NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

Where's Sanblaster? Spaniard Pau Gasol manned up and helped the Lakers return to glory as LA beat Orlando 4 games to 1 to win the title.

A lot has been said about Kobe not being able to win one without Shaq (glad I don't have to hear that one anymore), Phil is now undeniably #1 in terms of the greatest NBA coaches, Chick Hearn gets to see his beloeved team raise a banner in his memory, and Pau Gasol solidified himself as one of the very best power forwards in the game today.

Amid a looking layoff at my company, people are pretty happy today. :D

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

BORING.

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

I was rooting for the Magic (Dwight Howard is my favorite non-Shaq big man, plus I'm kind of sick of the Lakers) so this was kinda disappointing. After seeing the Magic blow game 2 (which they easily could have won), I nevertheless saw game 3 as a good sign. Game 4 you had Magic up by 3 with 10 seconds left, with Dwight on the line to shoot two. You know that no team should ever blow this, and yet that the Magic had a good chance of doing just that. Brick, brick, SVG decides not to foul, Fisher drains a wide open 3 (how!?? how do you not defend that!?!?!?), Lakers win in overtime. What a crushing loss. We all knew at that point the Magic would be too demoralized to even compete in Game 5 (as there is no freakin way they're winning 2 in LA) and sure enough they hardly looked like a basketball team. Congrats Kobe and the gang, but let's not forget this was 2 missed free throws away from being a 3-2 series with the Lakers needing to take games 6 and 7.

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

I'll take it, but then I'm a Lakers fan since Magic was running the show - it's been a long time coming - and it's nice to see Kobe playing team ball finally - and the emergence of Gasol, Bynum, Ariza and even the clutch shooting of Fisher speak volumes about the work Phil has done.

It'll probably all change next season - as free agents and the rest of the league adjusts - the King heading to NYC? - but for now I'm happy to enjoy it.

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

can I ask a question from a uk based n00b, but why if its 3-1 after 4 games do they play the final game? the result is already decided, seems pointless...

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

It's a 7 game series.

So first to win 4 games gets the big shiny trophy.

Used to be the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs were 5 game series, the conference and grand finals 7 game series. But they wanted to make some more money - so now all of the playoff series are 7 game series.

Team with the better regular season record gets home advantage. So the first 2 games played at "Home" team, then 3 at "Away" team, then last 2 games at "Home".

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

thanks chuck - i thought it was a five game series - so that does make sense then after all

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

NHL, NBA, MLB are all 7 game series' now.

Kobe has some great players on his team, fortunately.

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

Kobe playing team ball? Look at the stats between this year's playoff run and last:

2008 Kobe (21 games): 30.1 pts, 5.7 reb, 5.6 ast, 3.3 TO, 22.0 FGA, 9.2 FTA, 47.9 FG%, 81 FT%, 30 3FG%, 41.1 MPG.

2009 Kobe (23 games): 30.2 pts, 5.3 reb, 5.5 ast, 2.6 TO, 23.0 FGA, 8.6 FTA, 45.7 FG%, 88 FT%, 35 3FG%, 40.9 MPG.

Looks pretty much the same. But the Lakers beat the Magic for precisely the same reason the Cavs DIDN'T - other players were able to come through and prove themselves worth covering (a lesson that the Magic paid for dearly in regards to Fisher). I had the impression that it was really Gasol who was the key player in the series - if HE does well, the Lakers win. He did and they have the trophy.

Re: NBA Finals (Lakers d. Magic 4-1)
 

Not true. Orlando won game 3 by 4 points but shot an NBA finals record 75% in the first half and 63% overall. If you do that and win your first home game by 4 points, it's a really BAD sign.

Game 4 was one the refs tried pretty hard to give to Orlando. The Magic shot 17 free throws in the fourth compared to 0 for LA. The Magic were also only called for 1 team foul in the entire quarter. In fact, the only free throws LA shot after the third quarter came with 3 seconds left in overtime when Gasol was flagrantly fouled by Pietrus. The officiating in that game was horrible.

As far as game 5, you can't assume the Magic were going to win for any reason. Another angle is to look at how LA has done from game 5s on in the past series. It's right around that mark that LA "figures" out what teams are going to do. The only game from game 5 on they've lost was a nasty blowout to Houston, who had everyone shooting the ball well.

Chuck: Odom and Ariza are the ones who are available in free agency but both want to stay in LA. Lamar has said multiple times he's willing to take less, but how much? Ariza was born and raised in LA, went to UCLA, and likes not having to do too much on offense. He'll take less than he can get elsewhere but how much? I think Buss pays the luxury tax for both and *maybe* Phil stays around for another year.