Game 1: L.A. 100, Orlando 75

It was almost too easy for Kobe Bryant.

It was a rough night for Orlando.

 Bryant led all scorers with 40 points, while dishing out 8 assists and grabbing 8 rebounds as the Lakers dominated the Orlando Magic 100-75.  Bryant’s 40 points was a finals career high for him, as he is looking for his fourth NBA championship.  Orlando looked good at the start of the game taking a 24-22 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Orlando guard Jameer Nelson was activated for tonights game and played well in the beginning stage of the game, dishing out three assists and scoring on a jumper.

The Magic jumped out to a 33-28 lead in the second quarter.

Kobe had a career night.

Then with 8:32 left to play in the half, Phil Jackson decided to insert Bryant back in the game, and the rest was history, as he went 6-8 from the field scoring 12 points.  His 12th point in the quarter came from a driving lay-up with time winding down to give the Lakers a 53-43 lead at halftime.

The third quarter was more of the same.  Bryant started out scoring the first four points of the quarter and never let up, torching the Orlando defense for 18 points in the quarter.  As Bryant did his damage in the third, the Laker defense stiffened up, shutting down Orlando’s vaunted offense.  The Magic were held to 15 points in the quarter.

The Magic disappeared for tonight's game...

Orlando had it’s worst shooting performance in the playoffs, by going 23-77 (29.9%) from the field and going 8-23 (34.8) from 3-point territory.  Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, and Rashard Lewis went a combined 6-27 (22.2%) from the field.  While the Lakers shot 41-89 (46.1%) from the field and outrebounded the Magic 55-41.

The stars were out tonight, Kanye West, Tyrese Gibson, Denzel Washington, Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Arquette were there to see the Laker win, and of course, no Laker game wouldn’t be complete without Jack Nicholson, at his usual seat.

Finals Preview

The Black Mamba vs. Superman

As the Orlando Magic dispatched the heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA Finals just got interesting as they face another opponent who will be considered the favorite.  The Los Angeles Lakers are basketball royalty.  The franchise has won 14 NBA Championships, and are now in the NBA Finals for a record 30th time in the 63 years the NBA existed.  The Orlando Magic have only been in the NBA for 20 years, debuting in 1989.  This is their second time in the NBA Finals, their last finals appearance came in 1995, where they were swept against the Houston Rockets.

The Lakers got to the finals by defeating the Utah Jazz in five games, struggled through a depleted Houston Rockets team in seven games, and fought off the Denver Nuggets in six games.  The Magic on the other hand, defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, outlasted the defending champion Boston Celtics (without Kevin Garnett) in seven games, and dispatched the best team in the NBA in six games.

If the Magic think they are going to fly under the radar, then they are only fooling themselves.  They have proven they are a legit contender, using their 3 point barrage and strong inside play as momentum to carry them to the finals.  The Lakers have more talent than anyone in the league and when they put it together and stay focused, they are tough to beat. 

Orlando Magic Starting Five:

PG: Rafer Alston 12.7 PPG

SG: Courtney Lee 8.8 PPG

SF: Hedo Turkoglu 15.2 PPG

PF: Rashard Lewis 19.4 PPG

C: Dwight Howard 21.7 PPG

Bench:

Mickael Pietrus 10.5 PPG

JJ Redick 6.2 PPG

Anthony Johnson 4.3 PPG

Marcin Gortat 3.3 PPG

Tony Battie 2.2 PPG

The Magic are not afraid to go their bench for production.  They have nine players who have played a minimum of 16 games in the playoffs.  Their sparkplug is Pietrus who averages a shade below 26 minutes per game.  He’s the French build of Michael Jordan (6-6 215 lbs), and he did a decent job of playing LeBron James during the East Finals.

Pietrus looks to have a repeat performance in the NBA Finals

He will most likely guard Kobe Bryant when called upon off the bench.  The Magic give matchup problems from positions 3-5.  Turkoglu and Lewis are big men who play like guards, and Howard is a man-child in the paint and when he gets his touches, he’s almost unstoppable.  They are shooting a blistering 36.7% clip from the 3-point line and shot 40.8% in the Eastern Finals.  They rebound, they defend well, despite at the fast pace they play on offense, and they don’t get frustrated easily (see the Boston series, as well as the Cleveland series).  Note to the Lakers:  You are not playing the Denver Nuggets.

