Magic were shooting like 76% from the field and were still down.. Crazy stuff

Kobe absolutely dominating and i think Pietrus has been guarding him quite well! This guy is simply unstoppable..

Magic up 59-54 at the break...some hot shooting all-round in this game!

BEAT L.A

You can't beat L.A.

I take it that you mean, except for all those games they've lost?

Reminds me of the inane old 36ers anthem: "No... team... is ever gonna beat us!" Uhh, except for when they do.

Magic up 99-97.

1.52 left and it's a 3 point game to tha Magic

so when Boston beat them in the finals last year they didn't loose LA?????? thank you for being another one eyed dreamer LA fan and helping to keep LA as the team i love to hate tool

Kobe 5/10 from the line..... yeah.... he's as good as jordan!

but you can't beat LA lol.

Orlando wins! We still have a series!

Looks like the Magic have won the first of 4 in a row! (YN)

You are the tool mystro. Why can't I chant "you can't beat LA" when someone else chants "beat LA". Did the nuggets, rockets or the jazz beat LA? As far as i see it, you are the one eyed supporter and to be honest, who cares whether you like LA or not. There is no need for you to attack someone by calling them a tool.

Congrats to the magic, they deserved this win and deserved to win game 2 as well. However the lakers are up 2- 1 and i am cheering for the lakers to win the championship.

Great game today. Amazing that a team can shoot 75% from the field in the first half and only take the lead in the last few minutes!

Its been awhile since there was an NBA finals where neither team could defend the other.

The Lakers have to like the fact that Orlando shot at over 60% for the game, and they shot poorly from the FT line, but were in it all the way.

On the other hand, Orlando can take a lot of self-belief from that game. They have to know that the Lakers can't stop their pick and roll, and that with Odom double-teaming Howard in the post, Lewis is open for three all game long! So just maybe they can keep shooting near 60% from the field!!!

Hopefully Lee and Pietrus also learnt that if they stop biting on pump fakes, and just contest every shot, Kobe will eventually start missing. A couple of times in this series, I think they got too desperate and started trying to block his shot.

As the Celtics proved last year, you can live with Kobe making a lot of shots, because it means the ball stops moving and his team-mates make less shots and have less confidence down the stretch.

If I am the Lakers, I want to get Gasol more shots in the post - more like 16 a game - because he is deadly with both his shooting and passing - and he is the one who brings Odom into the game offensively too.

Lakers still have the edge, because all they need is one win in Orlando, but the Magic showed that this is still anyones series.

That is a very good summary Beantown. And I totally agree with you. I was a little concerned when the magic beat the cavs as I always thought the magic were the more dangerous team. I think the lakers will be looking to Odom a bit more in the next game as he is the x factor in this series- shame he got in foul trouble. And yes, Gasol needs to take more shots!

LA - I think Odom has been pretty good in the finals so far. He is playing a lot better than he did against the Celtics last year. His main problem is that he just isn't a naturally offensive player. He is at his best when he can catch the ball on an aggressive cut to the basket - which is why it is so important that Gasol gets lots of touches in the post. He was still very good today with his rebounding and defence though - really pressured a lot of Howard's shots and ran down some key loose balls.

Will be interesting to see how contract negotiations go with him at the end of the season. If the Lakers are lucky, he will agree to sign for around $6 mill so they can also keep Ariza. But a lot will also depend on whether they win the Finals or not. If they were to lose, I think you'd see a lot of changes being made to the roster.

ESP.....did Jordan never have a bad shooting night?

If you care to look at the stats.....Kobe so far over his career is shooting Ft's @ 84% and 81.2% in playoffs

Jordan - 83.5% over his career and 82.8% in playoffs

Looks pretty even across the board to me mate

If anything it shows that even great players such as these 2 feel the heat come playoffs

No way is Lamar going to be on a $6m deal. You'd be looking at around $11m, and I expect Lakers to pay luxury tax for the next few years.

The reason why Lamar don't seem to be an offensive type player is because the plays don't run through him as the primary nor secondary option. When he's on with second unit with the ball in his hand, it's a different story.

LA Boy - I did say if the Lakers are lucky! It would depend on Odom being willing to do it, and he may well not. I'm just saying that the Lakers may not be able to keep both Odom and Ariza if they both want top dollar.

I think Odom does a lot of good things - but I have never seen him show anything that says to me he is good at, or comfortable with, creating his own shot. He doesn't post up well against good players, and he doesn't shoot the mid-range jumper well. The only time I fear his scoring is when he is cutting to the basket, looking for the quick pass for a dunk or layup.

here's the thing with Lamar, I wouldn't say he's "great" at anything you just mentioned, but because of his handling skill and athleticism at his size is what make him so valuable.

