Lakers-Magic Game Three: Both Teams Finally Dance On NBA's Biggest Stage

Clock strikes upon the hour

And the sun begins to fade

Still enough time to figure out how to chase my blues away

I've done alright until now

It's the light of day that shows me how

And when the night falls, the loneliness calls

 

Oh, I wanna dance with somebody

I wanna feel the heat with somebody

Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody

—Whitney Houston

Forget about potions, spells, and wand waving. Forget adjustments, lineup changes, and scouting reports.

Sometimes, all you have to do is give a damn.

Tuesday night, for the first time in the 2009 NBA Finals, the two participants understood the stakes and the pressure that accompanies them. The Orlando Magic squeezed by the Lakers 108-104 to cut the series deficit to one game.

Even though Orlando lost Game Two by five points in overtime, a smorgasbord of mistakes capsized the Magic's boat before it could ever set sail.

In Game Three, with the shots falling and the energy amped up, the Magic glided across the water and let the wind of the moment carry them.

Five Orlando players scored at least 18 points, with forwards Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu running screen-and-rolls to perfection.

How nice of the Lakers to show up, too.

Less than a month ago, these Lakers, favored to win it all since October, might have mailed it in, rested their legs and surrendered in a blowout.

Instead, Phil Jackson's bunch survived the greatest first-half shooting performance in NBA Finals history and rode Lamar Odom's bad back, Pau Gasol's trustworthy interior dominance, and as much effulgence as Kobe Bryant could muster to a thrilling finish.

Derek Fisher, sandbagged in these playoffs for his age and deteriorating defensive prowess, nailed a huge three-pointer and captained the show as only a 34-year-old veteran with his experience could.

Trevor Ariza ran the floor with boundless energy and enthusiasm, scoring 13 points and hauling down seven rebounds.

Mickael Pietrus drilled a tough turnaround jump shot over Bryant in the fourth quarter, dunked in a Turkoglu miss in the final minutes, and swiped the ball from Bryant to seal the game. After a pair or putrid shooting performances in Los Angeles, he scored 18 points, making seven of his 11 attempts.

Rookie guard Courtney Lee, hammered by pundits for the alley-oop layup he missed that would have won Game Two, seemed to respond to every blunder with a great hustle play. He drove baseline in the third quarter and shimmied around Gasol for a throw down.

Tony Battie made terrific use of his nine and a half minutes of action by sinking a pair of jumpers and blocking a Bryant drive. He ate up most of Marcin Gortat's floor time and produced.

Jordan Farmar boosted the Lakers second unit with 11 points, on four-of-six shooting.

The stars played like giants and the role players traded jabs.

Isn't this how every game in a championship round should be played?

There were plenty of miscues and reasons to roast both squads.

The Lakers allowed the Magic to shoot a record 62 percent from the field, with some looks so wide open, it might as well have been practice.

The Magic looked powerless and defenseless any time Odom or Gasol caught the ball within a few feet of the basket. The two multi-skilled forwards exploited every mismatch in their favor.

If Lee and Pietrus merited praise for their effort in defending Bryant, and in also becoming active participants in a once stalled offense, both guards bit on a combined five pump fakes from No. 24.

On one of those fakes, Bryant sank a three-pointer after Pietrus bumped him in mid-air and converted the four-point play.

Ariza, though an offensive firecracker in segments, missed eight of his 13 shots and bricked five of his seven tries from beyond the arc.

After a sizzling eight-for-11 start in the first quarter, Bryant made just three of his remaining 15 shots. He also clanged five of his 10 free throws.

Fisher, despite his wisdom, also missed some open looks late that would have tied the score or given the Lakers the lead.

Jameer Nelson managed to turn over the ball three times in just 11 brief minutes of court time. He is not back yet and needs more time to recuperate from his shoulder injury.

I could list several paragraphs worth of misjudgments players on both sides made. Such nitpicking would miss the point of this squeaker.

Does anyone still doubt the competitive spirit of the Lakers and Magic?

Earlier in the playoffs, disappointments seemed inevitable with both squads.

Too often, Orlando or Los Angeles failed to show up on the same night the opponent did.

A day after the Houston Rockets announced the end of Yao Ming's season (again), the Lakers responded to a thorough Game Three victory with a complete lack of effort in a 99-87 loss.

With a chance to closeout that second-round series in Game Six in Houston, the Lakers fell behind 17-1 before getting sweaty. The undermanned Rockets won the contest 95-80.

For the Magic, the postseason began with Philadelphia 76ers hitting a last-second shot to steal Game One.

Andre Iguodala twice burned them in the final seconds of that round.

Then, against the defending champion Boston Celtics, after nearly blowing a 29-point second-half lead in Boston, the Magic hung on to steal Game One.

The Celtics' Game Two response? They smashed the Magic by 21 points and owned every statistical category.

In Game Five of that second round joust, the Magic collapsed after building a 14-point fourth quarter lead and lost.

Resiliency often sprouts from remorse and self-inflicted hardship.

No one has questioned the Lakers talent. Everyone had questioned their resolve.

No longer should you wonder if they have any.

There was Odom, diving to keep a loose ball alive after Bryant drew iron on a three-pointer.

There was Bryant, struggling with his shot in the second half, still trying to extend the game with pressure defense on the inbounds pass and a quick foul after Lewis caught it.

Mistakes happen in every contest, but all-out efforts were displayed by both conference finalists Tuesday night can make these mistakes irrelevant.

In the first two games of this series, the Lakers danced awkwardly by themselves. A sweep, or a five-game ouster at least, seemed the likely course.

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers still command this match. A Game Four victory would all but bury the Magic's hopes of repeating what another Florida team did in 2006.

The Lakers aren't Dirk Nowitzki's Dallas Mavericks.

With every snarl and each un-guardable make, Bryant's determination to finish this job blares like a strobe light during a church service.

Even Gasol and Odom sport looks that say, "yeah, we got this."

Maybe they do.

This match commenced with a 25-point dud the Lakers had bagged up a few minutes into the third quarter.

An overtime affair Sunday night showed that LA could take advantage of Orlando's many missteps.

For one night, though, the ballroom floor was jumping. This time, both parties decided to dance.

Can we make this all-out effort thing a multi-night engagement that continues Thursday?