kobe working
Wow, speaking of the intensity of the playoffs. On Thursday night of the NBA Finals, the Lakers displayed their experience and sheer determination to win the franchise’s 15th basketball gold by dominating the Magic in a 100-75 victory.
The Lakers got good contributions from everyone who entered the game. Lamar Odom had a solid double-double off the bench, D. Fish found the shooting touch from him and even Andrew Bynum played halfway decent defense. The Lakers also played the best defensive game they’ve played all year holding the Magic to 75 points on just 29.9% shooting from the field; that includes just keeping the Magic to 8-23 from beyond the arc where they were deadly in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Cleveland. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum did a masterful job vs. Dwight Howard, who was 1-6 from the field and Rashard Lewis, who was 2-10. The Lakers’ defense was able to get the Magic players off the 3-point line and force them to shoot a little closer to the basket, which really isn’t their game.
One of the side notes of this game was the return of Jameer Nelson from what was supposed to be season-ending surgery. Nelson was a key part of the Magic that swept the Lakers in the regular season by averaging 27 points, most of which came in the fourth quarter. Nelson had a solid game playing 23 minutes and putting up 6 points and 4 assists. When he was in the game, the Magic’s offense looked totally different. Nelson came in and was instantly the playmaker they’ll need if they have any chance in this series.
Ah, I almost forgot to mention the most impressive thing about this game. Kobe Bryant. Kobe had one of those games where no matter what he did, he wasn’t going to let his team lose. Kobe scored 40 points, for the first time in the NBA Finals, and threw 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks for good measure. Kobe dominated after starting 3-9 from the field in the first quarter, going 13-25 the rest of the way, most of the work coming in the second and third quarters where he basically ran out of game. I haven’t seen Kobe attack a team the way he did since… well, I’ve never seen Kobe like this. Kobe had the look that even MJ would have to admire. If the Magic are going to cover just this guy with Courtney Lee and Mickael Pietrus, they’re doing the NBA and its fans a disservice because this is going to turn into a four-game series. Kobe probably felt disrespected just being covered by those two. Shane Battier or Ron Artest, that’s fine, I get it, but putting Courtney Lee in Kobe, that’s a problem. There are some players that you can say we’ll let them beat us, but we’ll shut everyone else up; Kobe is not one of those players because he will beat you. The Magic did a horrible job drafting the best player in the galaxy and they’ll have to fix that if they want to win a game in this series.
While Kobe could always be the key to victory for the Lakers, the key in my eyes was the Lakers’ defense. The way they approached the ball, had active hands and kept the Magic off the offensive board. The only Magic players to shoot over 50% in the game were JJ Redick and Marcin Gortat. If the Lakers can keep it up, this is going to be a good four-game series.