The Orlando Magic suffered probably the most demoralizing defeat of their young teams blossoming careers last night when they lost in overtime to the Los Angeles Lakers. Though they are heavy underdogs in every point spread out there, the Magic have redeemed themselves after a 25 point blow-out in game one by keeping it close and losing in overtime on after a failed over zealous alley-oop attempt with 0.6 seconds left in regulation. That play, as easy as it may have seemed on TV, is more difficult than at first thought. You try making a running alley-oop lay up with just enough time to tap it, all while in the air being guard by a man who is seven inches taller than you. Just sit here and imagine that for a minute…yeah, that’s what I thought.
I cannot comment on the majority of the game seeing as how I only watched the last 0.6 seconds of the fourth quarter and all of the overtime period, but never underestimate the knowledge you can gain from a box score.
Last nights box score tells me that, once again, Rafer Alston we under utilized in favor of Stan Van Gundy’s twisted thought process. J.J. Redick, the same player who averaged just over 15 minutes per game in the regular season, not including 18 games he didn’t even see playing time in, managed more minutes than the proven veteran point guard the Magic traded for to replace the injured Jameer Nelson. Redick isn’t the lights out shooter he was at Duke, nor is he even remotely good on defense, so why would he, and rookie teammate Courtney Lee, be on the floor for the final ticks in regulation, and most of overtime?
The fact that the final play was an alley-oop to an undrafted rookie shooting guard instead of your all-star monster center Dwight Howard who can literally leap tall building, is beyond my comprehension. Even if Van Gundy’s thought was, “Well, they’ll be looking for the pass to Dwight,” that’s a risk I would take 10 out of 10 times. I would tell the Lakers the exact play I drew up and personally challenge Gasol, Bynum, and Odom to stop Dwight without fouling him. Honestly, I don’t know if Stan Van Gundy is an idiot or a genius, and that may stay a mystery to me for a long time, but I know which way I’m leaning towards right now…
However, with all that said, I still believe the Magic will drag this series out to seven games. Three straight isn’t that hard against the Lakers when they are on the road, and the Lakers don’t exactly play well in Orlando as of late. And might I add that I was right in my previous post. My X-factor, Rashard Lewis, had an exceptional game last night and the Magic nearly won. That loss had nothing to do with Lewis.
Reluctantly, I must give the Lakers their dues. Hitting 16 of 16 free throws at one point not only helps your team in obvious ways, but it is so demoralizing to see as an opponent, that no matter what you do to try and stop them, you just can’t. And although the Lakers were out rebounded by nine, that was completely nullified by the fact that the Lakers had seven more steals, some directly after those rebounds.
All in all, no matter who you root for you know that this series is going to be a good one, whether it be four or seven games, or something in between. These teams will not quit, Superman and Batman won’t let them.
Complete unbias does not exist . . . but I'm as close as it comes! 