. That’s 12 more than the entire Cleveland bench. Overall, the margin is 71-27. All that does is make life worse for James because the starters aren’t giving him much support, either.

While Orlando’s play against the Cavs might have shocked ESPN nation and other places, this isn’t any news flash in the Cleveland locker room.

They know what’s up. The shine on that 66-win season is starting to fade.

“We got to get back to what we’re doing,” Williams said. “I think we are giving them too much respect personally … they are a good basketball team, but so are we.”

I asked Mo what he meant by “too much respect.”

“Coming down the court we’re already at a disadvantage because they create so many matchup problems for us, and it’s evident. No secret. We know it. Everybody knows it. We’re playing hard. We’re rotating. But when you’re in a position to double guys, it puts you at a disadvantage. You got to give up something.

“You got to give us credit, man. We’re trying things that we haven’t tried all year. We’re putting in the effort.”

That does not sound like a man who is confident.

It sounds like a guy frustrated that his team does not have an answer for the Orlando Magic.

There will be no guarantees tonight except one:

If the Cavs don’t figure out how to stop Orlando, they’re done.