Los Angeles Lakers Starting Five

PG: Derek Fisher 7.1 PPG

SG: Kobe Bryant 29.6 PPG

SF: Trevor Ariza 11.4 PPG

PF: Pau Gasol 18.2 PPG

C: Andrew Bynum 6.3 PPG

Bench:

Lamar Odom 12 PPG

Shannon Brown 5.7 PPG

Jordan Farmar 5.1 PPG

Luke Walton 3.8 PPG

Sasha Vujacic 3.8 PPG

Josh Powell 2.0 PPG

The Lakers are deep, talented, and borderline enigmatic.  We never know which Laker team will show up.  The one who got hammered by a depleted Rocket team in Game 5, or the one who closed out the Nuggets in Game 6.  Kobe is only as good as his supporting cast.  When players like Gasol, Odom, Bynum, and as of late, Ariza are doing well, they are a well-olied machine.  When they are in a funk, missing shots, turning the ball over, the Lakers are doomed to get blown out.  Kobe just has to be Kobe and the rest of the Lakers just need to play their roles in order to win.  It will be curious to see what Phil Jackson does in this series to combat the quickness of Orlando.  My guess is that he’ll insert Odom in the 4 spot, and move Pau to the 5 spot for defensive purposes.

Pau has to be a force this year…and not be on the side of a milk carton like last year…

Last year, I was very critical against the Lakers after their performance against Boston…

Okay, I was really harsh on them.

Alright, alright fine, I said some pretty mean ish about them.

The LA Lakers were soft as tissue paper. Everyone, from the MVP (yes I said it again), to their last role player, played soft. You can’t cry after every missed call in the NBA Finals, you just can’t get punked out the way they did, you can’t blow a 24 point lead in the 3rd Quarter in Game 4 at home, you can’t blow a 19 point lead in Game 5 also at home, but barely win, and you can’t under ANY circumstances get blown out on the road by 39 points in a game-clinching Game 6. You just can’t have that happen.

Yeah, that was pretty brutal, but from the outlook, I hope the Lakers change their ways, for their fans’ sake.

 

Matchups:

• Alston vs. Fisher

This one is a push.  Both of these guys must shoot well in order for them to play well.  If one outplays the other, it could be a big key in winning and losing a game.

• Lee vs. Bryant

Do I really have to go in depth with this one? yawn*

Edge: L.A.

• Turkoglu vs. Ariza

This is going to be interesting battle.  Ariza is a long, athletic defender and Hedo is a crafty veteran who has a few inches on Ariza.  When it comes down to it, I’ll take the vet over the young gun. Edge: Orlando.

• Lewis vs. Odom

Odom is probably the second best player on the Laker team…when he has his mind right and Lewis has become somewhat of an assassin withhis late game heroics.  I would say push for the simple reason with Odom, but if he doesn’t play well, Lewis will own him.

• Howard vs. Gasol

Gasolis going to need some help guarding Howard one-on-one.  No one has been able to really keep him in check because of his strength.  I don’t see the Lakers doubling Howard down low, because if they do….someone is going to linger around the three point line and Orlando is shooting well from there last time I checked.

Edge: Orlando.

Coaching:

• Phil Jackson vs. Stan Van Gundy

The Zen Master is going for ring number 10.  This isn’t his first rodeo by any means.  He has a way of manipulating how the officials call the game later on. Whether it’s the next game, or a pivotal one down the road.  He’s calm, cool, collected, and when his teams aren’t playing well, he lets them handle the adversity on their own.  This is Van Gundy’s first finals appearance as a head coach and he’s done a remarkable job getting this far.  He’s never stopped coaching, always making adjustments, and has his team playing solid basketball throughout the playoffs.  With a matchup like this, you have to go with the experience.

Edge: L.A.

