When you almost double the amount of free throws your opponent took and still manage to lose......when you're up 5 with a minute and change to go and still lose........well I dunno, people are still gonna believe what they want.
No surprises here. The veteran, experienced Lakers are finishing the job in the Finals while the Magic are wasting opportunities left and right. Whine about the officials all you want, but at the end of the day inexperienced teams don't just march into the Finals and close out games. It's a multi-year process of growing together as a team and establishing some mental strength. You don't know NBA basketball if you thought the Magic would win this series.
Oh, the worst thing will happen!!! Fakers will win the nba championship this year. Believe today is the worst day for Magic fans, especially for Dwight Howard. No team could battle with those fakers for 7th game, except Rockets.
Maybe its a van gundy thing. I've rewatched the fisher play and for the life of me, why fisher wasn't fouled.
The crap non call on Kobe's elbow and Howard's anticlutch free throws doomed them. I can't stand a Laker's victory.
Orlando would have lost 0 to 4 already without the help from refs. Houston with healthy Yao should beat them.
If the rockets played the majic in the finals, I believe the rockets would win the title! Howard's offense is very limited. And, as a PF, lewis doesn't have post game. When outside shooting doesn't fall in, the majic's offense is dead.
The blame for losing this game falls ENTIRELY on the Magics, specifically Rashard Lewis, SVG, Howard and Jameer Nelson. Rashard Lewis is The worst offender and deserves the MOST blame. When you're the highest paid player at 20+ million per year, how can you not show up. Its not merely his horrific stats, but his lack of effort and lack of showing up. The man had 0 free throws, 0 offensive rebounds, 0 blocks and worst of all ZERO attempts at taking it hard to the rim or attacking the defense. The man had one FG made, asides from a desperation three, all game. Stan Van Gundy's substitution was again confusing, though with his options i'm not sure i can blame him too much for that. However SVG made the worst mistakes in the game on Fishers game tying three. First of all, he should have had the magic FOUL after the ball cross halfcourt once he saw the lakers were inbounding from full court. By fouling, not only do they eliminate a three for a tie, they've also eliminated 5-7 seconds on the game clock leaving at most 5-7 secs. Secondly wtf was jameer Nelson being in the game on that possession. Playing Nelson the entire 4th was fine by me, but Alston or Courtney Lee SHOULD have been in the game for defensive purpose on that last play. Courtney/Alston are not only taller & healthy but are better defenders. The constant & immediate double teaming of Kobe in the post when Pietrus was on him was also confusing. Howard played a dominant, magnificent defensive game and was incredibly active. But the facts is he choked at the end when he needed to just make 1 free throw out of 2 to put the game away. While Turkoglu also missed 3/4 crucial free throws, Howard missed the biggest. Jameer Nelson shouldnt have been in the game, but unfortunately he was and made the mind numbingly idiotic decision to back off Fisher on the game tying play. Not only was he not harrassing or pressing Fisher, 5'11 Nelson was playing a whole step behind the 3 point line and in essence giving Fisher a WIDE open 3 pt shot. (The three he gave up in OT was not his fault and I'm not sure i can blame the ref too hard for missing it either.) The lakers won this game despite Kobe shooting 11-31 and odom barely a factor. Up 3-1 the series is essentially over, I'm just hoping I get to watch a 7th game.
This loss goes on Howards free throws, and SVG insistence of keeping Nelson in for too long. There is no way Rafer would play that far off of fisher. No Freaking way. Rafer is a better on the ball defender than nelson, has a smarter IQ and is the Point guard who got them to this point in time. Nelson while maybe a superior individual talent, does not mean he is better for the Team. Props to Fisher for hitting a couple of big shots, he's a much better point guard when he isn't so outclassed athletically. (Brooks,Williams and to a lesser extent Billups)
I am going to guess that u grew up in the era when every kid gets a medal regardless of the outcome. You parents probably use timeout or when you were a kid, they had one of those tethers. So basically, you're in the apology generation where %25 of college kids are on medication. So you can take your moral victories and last place trophies with you. Its all about the rings, everyone else is losers.
Missed free throws and turnovers, they will kill you every time. Game over for the Magic, actually series over.
SVG should have kept Rafer in the game...Rafer was playing a good game......he didn't deserved to be benched...look at the 1st half where Rafer got more minutes and look at the 2nd half...where Nelson got more minutes..it's like Night and Day..Magic look like a completed different team with Nelson running the offense...slow..stagnate offense..not as much passing...alot of one on one play...Nelson should not have played the WHOLE 4th qtr and overtime...Rafer was playing great..Nelson was playing average...
Magic could have many ways to win this game. But it's pity that they all stupidly missed. Superman Howard could have shoot one of his free throws, but he failed. Magic players could have fouled any fakers for free throws when the time remains 10 seconds, but they forgot, maybe for the stupidness fault. In general, Magic players are very stupid, including SVG.
The majic only got 14 pts in the 3rd quarter! As the starting pg, Rafer should take some responsibility. As SVG said, the unit in the 4th quarter played well. That's the truth! They won the 4th quarter 24:20!
After looking at the number of free throw attempts the Magic got compared to the Lakers, I'm just curious... Are there any more conspiracy theorists left around here who think Stern and the Refs want the Lakers to win?
If anyone is still complaining about the refs, why isn't anybody talking about how Hedo always pushes off with his off arm for his step back jumpshots (specifically the one where he hit the 3 in the waning moments of the 4th quarter)
