It should be a GREAT series
Magic has had Laker's numbers during the season
Post Season shows Superman Dwight Howard is Best overall player in Playoffs
Lakers have more overall individual talent and best coach
Lakers begin work on conquering cape fear
Lakers power forward Pau Gasol will have his hands full if he's the main defender on Orlando center Dwight Howard. The Lakers will need 7-foot center Andrew Bynum to fortify the interior defense.
Lakers' most pressing issue in the Finals against Orlando appears to be devising a way to contain the NBA's self-styled 'Superman,' Dwight Howard. Maybe they should bring kryptonite.
The "beast" is 6 feet 11, 265 pounds, his physique like that of a Greek god.
The beast is quick, athletic, powerful and dominant, a force unlike any other in the NBA.
The beast is Dwight Howard -- also known in many circles as "Superman" -- who now has become a target the Lakers must contend with and contain.
The beast and his Orlando Magic teammates will be here Thursday to play the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Staples Center.
Howard widely is considered the best center in the league, a work in progress still, but yet such a talent that the Lakers will develop a game plan they hope can keep him from controlling the game
He is a beast inside," said Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who is in charge of devising the scheme against Howard and the Magic because Orlando is one of his scouting assignments during the season.
"But I think there are ways to contain him and to contain the beast. As we go through the series, we have to figure out how to do that."
The Lakers haven't seen anyone like Howard in the postseason.
The Utah Jazz had centers Jarron Collins, who offered little offensively or defensively, and Mehmet Okur, a perimeter-shooting big man with little post game.
The Houston Rockets had 7-6 Yao Ming, but he made his living more on turnaround jumpers than in the low post. He also broke his foot in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals and didn't play the last four games.
The Denver Nuggets had 6-11, 250-pound Nene, but he doesn't have the power game Howard has.
"He's a unique kind of player," Pau Gasol said Sunday after the Lakers watched film of the Magic. "I don't think there have been many players like him because of his physical gifts and attributes."
It'll be up to Andrew Bynum to deal with Howard in the beginning. Bynum averaged 8.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 22.5 minutes in the two regular-season games against the Magic and Howard. Bynum was limited by foul trouble in the first game.
Howard averaged 21.5 points, 16 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots in the two games, both Orlando victories.
Gasol and DJ Mbenga will get their turns at Howard too.
The Lakers didn't double-team Howard much doing the regular season, preferring not to leave three-point shooters like Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis alone.
"We are a long team. We have lengthy defenders to deal with Turkoglu and Lewis," said Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who has lost his last two tries in the Finals at breaking the tie he has with Red Auerbach for most NBA championships as a coach with nine. "But I don't know who can guard this big kid if he's as physical as he is. Howard is just a real powerhouse down there inside."
Howard was named NBA defensive player of the year, another area he can control.
He has averaged 21.7 points in the playoffs, including a 40-point effort Saturday in Orlando's Eastern Conference-clinching Game 6 victory over Cleveland.
Shaw said the idea is to beat Howard to his spots, to eliminate lob dunks, to crowd him inside, to make him take shots (as opposed to dunks), to deny him deep post position, to not let him dominate the game.
"He might be the best post-lane center in the league, meaning he changes ends of the court from defense to offense better than anybody," Shaw said. "His first three steps are faster than any center. He runs down the middle of the floor and gets deep position in the post. We have to try to eliminate some of that."
Brown sued
Lakers reserve guard Shannon Brown has been sued in civil court over an alleged sex-related incident involving a woman in Denver.
Brown played for the Charlotte Bobcats at the time of the alleged incident; the Bobcats played in Denver on Jan. 30. He was traded to the Lakers on Feb. 7. Denver police investigated the woman's claim, but prosecutors didn't pursue the matter.
Brown was served papers Friday in Denver before the Lakers closed out their series against the Nuggets that night.
Brown said he was innocent.
"The truth is going to come out," he said Sunday. "I didn't do nothing. I'm innocent. I'm going to let it take its course."
Rambis job interview
Lakers assistant coachKurt Rambisis expected to interview for the Sacramento Kings' head coaching vacancy early this week in Los Angeles. Kings General Manager Geoff Petrie was on the East Coast tending to personal issues but plans to speak with Rambis before the Finals start
Lakers - Magic Finals Preview
Before the 2008-09 season started, L.A. had but one acceptable goal: Raising the Larry O’Brien trophy.
After 65 regular season wins, three playoff series victories over the collectively rugged Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets, the trophy has come into L.A.’s view just over the horizon.
Twelve down and four to go.
Some questionable losses mixed into the Lakers’ run through the West, but ultimately, the purple and gold won when it needed to, utilizing a style of basketball that deployed many of their considerable weapons that ultimately came together in a demonstrative 119-92 road blowout over Denver to seal the Western Conference Finals in six games.
