Now, We Have a Series

I've said all along that the Magic are too good to get swept, and after game three, it turned out to be true.

Not that the Lakers didn't have their chances.  Actually, I'm surprised LA stayed as close as they did, considering the white hot shooting by Orlando.  At the end of the first half, the Magic were shooting 75% from the field--an NBA Finals record.  At one point in the first half, Orlando had made 2 of 7 three point shots, but a staggering 21 of 22 two point shots.  For the game, the Magic shot 62% overall--also an NBA Finals record.  Every Orlando starter made at least half of his shots, and their top reserve, Mikael Pietrus, made seven of 11 on his way to 18 points.

Despite all of that, the Lakers lost by just four, and were tied with a little more than two minutes to go.  LA stayed competitive because Kobe Bryant was hot in the first half, and Pau Gasol made almost every shot he took.  But there were three things that cost the Lakers this game, in no particular order of importance:

--The Lakers missed ten free throws.  Kobe missed five of his ten, which almost never happens.  In a close game, the road team almost always has to make free throws.  Look it up--it's the death of more teams in the playoffs than anything--almost without exception.

--Gasol didn't take enough shots.  He made nine of the 11 shots he took, but why did he only take 11?  In the Denver series, he averaged nine shots a game, which was too low.  But since the Lakers won that series, it never became a priority.  I don't care who it is, if any Laker has made nine of 11 shots in game, they should keep feeding him the ball.  Lamar Odom made eight of nine shots in game two, and I was asking myself the same question about him after that one.

--I don't want to minimize how well Orlando shot the ball, but any time a team shoots 75% for the first half and 62% overall, the defense is weak.  The Lakers simply can't allow those percentages--ever.  I asked Phil Jackson after the game if it was more a case of Orlando's hot shooting, or the Lakers poor defense, and he seemed to lean towards the defense.  It has to get better--a lot better--if the Lakers are going to win the title.

I'll stick with my original prediction of Lakers in six, but they have to address those three issues.

Comments

[theHoundDawg]

Right on, John. As I've said from the the start of the series, PERIMETER DEFENSE is the key, and the TEAM has to play D like they did in game one.

Re your last point, it's more than just Gasol. Last night, Gasol, Odom and Bynum played 95 minutes between them, and took a total of 23 shots. Howard committed four personals defending ghosts in the paint. The Laker big men need to shoot more, get Howard moving around more, coming out from the basket if possible, but at least having to actually defend more underneath. Only good things can happen if they do so: shooters actually scoring, and maybe Howard picking up more fouls, maybe some early fouls, and maybe playing less than the 45 minutes he has averaged over the last two games.

[Jason]

Looks like your the only one with a Brain, where all the Faker fans that were calling a sweep. And stop making excuses about the officiating in game 3 as the Lakers got 10 bad calls to 1 in game 2. Game 2 was one of the worst officiated 4th quarters I have ever seen.