NBA Finals Breakdown: Reserves and Coaching Dead Even

Part 1 - The Backcourt - MONDAY
Part 2 - The Frontcourt - TUESDAY
Part 3 - The Bench - WEDNESDAY
Part 4 - The Coaches - WEDNESDAY
Part 5 - The Prediction - THURSDAY

Superstars will be superstars, that is what we all know. Kobe is going to go for 30 points a game, and Dwight Howard will get 20 and 15.

But those impressive stats alone won’t win the NBA title. You can take a look at the 2008-09 NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, and see how important the bench players were. P.J. Brown, James Posey, Eddie House and Tony Allen played vital roles in the Celtics 4-2 victory over these Lakers. This time around, the Lakers bench knows they must do a better job.

The Lakers are deeper than Orlando, and they have one of the more dynamic bench players in the league in Lamar Odom. Odom’s ability to guard either Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu will be key in this series. His length alone should give the Magic more problems than the Cavs gavLooke them.

Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic will have to mirror the stats of J.J. Redick and Anthony Johnson as well. The Magic do have advantage in the paint bench players, as Tony Battie and Marcin Gortat will be able to spell Dwight Howard for short spurts when needed, and can match up well against Andrew Bynum.

Regarding the head coaches, Phil Jackson has been down this road many times. His amazing success in Chicago and the first three-peat with the Lakers is something that no coach in today’s NBA will ever see again. However, the last two trips to the Finals have been bitter defeats for Jackson. His team, and the franchise, know that the time is now to win.

Stan Van Gundy, on the other hand, shut up all his critics, including Shaquille O’ Neal, who said Van Gundy was the master of panic. These coaches fit their team’s personalities so well, that this matchup, for this series, is even.

Overall Bench: Lakers 60 percent/Magic 40 percent
Overall Coaching: Even