well they also shot pretty poorly in game 2 and forced OT in LA. they can easily win all of these home games. dwight's gonna get his boatload of ft's and apparently know how to shoot them for the first time in his life, kobe is due for an off night from the field, odom has shown up in like 5 straight games so he's also due, and lewis and turkoglu don't miss shots at the ends of games. plus, the lakers are due to take their customary game off. i swear you could tell on kobe's first ft miss of the night that he was going to suck on ft's all night, and boy did he. what a disappointing game from him. he might as well have thrown the game after the first few minutes of the 2nd quarter. turnovers all over the place, missed shots all over the place, and a missed ft and TO (although it was technically gasol's) in the final minute. horrible. meanwhile alston has the game of his life, and they just announced the magic had the greatest shooting performance in finals history. wow. they're like our clutch city runs, it's just meant to be. whenever they're dead, they come back to life and they hit every big shot.
I give props to dwight for deflecting that crossover. Not many big guys could pull that off on a guy like Kobe. One thing I have noticed in this playoffs is Kobe has been getting stripped clean a-lot at the end of these games when opposing team knows he has to shoot it. Shane stripped him several time in our series. J.R. stripped him a bunch of times in the denver series and now turkoglue and howard have done it in the finals. You would think someone of Kobe's ilk would take better care of the ball.
It's out of Kobe's charactor to miss that many FTs and played that badly in the 4th Q. It almost looked like that Kobe tried really hard to lose the game. It's Kobe's teammates to keep the game close till the end. The Lakers might have won the game if the ball was in someone else hands in one of the several final possesions.
that's what i was talking about. he keeps trying to split the double on the PnR and loses it way too often. stop trying to make the move if you can't do it. especially in huge situations. it wasn't even surprising when i saw the ball poked away. but still gasol, i just can't get over him not knowing to call a timeout when you're lying on the floor in a 2 point game with 30 seconds to go in game 3 of the nba finals and the 2 guys nearest to you are on the other team. it was like a reverse chris webber moment. every weekend warrior in the world can remember to yell "first!" when they jump on a loose ball in a meaningless pickup game, but oh no, not pau gasol. he's threading that needle through 3 guys while on his back. no need to ensure possession of the ball and reset the offensive possession. maybe he could've just shot it from that position. that would've made about as much sense as what he did.
If Courtney Lee had hit the bunny at the end of game 2, we would be talking about the play before when Kobe forced up a shot in traffic and got stuffed by Turkey-Glue instead of passing off to wide-open teammates on both his left and right. It didn't cost them the game that time.
Kobe has clearly lost his explosiveness because of age. He can't go to the hoop like he could a couple of years ago.
With the Magic shooting over 70% and barely winning at the time I thought the Lakers would win this one for sure, good to see the Magic pull it out. Hopefully they win Game 4 so this can be a good series.
So, the Magic have had the best and worst shooting performances in finals history... in the same series? Or was that 1st game not the worst in finals history?
Pretty ironic that on nba.com, there's the headline "Shot Selection Lands Orlando in Finals Record Book" with a picture of Rafer putting up a floater.
After watchin 3 games this series.. I just realized how good Pau Gasol and Hedo are.. amazing players.. esp Gasol.
The Magic are not going to win this series. They shot lights out last night and still had to hold on till the end to squeeze a win. Give them credit for playing with energy and effort last night especially Pietrus and Lee both had excellent performances. Pietrus saved the game in crunch time with several big plays in the 4th and what can you say about Carlos Lee. He is the steal of last year's draft. As a rookie he has a lot guts to go out and defend Kobe one on one and actually play physical tough D. It was evident in the 2nd half Kobe was being manhandled by Lee. With all that said I still don't see Magic pulling the upset in this series because they cannot play like this the rest of the way. Also Kobe missed 3-4 big free throws that cost them the game and played subpar in the 2nd half. I expect him to come out guns blazing in game 4. Excellent game by the Magic and would to see them upset the Fakers but its not happening.
Carlos Lee? I think he's an overpaid player we would love to move Courtney Lee played good defense in the second half. He only scored 4 points though. His performance was hardly "excellent." I like Lee though, and agree he has a good future. I agree on Pietrus. 10 big points in the 4th quarter, and 2 clutch free throws (and I think he hovers around 70%). I'm surprised no mention of Rafer. He played outstanding last night after being a ghost for the first two games of the series. His spark was huge for the Magic. Rafer and Pietrus won that game for Orlando
This LA writer seems to think Kobe is tired: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-lakers10-2009jun10,0,1844309.column?page=2 Anyone think he seemed wore out last night? I recall the rumors of him being tired in the Denver series, but then they got a decent break before the Finals. He hasn't finished well in the last 2 games. Maybe Orlando has a shot if they can extend the series. Also, how much longer can Kobe play at this level?