I agree with you saying he doesn't post up good players well but the thing is he don't, he'll just face them up and beat them off the dribble or shoot.

I'd beg to differ that he doesn't shoot mid-long range well; he's just a funny guy that often don't pick the right shot (sometimes you just have no idea what's in this guy's head).

When you look at Lamar in Miami when he was more of a primary/secondary option, his offensive game do show up (though incosistent but you don't get designated as the 1st 2 options in the NBA for no reason).

I think there's good chances Lakers will be able to pick both Ariza (btw absolutely loves this guy; he's one of the best "person" I've met in the NBA) and Odom back up. Trevor's just back at home which he's just real comfortable with and he doesn't seem a big money guy (time will tell) and Lamar has indicated he'd like to stay accepting a paycut.

However, if the Lakers were to choose? I'd go with Trevor but Lakers will most likely take Lamar.

Fez,
I'm not talking about career ft percentages, I'm talking about bringing it when it matters..... isn't kobe meant to be the king of clutch?

Why does trevor "who are you" ariza get 41 mins in a finals game.

Magic in 7

ESP.......he is Mr Clutch, but the bloke is entitled to a bad game every now and again

Id like to see you hit a couple of ft's with a couple of thousand screaming fans in the background doing everything to put u off ur shot

im sure Kobe wont let that happen for the rest of the series!

Whats the deal with Morrison?......did we get the bloke just to free up cap space, and offload the Rad Man?

Kobe disappears in the 4th yet again.

Jordan-esque.

Funny you should mention disappearing, just like Michael Jordan did versus Orlando in 1995, when Orlando last made the finals

nice one ELG...lol

EGL because he is a good player. Who else do they have similar to him that can guard turkoglu? If it wasn't for him it could have been Nuggets in the finals.

I think Odom is over rated! Sure he scored 19 in game two that is great but he also let Lewis score 18 on him in one quarter!!!! He continues to let Lewis have open 3's and Lewis can drive on him quite easily. Odom also can't drive, draw the players and then pass for an assist. The only thing he can do is score going left or hit open jumpers from the side and because of his size block shots. He also had only 2 rebounds in 32 minutes today if that was Bynum people would say he was a bust! :P 6 Million is all he deserves as he isn't getting better also!

No ELG, based on that comment and in line with your alias, have the mental capacity of a neanderthal.

MJ had played only a few games that year, after a year and a half lay off prior to the 95 playoffs.

The pure facts of the matter are that MJ's worst Finals FT% performance was 3 from 6 in 93 against the Suns, yes 50% also, but only 3 misses in a game where he also had 44, 9 & 6 (perhaps he was tired?). 5 from 10 from Kobe is abysmal in a game that would have most certainly closed out the series.

Not only did D12 have a much better game from the FT line, but Kobe was about 4 from 15 in the second half and missed a clutch FT with a minute to go.

Kobe... he tries so hard, but destined to be second tier to the pro's pro.

awwww did your feelings get hurt

Stop comparing Kobe and lebron to jordan, jordan was a freak the best ever, lebron may reach his level one day but thats only a maybe. Kobe is a freak and him and lebron are by far the best atm but they cant do what jordan did and single handedly win games continuosly.

Btw go the lakers!

aww he had a year layoff did he. Fact of the matter is he disappeared. Just like you allege Kobe did, just for having an off foul shooting night.

So i guess Shaq, Duncan, Chamberlain, Russell, etc, all poor foul shooters, disappeared when they won their combined... 20 championships? lol. good post ESP, keep them up.

ELG, if that's the best example you can think of of Jordan "disappearing", the I'd say his reputation of being the best big game player in history is fairly safe.

Oh ive got many more

"The truly mighty ones don't flaunt their power. How can I describe it to you? The sly eagle hides its claws."

lol

That's a final fantasy 9 quote. quite profound for a video game

KingJames, looks like we roughly agree about Odom being paid too much, but you are being unfair blaming him for Lewis' open threes. That is going to keep happening because Jackson's game plan calls for Lamar to stay in the paint to help out on Howard. Watch him next game - he knows where Lewis is, but he just lets him go most of the time. Will be interesting to see if Jackson decides to switch that plan up a bit more and play Howard one on one for stretches in the next couple of games.

Good point Beantown, ill watch out for it more.

Just as i suspected ELG..... an IT geek.

You would have been too busy playing with your commodore 64 when Jordan was dominating.