NBA Finals - Magic vs. Lakers

I think Orlando wins game one, but the Lake Show will take it in 6 games.

Magic take this series in 5 games. They'll split in LA, then take three straight at home. Kobe pulls a LeBron at the end...

magic in 5. Gasol has a tough match up having to guard lewis and his long range shooting. Flip gasol to Howard and he will get dominated. Pietrus will do a good job guarding Kobe. Lakers havnt impressed me through these playoffs. Denver should of had game 1, and mayb possibly even game 3.

Magic have to win game one to take away the Phil advantage... remember his teams are 43-0 when they win game one of a playoff series.

The Lakers lost game one of the finals to both the Pistons and Celtics and the rest is history..

Go Lakers, and Jackson please stop playing mind games w/ Bynum. You're kinda going to need him for this series . . .

edited to add;

For prediction Lakers in 6 or 7. Unfortunately, the match-up advantages the Magic had against the Cavs are going to look very Piston-eque IMO this series.

The game was over about 5 minutes into the third and the series might be over now that the Phil has won game one...( I stand corrected as Phil is now 43-0 when his teams take game one... 24-0 with the Bulls and 19-0 with the Lakers).

Kobe outscored the Magic 18 to 15 in the 3rd... and just to make sure there was no Magic comeback, Phil kept Kobe and the starters in until less than two minutes left in the game with 20+ point lead. What if JJ Redick had tackled Kobe and broke his shooting hand in the last 5 mins of garbage time??????

Magic have three days to find their shot, so I am not predicting sweep like some of the Laker fans I heard on the radio yesterday, but the Magic will have to shoot better than 30% if they expect win any games in this series. The Magic starters were 11-46 shooting...

I thought the Magic really lost their flow when they brought Nelson in. The blowout might help him find his game and timing. I was waiting for Will Bynum to pick his pocket when he brought the ball up.

Nail on the head.

Once again coach Van Dummy finds a way to screw his own team by ruining the chemistry and momentum they had built getting to the Finals by foolishly throwing a guy into the mix that has been out most of the year and WAITING UNTIL THE NBA FINALS TO DO IT.

This guy never ceases to amaze me in the ways he finds to ruin his own chances. Nelson should be on the roster, but on the bench for this series Finals or not.

I wasn't opposed to him playing, but I figured that SVG would run Nelson out there for a couple of 5-7 minute stints to see if he could spark the team and spell Rafer. He acutally had like 3 nice assists when he came into the game and broke down the D so it was sort of working. I flipped to the wings game and flipped back a few minutes later, and groaned when I saw that he was still in the game.

Sure enough SVG had him out there way too long (23 mins) and he finished the game with 4 assists and 6 points (I watched him dish 3 assists and score 2 points in like his first 3 mins of play). I'm not all that high on Rafer, but he should be playing more than the 25 mins he got just because he is who was playing their whole playoff run.

Agreed Ernie and Low, I just don't understand why you would put him in at this point. He is a great player, but a bad move. Plus if he was to get re-injured, I thought I heard he would be set back another 6 months. How much of this do you think was Nelson wanting and begging to play?

With Nelson being the key to the Magics regular season sweep over the Lakers and the [STRIKE]Lakers[/STRIKE] Fisher being victimized by Aaron Brooks, SVG thought maybe he could exploit him, but it backfired once Jameer had been in there for more than 10 minutes. Of course it wasn't going to stop Rafer Alston from shooting mindless three balls (0-4). He and Nelson were a combined 5-18 form the field and their shooting percentages were better than most of their team mates....

Has anyone seen SVG when he was being introduced. He looked scared. After that I saw Kobe's face and knew it was over. I was surprised how well they played that first quarter to be honest.

I agree with everybody here that if SVG kept Jameer's minutes to 5-6 minutes stretches at a time, Orlando could've had a chance. That way Alston wouldn't be attempting to be the hero to keep his starting job.

Unfortunately, I see SVG pulling a Curry and starting Nelson next game and playing him close to 40 minutes.

Lakers came in focused and determined, whereas Orlando's youngsters still seemed to be in awe that they made it to the finals. Fisher was the weak link in LA which Orlando rarely exploited.

If Orlando bounces back and ties the series before going back to Florida, they have a chance. If not, the next game will be the last game played in Staples center this season.

Not sure (Secretary Not Sure), but any amount of begging, if I were head coach, wouldn't have been enough to make me insert his arse into the lineup at this point.

IIRC Nelson skipped surgery and is not 100%. Why Van Dumby threw him in to mess with the chemistry is anyone's guess.

All they kept saying last night in the few minutes that I watched was that he's 2 months ahead of schedule. Of course, that doesn't tell you where he's at in the recovery process. Wherever he's supposed to be though, apparently he's 2 months ahead of it.

I don't know if it was the minutes that Nelson played that was the problem. The thing that jumped out to me was that Nelson was reluctant to shoot and passed up open shots which screeched their offense to a halt.

I agree w/ the general sentiment about Nelson. He's a shoot-first, pass second PG who just looked off and like he didn't fit b/c of injury, etc. It completely changed the role of the other guards and players on the team that were taking more responsibility and knew their roles and even IMO messed with the normal player's shots,etc. Alston for all his stupidity is a pass first PG.

But SVG has of course taken the opposite route, and there's an article stating how impressed he was w/ Nelson's play, and of course Jackson is playing along and praising Jameer as well.