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With game one in the books, it might be appropriate for Phil Jackson to consider resting Kobe Bryant for the remainder of the finals, what with the pre-season rapidly approaching.
The Magic were held to 75 points in game one last night, their lowest offensive output since an 82-73 defeat to the Denver Nuggets on February 11th. Despite Jameer’s Hollywood-like return from injury, the Magic could muster only a mere 75 against a team they averaged 107 against in the regular season.
Furthermore, the Laker win last night marked the largest margin of victory in a game one of the NBA Finals since PJ’s Bulls beatdown the Blazers by a score line of 122-89 some sixteen years back. Orlando’s 75 point effort is the lowest game one product since Detroit’s rather collegiate 69 against the Spurs in 2005 – a series that supposedly went seven games (if you watched that finals, you would’ve been better off going to Exposed on Canoga & Roscoe or joining eHarmony).
Just as refs say that “blowouts are the hardest to call,” and commentators hint at their own boredom during garbage time, I find little need to analyze the game. Howard’s 12 points last night, dropping from 40 in game six against the Cavs, speaks an Ayn Rand novel about Orlando’s offensive inefficiency in game one. -I texted the Tsar some days ago: “Lakers in 4, btw.” And while that was a hyperbolic conjecture, the meat of the sentiment was in Gasol and Bynum’s manning up on Dwight McHoward. We have a true-four that is among the elite on international stages, led Spain to the final minute of a possible upset against the “redeem team,” and has been unfairly dubbed a soft competitor by the media. Pau can out-work this guy. Pau has been playing competitive ball, like Kobe, for the last what?, nineteen months straight! Bynum, who was averaging Howard-esque numbers till this most recent knee injury, had a legitimate presence on the All-Star ballot. Fuck the injury, the knee brace that looks like a goalie’s leg-pad, his heart is in it; Kobe, PJ, myself, the Tsar, and Dwight know this. If Bynum gives us an average of 8 boards, 8 points and 5 fouls for the remainder of the series, that gives the Spaniard – who could pull Vega off his fence – enough breathing room to keep Howard on lock-down.
In short: the 2009 Magic are a poor man’s Diesel-Bryant Lake-show of old. Dwight is plainly not skilled enough to clear out PF’s and C’s in the post the way that Shaq could rape Rik Smits, Mutumbo, Scalabrine, McCullough, etc. This elimination of a post-presence in the current Magic’s game reduces a talented Turkoglu to a meager Medvedenko or Vujacic(did someone say “trade bait for a second round draft pick”?). Speaking of players with a low basketball IQ, did Rashard Lewis go to the same Serbian basketball camp as Vujacic, or do they both just like standing in the corner while waving their arms? Radmanovic, no! Morrison could guard that guy.
Both games against the Magic occurred before the Radmanovic trade, btw. And just as Shannon Brown proved himself when guarding against Williams’s combo of power and quickness at PG, Brown may be the speed-bump that the Lakers’ throw at Nelson for years to come. Finally, Kobe will not be stopped.