With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol orchestrating the attack with pretty ball movement out of the triangle offense and an active team defense that forced a bevy of outside jumpers, the Lakers showed why they were the preseason favorite to at least earn a rematch with the Boston Celtics. But when Kevin Garnett went down, and as Cleveland cruised to 66 regular season wins (even if they had trouble beating the league’s best teams, including L.A.) many were waiting for a Kobe – LeBron showdown.
No one told the Orlando Magic.
After defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, it took Orlando seven to defeat the defending champion Celtics and six to bury Cleveland, winning twice on the road in both Philly and Boston before earning the Eastern Conference trophy at home. Like a dove out of a magician’s hat, the secret on the Magic is officially out: They’re good.
L.A. got a hint of that in the regular season as Orlando joined Charlotte as the only NBA teams not to lose to the Lakers in the regular season, winning close games that came down to key three pointers from the now-injured Jameer Nelson, who hasn’t played in months. But the Lakers aren’t thinking too much about the regular season not just because Orlando’s playing better ball, but because despite 65 wins L.A. clearly didn’t bring its A-game every night … And who in the NBA could? More pointedly, the Lakers may not have respected Orlando as they did Boston, Cleveland or San Antonio in the regular season … But they do now.
The matchup is intriguing for the Lakers, particularly because of the unique style of the Magic, which features a true outside-in system boasting very good three-point shooters surrounding the exceedingly physical Dwight Howard. Their system proved too much for Cleveland, but there’s one major difference between the Cavs and Lakers: L.A. has three big men - Andrey Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom - that can individually attack Howard on defense, and two seven footers - if not three (Bynum, Gasol, D.J. Mbenga) - that will play him straight up on defense and force him to play on-ball defense, which isn’t Howard’s favorite thing to do.
Aside from that fact that L.A. has the best player in Bryant, who’s always the biggest key from a macro perspective, whoever wins that battle of the paint will likely control the Finals. In facing Philly, Boston and Cleveland, Orlando saw no offensive talent like Pau Gasol, no 7-footer as offensively gifted as Andrew Bynum and just one forward with more ability than Lamar Odom. That would be LeBron James, and he had no one to set him up as Odom will.
Furthermore, while Rashard Lewis makes it tough on most opposing fours with his perimeter nature, L.A. feels that Pau Gasol can use his length to stay with Lewis on defense and his size to attack him on the block at the other. That was a major matchup advantage for Orlando against Cleveland, but the Cavs didn’t have the ability to abuse Lewis on the defensive end as L.A. will, nor did they have a guy like Odom to come off the bench and match up quite well with Lewis. Meanwhile, Trevor Ariza will try to limit the very effective Hedo Turkoglu, and Mickael Pietrus has been playing fantastic off the bench will demand attention as well.
Perhaps more important than all of the matchup talk and coming superfluous analysis is this fact: Every time L.A. needed a win, throughout the entire season, it was able to come through. That didn’t change in Utah (Game 4), against Houston (Games 3, 5 and 7) or Denver (Games 3, 5 and 6), and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue in the NBA Finals.
This Season’s Matchups
The Magic made L.A. pay for not giving its best effort on separate occasions in December and January, using late three-pointers in both contests to claim the season series 2-0 as both Sasha Vujacic and Kobe Bryant missed final-second threes that would have won and tied the respective games. In the process, the Magic joined only one other team – the Charlotte Bobcats – to suffer not a single loss against the 65-win Lakers in the regular season. However, L.A. wasn’t healthy in either game, as Jordan Farmar missed both and Luke Walton the second game, forcing Derek Fisher to play over 40 minutes on each occasion. Shannon Brown was not yet on the team, and L.A. had no other options for Nelson other than Vujacic. Here’s a closer look at the two contests, complete with links to each Gameday page featuring postgame and running diary links, box scores, numbers and more.
Magic 109, Lakers 103 - January 16 @ STAPLES: Just two days after suffering a last-second loss in San Antonio, the Lakers again fell victim to an opponent’s last-minute heroics as Jameer Nelson’s second three-pointer in the final 1:26 ultimately spelled L.A.’s doom. Kobe Bryant had a chance to tie the game on a terrific look from three with 10.1 seconds left on the clock, but rimmed out for the ninth time in 12 fourth quarter shots, putting a damper on his 15th career triple-double.
Magic 106, Lakers 103 – December 20 @ Amway Arena: A night after Kobe Bryant’s game-tying attempt rimmed out in Miami, Sasha Vujacic rimmed out on a potential game-winning three pointer in Orlando seconds before the final buzzer. Jameer Nelson led the Magic with 27 points on 4-of-6 from three to help Orlando overcome a then season-high 41 points from Bryant and 27 points from Derek Fisher, playing big minutes in the absence of the injured Jordan Farmar
I hope Kimee wins her bet
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