Random Musings after Game 1 of the NBA Finals
Well, that was impressive. The Lakers came out with something to prove and certainly did that with their 100-75 walloping of the Orlando Magic.
Now what should you take away from this game? A couple things jump out immediately.
1.) Kobe wants this, bad.
2.) If the Magic don't make their threes, they are doomed, duh.
3.) (And a lot of people will overlook this because of the final score) If Jameer Nelson can adjust for game 2, the Lakers are in trouble.
Point 1 is obvious, Kobe was brilliant in every stage of the game, only struggling at all during the first quarter. For the other three, he was the best player on the court by a large margin.
Point 2 is also obvious. The Magic have lived and died by the three all season long. Now I don't expect them to shoot 30 percent from the field again this series, but they need to settle down and get back to the ball movement that was in their offense for the first 18 minutes of the game before they became stagnant.
Point 3 is the head scratcher. The Lakers in trouble? Did this guy watch the same game 1 we did? Why, yes I did.
The Lakers are putrid at point guard, and it showed up big in the first 18 minutes before the Magic hit the panic button for some unknown reason. Alston and Nelson got where they wanted when they wanted to be there early on in the game.
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Nelson gave the Lakers fits during their regular season matchups and once he gets some more game time and his shot starts to fall (I'm expecting to see this early in game 2), the Magic will gain a much-needed upper hand on the Lakers.
This series won't be a sweep, at least I highly doubt it. If it is a sweep, the Lakers should either be incredibly proud of handling such a talented team or the Magic should be incredibly disappointed at such a poor showing.