After looking at these two teams, I’d say they are about even.  There is some drama added to this story, as Jameer Nelson might come back to play in this series.  Nelson was key in the regular season matchup, averaging over 25 points in the two games.  I’m not so sure if they really need him for this one, because we don’t know how effective he would be coming off that shoulder injury he had.  However, I’m going with the underdog in this one.

Magic in six.

East Finals Aftermath

Shocked.

Stunned.

Bewildered.

Bamboolzed.

Hoodwinked.

Hustled.

Conned.

Fleeced.

Led astray.

Well, you get the picture.  That’s probably how the fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers felt after their series with the Orlando Magic.  It can be said that the Cavs coach, Mike Brown, felt that way too.  After all, when you’re named the Coach Of The Year and not make a single adjustment to Orlando’s style of play, and not to mention, the sheer lack of offensive adjustments from Game 1-6 that left your team stagnant at times.  Not to mention, you’ve simply dominated your first two opponents, breaking out the brooms in consecutive sweeps, LeBron James looking like an MVP, and the Cavs looking unbeatable….until Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

As much as I don’t like the man, Stan Van Gundy deserves a lot of credit.  He took a lot of heat from Shaq’s comments after a regular season game after he accused Shaq of flopping:

I heard his comment.  Flopping to me is doing it more than one time, and I realized when I tried to take the charge, as I went down, I realized that that play reminded me of this whole coaching career, and one thing I really despise is a front-runner, so I know for a fact that he’s a master of panic, and when it gets time for his team to go in the postseason and do certain things, he will let them down because of his panic.  I’ve been there before, I’ve played for him.

Those words stuck out to me during the Magic’s run against the defending champion Boston Celtics.  There were times during that series that I thought that Orlando had the game won and Boston came right back and snatched the game from them.  Especially Game 5 where Orlando had a seemingly insurmountable lead and simply gagged.  It seemed that Shaq’s comments about Van Gundy were true after all, but the Magic didn’t fold and eventually won the series, snapping Boston’s record of 32-0 when leading the series at 3-2. 

Van Gundy pushed all the right buttons and made all the right moves.  The Magic was supposed to win Game 1, sounds crazy after they just had an hellacious seven game series with the Celtics, and the Cavs were well rested and looking like a well-oiled machine.  I came into this game thinking that the Cavs would be a little rusty and a slow start from them would help Orlando…..that was my thinking until Cleveland jumped out to an early 10 point lead and Mo Williams made a 66 foot three-pointer at the buzzer to put the Cavs ahead by 15.

Then…the second half happened.  Orlando started to play like the computer on Hall of Fame level on NBA 2K.  They made 3′s in bunches, Dwight Howard imposed his will, and Cleveland…well…they were nonexistant.  Even though LeBron had 49, they still lost by 1. 

If you were to tell me that the remainder of the series would play exactly like that, I would have told you that you were crazy.  But as crazy as it sounds, it played EXACTLY like that.  This is as brief of a synopsis I can give to someone who missed the series:

Cleveland would jump out to a big lead, LeBron would play out of his mind, Magic down by the area between 10 and 20 points, Magic starts hitting 3′s, Cavs look stagant on offense, game gets tight, Orlando wins game…with the exception of Games 2 and 5.  That’s it.  Orlando outplayed them in the second half of every game, with the exception of Game 5, even when LeBron made that crazy 3 at the buzzer to win Game 2, Orlando still outplayed them.  They were deeper, bigger, athletic, and posed matchup problems at every position outside of LeBron’s man. 

Shame on me for thinking that there wasn’t going to be a team who would beat the Cavs in playoffs. 

Shame on me for thinking that Game 1 was a fluke. 

Shame on me for thinking that the Cavs had control of the series after Game 2.

Shame on me for thinking that Orlando couldn’t keep up shooting this ridiculous percentage from beyond the arc.

And shame on me for thinking that LeBron actually had some help this year.

Now we have Orlando vs. Los Angeles in the NBA Finals.

So much for the constant LeBron vs. Kobe commercials.

I’m glad it’s over, but I’m going to miss those puppets though…